by Meredith J Batt and Jess Wilton The queer history of Atlantic Canada is embedded in the region’s landscape and its people. As we guide you across the region exploring some queer nooks and crannies along the way, we will introduce you to the way queer pasts, presents, and futures collide and overlap. It’s spring and we begin in Northern... Read more »
by Meredith J Batt and Jess Wilton
The queer history of Atlantic Canada is embedded in the region’s landscape and its people. As we guide you across the region exploring some queer nooks and crannies along the way, we will introduce you to the way queer pasts, presents, and futures collide and overlap.
It’s spring and we begin in Northern New Brunswick. The trees along the majestic Wolastoq River (St. John) have begun to bud. Meredith is driving as they guide us through our first leg. Sometimes called the “Drive Through Province,” 2SLGBTQ+ New Brunswickers have created strong networks for decades and have memories of fun and frolicking that are not to be missed! As we approach the pulp mill town of Edmundston in the heart of la territoire brayonne, we see Fort Kent across the water. This was the site of meetings for the Northern Lambda Nord (NLN) group founded in January 1980, which provided support for rural 2SLGBTQ+ folks. NLN had members from both Maine and Northern New Brunswick; they even published a bilingual newsletter to let community members know about events.
Carrying on down the Trans-Canada Highway, we stop for a picnic on Fredericton’s Green next to the Beaverbrook Art Gallery. Known as Fredericton’s cruising area, the Green provided those seeking love and companionship a chance to meet before the city’s first gay bar—Dance Trax—opened in July 1985.1 Members of Fredericton Lesbian and Gays (FLAG) would hold community dances at the Kinsman Centre on Fredericton’s northside. But after the bar opened, they turned their attention to securing human rights reforms for lesbian, gay, and bisexual community members. In 1989, members of FLAG formed the New Brunswick Coalition for Human Rights Reform and lobbied the government to include “Sexual Orientation” in the provincial human rights legislation, which passed in 1992.2
As we drive away from the Saint John River Valley, fog starts to seep around the car as we near the port city of Saint John. Heading uptown, we pass the Admiral Beatty Complex, which was once a hotel that welcomed weary travelers from near and far. It was also the site of drag shows in 1967 and 1968 as well as a secret spot for gay men to connect. And look! It seems like the fog is starting to burn off!
At Saint John, we cross the Bay of Fundy on the MV Fundy Rose, landing in Digby, Nova Scotia and Jess takes the wheel. Taking the highway through the valley, we cross vineyards and orchards and mudflats. We find ourselves in Wolfville, home to Acadia University where, in 1986, gay professors sued Acadia (p. 3) for medical benefits to cover gay relationships. There is also a history of significant discrimination and student activism (p. 13) here.
An hour of driving more and we can see the largest city in the Maritimes rise before us: Halifax. Along Barrington Street, we can still see the famed The Turret, now known as the Khyber Building. Opened by the Gay Alliance for Equality as a private membership club run by, and for, gays and lesbians, this bar was a key space for the community in the 1970s. Memories of the space are catalogued on the Halifax Rainbow Encyclopedia, a site run by Daniel McKay who has been actively archiving this history online since November 2000, as well as in Wayves Magazine.
Crossing the MacDonald Bridge, we take the highway out to Truro. We see the turn off for Millbrook First Nation where, in the 1990s, a few gay and two-spirit Mi’kmaq were interviewed by Michael Riordan about their experiences. One of the individuals, only known as Allan in the interview, was running for Band Council to help younger generations.
Near downtown, there was—until recently—a lesbian-owned brewpub called Truro Brewing Company, which hosted many drag and queer events. If you listen closely as we walk the city, you can hear the echoes of the Secret Furies. A lesbian choir, they once performed at a women’s dance in Truro in the 1990s. Back on the highway, we make our way through Pictou County with its long history of lesbian farmers. This was an area that served as the backdrop to many lesbian camping trips called “Wild Womyn Weekends” or “Wild Womyn Don’t Get the Blues.” So much joy!
We next cross the causeway towards Cape Breton—part of Nova Scotia but an island of its own. Moving towards the tip, passing the breathtaking coastline, there are echoes of the gay steel mill. But when we reach Sydney, we are reminded of tragedy as well. Here in 1993, a gay man was murdered; his photo album reportedly (p. 14) became the beginning of an RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) pink list. From this university town with a robust Unama’kik College Institute having classes taught by Tuma Young, we take the Blue Puttees Ferry to Port-Aux-Basques.
