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Our Past Matters: Stories of Gay Calgary
Kevin Allen’s Our Past Stories of Gay Calgary walks the reader through the back alleys and underground gathering spaces of the city’s early gay community. Meet the characters, martyrs and heroes who helped forge the LGBTQ2 human rights we have today. This entertaining and authoritative account of a Calgary few know is a major addition to the many-hued and complex tales of the city. He “We were here, and we always have been.”Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist 2020
Governor-General of Canada's History Award for Excellence in Community Programming Finalist 2019
John Ibbitson, from The Globe and Mail, “You are going to read about some amazing people, places, and times in these pages… There is no one better equipped than Kevin Allen to give us a tour.”Learn more at
Governor-General of Canada's History Award for Excellence in Community Programming Finalist 2019
John Ibbitson, from The Globe and Mail, “You are going to read about some amazing people, places, and times in these pages… There is no one better equipped than Kevin Allen to give us a tour.”Learn more at
Kindle Edition
Published August 19, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 28, 2020
It is lovely to have a book that documents the history of queer folk in this city! We have always been here. It was fantastic reading about my local neighborhoods and provide context to their history. Fantastic work being done here.
I would have loved to read more diverse stories about my city but I’m also very aware that many of those stories have been hidden well from history by these very communities as a form of protection. I get it. It’s a complicated topic. When you are talking about people who are labeled “other” in society, there can be a lot of privacy...to put it lightly.
However, I struggled with one major thing in this book; the sources or lack of sources with these stories. I am aware much of what is being discussed is common knowledge and/or collected from interviews with individuals (which is very cool). My issue lays with the many inconclusive endings that I feel could have been concluded with a little fishing in court documents and the amount of times I felt I just had to take the author’s word for it. I have no reason to believe Kevin Allen made some of this up- that’s a ludicrous idea- but I would have loved pointers on where I could dig deeper. It didn’t need to be a fully cited academic paper (please no) but a jumping point as to where this information came from would have been extremely helpful for younger readers (like myself) and readers who did not have the context of growing up in Calgary during certain times (also like myself).
But despite all that...
This book NEEDED to happen. I’m happy it did.
I would have loved to read more diverse stories about my city but I’m also very aware that many of those stories have been hidden well from history by these very communities as a form of protection. I get it. It’s a complicated topic. When you are talking about people who are labeled “other” in society, there can be a lot of privacy...to put it lightly.
However, I struggled with one major thing in this book; the sources or lack of sources with these stories. I am aware much of what is being discussed is common knowledge and/or collected from interviews with individuals (which is very cool). My issue lays with the many inconclusive endings that I feel could have been concluded with a little fishing in court documents and the amount of times I felt I just had to take the author’s word for it. I have no reason to believe Kevin Allen made some of this up- that’s a ludicrous idea- but I would have loved pointers on where I could dig deeper. It didn’t need to be a fully cited academic paper (please no) but a jumping point as to where this information came from would have been extremely helpful for younger readers (like myself) and readers who did not have the context of growing up in Calgary during certain times (also like myself).
But despite all that...
This book NEEDED to happen. I’m happy it did.
August 3, 2023
This was a very interesting read for me, as I grew up in Calgary, and basically was oblivious to the discrimination against gay people. I hope that, as a society we can except diversity in all its forms, and live and let live.
January 21, 2023
3.7 to me
June 8, 2019
This book is impeccably researched, and even more impressive is knowing how difficult it was to unearth a history that was buried in closets (no pun intended - probably), garages, and in between the pages of books. It's really an overview rather than a deep intimate evaluation, and one of the best things about it is realising how much more history lies behind these words than what is written on the page. I look forward to reading more of Kevin Allen's words and research if he decides to continue telling these stories.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews