“We were just young men waiting to die, just dirty fags, unless we were ‘good gays’ and only had protected sex with a single partner to whom we were life-committed. Or unless we had no sex at all, and certainly no public gay life or culture.”
– R.M. Vaughan, July 22, 2019
Welcome to Coming Out and Being Out During the AIDS Crisis
This project takes up Canadian writer R.M. Vaughan’s call to document and advance public understanding of the unique historical experience of living through the “gay plague” while coming out.
Our project collects and explores first-hand accounts of coming out as 2SLGBTQ+ (i.e. Two Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer +) during the AIDS crisis (1981 to 1997) in Canada, a time when homophobia shaped government and initial public health responses to HIV/AIDS. We take up the call made by Canadian writer R.M Vaughan to document and advance public understanding of the unique historical experience of living through the “gay plague” while coming out, or being out, as 2SLGBTQ+.
While the AIDS crisis, and the initial stigma and inaction of the government, have been well chronicled and analyzed, personal accounts of
the experience remain undocumented as a collective experience in Canadian queer archives, with some exceptions (see, HIV in My Day).
Our main objective has been to strengthen existing archival materials in the Canadian queer archives through oral histories. The need for this work is pressing because the population is aging, and oral history interviews provide personal recollection and memories of this unique historical era. Oral histories were gathered from various provinces across Canada based on who responded to our call for participants.
All transcribed oral histories were donated to The ArQuives: Canada’s National LGBT2SQ+ archive in Toronto, and if relevant, the Two Spirit archives at the University of Winnipeg archives.
A second objective was to pay particular attention to those experiences that have often been left out of histories and archives of the AIDS crisis by recruiting participants from a range of backgrounds, and prioritizing the voices of Two Spirit peoples, racialized LGBTQ+ and rural queers, women and trans participants.
In doing so, we sought to challenge accounts of queer life which celebrate an oversimplified history of progress from the decriminalization of homosexuality in 1969 to present-day Canada as a global leader in queer rights and a haven for queer refugees.
While the crisis, and the initial inaction of the government, have been well chronicled and analyzed, personal accounts of the experience remain undocumented as a collective experience in Canadian queer archives, with some exceptions.
We hope to include those experiences that have often been left out of histories of the AIDS crisis and are recruiting participants from a range of backgrounds, prioritizing the voices of queer people of colour, women, trans, Two Spirit, and rural queers.
Check back for upcoming events and research findings.
Research Team
We are queer, non-binary, and Two Spirit researchers gathering oral histories across Canada—via 1-hour one-on-one interviews—for donation to queer archives and as part of a research project on 2SLGBTQIA+ experiences.
Professor, Sociology & Social Anthropology, Dalhousie University.
Professor and Coordinator, Sexuality Studies Program, York University.
Canada Research Chair in Reconciliation, Gender, & Identity.
Independent scholar and artist.
Joseph Lahey
MA student, Dalhousie University.
Dani Sherwood
MSW student, Dalhousie University (they/she).