Wednesday, 20 August 2025 - Did queerness exist on the Prairies before Pride flags lined downtown streets? Absolutely. But colonial records rarely captured it. When they did, it was usually through a distorted lens of shame, scandal, or silence. Yet behind the Victorian façades of early Calgary, members of the 2SLGBTQ+ community were integral to the rapidly growing community, even as they faced significant disdain and persecution from the dominant (non-Indigenous) culture. This August at Hot Dogs & Hot Takes on History, join local author and historian Kevin Allen from the Calgary Gay History Project for an eye-opening look at Calgary’s colonial era through a 2SLGBTQ+ lens. Kevin will take you through the intriguing story of Jean L’Heureux, a 19th-century Catholic linguist who was adopted into a Blackfoot community that accepted his queerness that faced rejection from settler society. Kevin will also discuss the coded language of queerness in the absence of words to name it, and how queer immigrants, outcasts, and ranchers helped form an underground network in the West. Queerness isn’t new, and neither is the attempt to erase it. This conversation will uncover how queer identities, though policed and hidden, have always been present, and how reclaiming these stories builds bridges between marginalized communities today. Come for the hot dogs, stay for the radical rethinking of Calgary’s past. -
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