Lesbian and Gay Liberation in Canada: A Selected Annotated Chronology, 1964–1975 by Donald W. McLeod (review)

· 284 LETTERS IN CANADA 1996 Canada. Mathews's polemical viewpoint becomes a particularly effective tool for rethinking previous treatment of Richards's texts. The volume, in its entirety, provides a sweeping and diverse collection of critical profiles of four Canadian authors and continues to fulfil an important role, mapping out a Canadian tradition by groupingwell-known writers with their lesser-known but equally talented colleagues. (JENNIFER ANDREWS) Donald W. McLeod. Lesbian and Gay Liberation in Canada: A Selected Annotated Chronolog1j, 1964-1975 ECW Press/Homewood Books. xviii, 302. $30.00 Although lesbian and gay studies has a relatively long history inside the academy - the first Canadian course according to the book under review was at York University in the autumn of 1971- it began mostly as a matter of the untenurable in pursuit of the unspeakable: its adherents toiled away in the knowledge that their work would at best be regarded with suspicion and that it might, at worst, leave them open to official condenmation or censure. Much of the early work in the field was thus produced by men and women who were amateurs in the old-fashioned sense: they were unpaid, although by no means unskilled. In the absence of any of the radical chic or publishing track record that now supports queer theory, their researches were pursued as labours of love and demonstrations of political commitment. Even though lesbian and gay studies has gained at least a toe-hold in most large North American universities, a number of its most important figures continue to produce work of the highest scholarly standards without the advantages of institutional support. Historians such as Alan Bray and Jonathan Katz have produced groundbreaking and in many respects authoritative work without the incentive of promotion or the luxury of sabbaticals, research assistants, and reduced teaching loads. Donald W. McLeod's Lesbian and Gay Liberation in Canada: A Selected Chronology, 1964-1975 follows in this tradition of independent &:holarship and should prove an invaluable resource for others working in the field. Using as its core theremarkable collection oftheCanadian Lesbian and Gay Archives, this work provides a record of events during an early, though important period of lesbian and gay politics in Canada. The milestones range from the apparently inconsequential (a Vancouver homophile organization sponsors a discussion of 'The Gay Bar in the Community,' September 1964; police raid the Twilight Villa Social Club in St Catharines, 23 February 1974) to the more clearly groundbreaking and influential (Parliament decriminalizes homosexual acts, 14May 1969; the first national 'gay' rights demonstration, 28 August 1971). Each event is supplemented HUMANITIES 285 with a comprehensive list of primary and secondary sources and useful cross references to both published and archival materials. McLeod also includes the appearance of important cultural productions (books, films, theatrical performances) and appendices which list lesbian and gay organizations, periodicals, bars, and clubs. As a reference book for historians of recent lesbian and gay history and culture, McLeod's work is of obvious importance. Th~ only previous guide was the chronology compiled in 1982 by the late James Fraser, which summarized this period in a scant five pages. McLeod has increased the number of entries by a factor of about fifteen and provided the kind of thorough bibliographic support that every scholar longs for. This work should also prove useful to those interested in the development of movements of social protest more generally, especially those, such as feminism, that arose from similar historical circumstances. Although Lesbian and Gay Liberation in Canada is not itself a history (and McLeod rightly disavows any pretence of having provided one), the chronology suggests an interesting (if inchoate) narrative, one that reveals that social movements rarely emerge ex nihilo (as in the largely discredited 'Stonewall' theory of recent lesbian and gay history), but develop as the result of painstaking efforts and incremental developments (as well as disappointing setbacks). It is, of course, the work of historians proper to redraw this outline and fill in its contours, and one looks forward to the kind of careful and considered accounts that a book such as this should engender. (CRAIG PATTERSON) J.E,H. MacDonald. A Word to Us All ... Illustrated poem, with a note...