WEBVTT

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[MUSIC: Armabd Van Helden, "U Don't Know Me", high energy house music...]

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[ELEVATOR DING]

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[MUSIC CONTINUES...]

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[MUSIC FADES OUT...]

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[LaLi Mohamed, Event Organizer]

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One of the psychologically crippling things growing up,

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sort of the wound that never healed,

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was that I always read and heard stories

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about people who didn't look like me.

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People who lived in other bodies.

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And I thought to myself,

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"well if I'm not a wriiten about people,

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if I'm not a story people,

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am I a people?"

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And so I searched and I searched and I searched

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and I realized that there is such a rich and dynamic history

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of queer and trans people in Canada, in Africa, in the Caribbean,

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and I thought this isn't being shared enough.

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My name is Rodney Diverlus

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I'm the vice president equity for the Ryerson Student's Union,

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uh, which is a central student's union here at Ryerson University.

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Um, I was approached by Lali in the fall

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with a concept and an idea to do this event

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and I gladly joined on board.

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Uh, we at the Student's Union, uh, we represent all 24,000 students here at Ryerson,

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many of which are, uh, black, racialized students,

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and many of which are queer students,

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uh and we really strive to create spaces to talk about struggles and, uh, the way that, yknow,

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uh, racism, sexism, uh, queerphobia, and different forms of oppression

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uh, affect students, but affect community members.

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Founded by 3 Jamaicans and a Grenadian.

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3 lesbians and a gay man.

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Around a kitchen table, West End, Toronto.

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I'm calling names:

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Makeda Silvera, writer.

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Stephanie Martin, artist

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Went on to found Sister Vision Press,

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Canada's first black women and women of colour press.

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Calling names:

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Debbie Douglas, E.D. of OCASI [Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants]

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And Douglas Stewart, human rights and equity consultant.

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Created what they needed, a space for connection and support.

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A space for black and West Indian,

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we were old school then, clearly not yet Caribbean, fully.

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Lesbian and gays.

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A space for strategizing,

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to challenge homophobia and heterosexism

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we found within black communities.

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The racism we experienced within mainstream (read "white") gay community,

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and the isms that played out between us.

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It was 1983/84

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My name is Courtnay McFarlane, and today on Queering Black History

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I, um, I talked a little bit about my history of activism

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and community involvement in black queer organizing in Toronto.

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My name is Syrus Marcus Ware [Program Coordinator, AGO]

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and I was presenting today about black trans history in Toronto,

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black trans organizing in a broader sense.

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I was talking about, a little bit about the history of black trans people in

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starting the gay liberation movement,

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because it was black trans people, black trans women in specific, specifically,

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who started the Compton's cafeteria riot in 1966,

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the Stonewall riot in 1969

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upon which, yknow, the Pride festival is held on that weekend and anniversary.

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One of the first, uh, people to ever get sex reassignment surgery in North America

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was a black trans woman named Delisa Newton in 1966.

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And then, um, yeah, just thinking about what it means to, uh, develop an actual archive

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of black trans history within Toronto, within trans organizing, black queer organizing.

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Thinking about some of the great stuff that's happened here in Toronto

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related to, yknow, trans people involved in Blockorama,

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trans people starting the first trans parenting course in North America,

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developing the first sexual health resource for trans men who have sex with men,

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in the world.

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That happened by black trans people right here out of Toronto.

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[Rinaldo Walcott, Associate Professor and Chair, OISE]

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So some years ago in an extremely exuberant mood,

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I wrote that Toronto was one of the best places

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to witness black queer diaspora in all its forcefulness.

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My claim was buttressed by the now-defunct GLAD, Gays and Lesbians of African Descent

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marching in the Pride parade.

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<u><u></u><u></u></u>?<u><u></u><u></u></u>, and Blackness Yes! Blockoparty.

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Those three events or happenings signal a particular kind of black political outness,

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and a taking up of space by black queers in Toronto,

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and thus Canada, that marked a new time for black queer life in this city and country.

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[Patrice Anderson, AIDS Committee of Durham Region]

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My name is Patrice Anderson, I represent the AIDS Committee of Durham Region.

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It's really important that as black people we know about our history first of all,

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in the LGBTQ community and

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like the panelists have said, there aren't any archives that are available,

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and it helps me in my work as well to find out, you know,

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where do we come from?

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Where are we going?

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And where are we gonna end up?

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[Aemilius Ramirez, Community Member]

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There's been a lot of people ahead of us

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paving the way for us to be able to stand here today, um, embracing our identities.

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The least we could do at this point with all the access that we have

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to, to archiving and documenting and making sure that our history is known...

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[Notisha Massaquoi, E.D., Women's Health in Women's Hands Health Centre]

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Simon Nkoli, as I came to learn, was arrested for his anti-apartheid activism,

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and spent 4 years in jail.

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He was openly queer during that period.

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He went on to ensure that in South Africa

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the rights of the LGBT community were enshrined in the constitution,

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and so we now have one country in Africa

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that ensures that gays and lesbians, trans, queer, bi community members

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have human rights protection.

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My talk was really about

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how do we insert the story of continental Africans

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who are here in Canada, and globally working together,

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into the story of black queer organizing?

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And I really felt that it often gets left out,

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when it was very much an integral part of

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a lot of the organizing that was happening here in the black community.

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[OmiSoore Dryden, Community Member]

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Having been at all of the Pride tomfoolery, fuckery, that's been going on, uh,

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to be at Queering Black History Month has been refreshing and rejuvenating.

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Um, it reminds me, uh, that I'm not crazy, quite frankly.

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Where I get to speak with other people about the realities of racism in, uh, Toronto queer communities.

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[Gwen Bartleman, Community Member]

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I came to Toronto in 1981,

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so it was really important for me to remember,

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to come back and remember, um,

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people that were in the room,

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people that weren't necessarily in the room.

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But I think for me, um, as a white butch dyke activist,

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what's most important for me

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is to be in these spaces to learn and to continue to learn

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and to be reminded about how much more I have to learn,

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because that's my personal celebration.

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I'll say, tonight was historical.

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Because it was the first time the university grappled

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and talked bluntly and eloquently and honestly

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about our lives.

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Our lives that for so long had been considered problematic.

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You know? We have been social problems for so long,

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and amidst the racism and homophobia and transphobia

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there is, you know, a really bright and beautiful light shone

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on our lives.

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[MUSIC: Armabd Van Helden, "U Don't Know Me", high energy house music, fades out...]