The highway to St. John’s inundates us with strong winds. As we breach the coast, we see a flotilla of icebergs as we roll into the town of Small Point-Adam’s Cove-Blackhead-Broad Cove. Just down from Northern Bay Sands, this area has both permanent and seasonal residences. During the summer, it also hosts a massive pride celebration. If you look closely, you can see four-wheelers with pride flags driving alongside us.
As we continue east, Meredith guides us ‘round the bay and through Paradise until we see Signal Hill in the distance. When it comes to queer life in historic St. John’s, author Rhea Rollmann cautions readers of A Queer History of Newfoundland:
when I was an elementary school child, I remember a teacher warning us that homosexuality was something that came from Toronto. Nothing could be further from the truth; in fact insofar as St. John’s is an older city than Toronto, there was probably a queer presence long before Toronto or before any other Canadian metropolis existed.3
One such figure of St. John’s queer past that Rollmann points to was Charles Henry Danielle, an American dancer and dressmaker who settled in St. John’s in the 1860s. A lover of parties and galas, he constructed a hotel called the Octagon Castle in Paradise. His friend, Thomas Waugh, later wrote of Danielle’s relationships with several men, including his manservant and heir, Frederick Brazil.4
Heading into the city itself, we pass The Rooms and towards beautiful Bannerman Park, one of the locations of St. John’s Gay Pride Weekends in June 1986. This was where Gay Association of Newfoundland (GAIN) member Wally Upward spoke to a group of over 250 people about discrimination faced by Lesbians and Gays in Newfoundland and Labrador. GAIN was active from about 1981 to 1987, following the dissolution of the first lesbian and gay organisation Community Homophile Association of Newfoundland (CHAN). Issues of their newsletter Foresight can be found through the holding of the Newfoundland and Labrador Digital Queer Archive, which is part of the NL Queer Research Initiative.
We take the MV Ala’suinu from Argentina back to Sydney and make our way to the next ferry, leaving from Caribou, Nova Scotia to Wood Islands, PEI (Prince Edward Island). Only a 75-minute crossing on the MV Confederation, even in the middle of the straight you never lose sight of either province. But slowly, the red cliffs come into sharper view as we glide into port.
As we meander along the Trans-Canada, we find ourselves in Vernon Bridge. This is where the Rainbow Lodge used to be. A bright rainbow flag was painted on its façade at the core of this rural village. Close by the owner, Jim Culbert, now owns the gay bed and breakfast “Green Gay Bulls.” Nearby, there are still faint memories of the purple motorcycle and lesbians and the trans craftswoman who lived around the corner.
Driving down Charlottetown’s streets that held the province’s first pride parade in 1994, balloons were carried to represent the people who could not be in the parade for fear of being outed.
At Borden-Carleton, the tide is out. We can see the miles of red sand bar stretching into the strait. Today it is sunny, but some days the fog rolls in and the bridge disappears. We travel back to where we started, hoping to find more stories along the way.
Meredith J. Batt is an archivist at the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick as well as a co-founder and Queer History Research Archivist Advisor for the Queer Heritage Initiative of New Brunswick (QHINB). They have been accepted to the MA Archives and Records Management Programme at University College Dublin for September 2025.
Jess Wilton is a doctoral candidate in history at York University. From PEI and currently living in Kjipuktuk (Halifax), she studies the queer history of Nova Scotia through material history and ephemeral archival practices.
Further Resources:
Jefferies, Daze. “Queer and Trans Archives in Waves.” Eastern Edge.
Rose, Rebecca. Before the Parade: A History of Halifax’s Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Communities. Nimbus Publishing. 2020.
Queer Heritage Initiative of New Brunswick. “A History of Drag in New Brunswick.” YouTube.
Stewart, D.A. BEFORE GRINDR: The Secret Social History of Gay & Lesbian PEI. 2020. PEERS Alliance.
- Conor Falvey, Foregrounds: Mapping Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual History in Fredericton, 1969-1992 (master’s thesis, University of New Brunswick, 2015), 100.
︎ - Ibid., 115. ︎
- Rhea Rollmann, A Queer History of Newfoundland, (Engen Books, 2023), 38. ︎
- Ibid., 39. ︎
