A new archives course has students looking back at queer history as the AMS focuses on what comes next.
For the first time, Professor Steven Maynard is running a history course entitled HIST 402: “LGBTQ Lives and Archives,” which brings students to the Queen’s University Archives to help explore and analyze their “Kingston LGBTQ2S Collection.” As the semester draws to a close, each student has taken on a major project in which they’ve chosen to explore different early queer organizations in Kingston.
In an interview with The Journal, Maynard shared that he chose to run this course after students came to him with concerns regarding the erasure of queer and transgender histories that’s unfolding in the United States.
“Students were wondering, what can we do about it?” Maynard said. “And that gave me the idea of coming up with a course that could focus on queer archives, so that students could work with the records and think about ways to mobilize them and make them public, as a way of countering the erasure.”
Maynard explained that while Kingston may be a smaller city, it still has a vibrant queer community with a rich archival history.
“I’ve lived in Kingston for many, many years, and have been involved in the queer community here for many years,” he said. “So, I know that lots of smaller centers have well-established queer communities that have interesting, fascinating pasts, just like the big cities.”
In written statements to The Journal, two students in HIST 402, Isabella Bickle and Sheana Tchebotaryov, both ArtSci ’26, talked about the mini histories they’ve chosen to explore for their major projects.
Bickle opted to write a biographical history of François Lachance, who wrote several opinion pieces for The Whig-Standard and helped organize Kingston’s first Pride march in 1989.
“As an ally to the LGBTQ+ community, I feel that projects like this, especially as a direct response to our current political climate, are incredibly important,” Bickle said. “They preserve and bring to light histories that might otherwise have been overlooked or forgotten.”
Tchebotaryov is tackling an administrative history of a queer student group that operated under the AMS in the ’90s called the Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Issues Commission (LGBIC).
“It is from the hard work of such groups that today we have the frameworks, supports, and spaces to be loud and proud as queer students on campus,” Tchebotaryov said.
Students will be posting more of their chosen mini histories in an upcoming series they’re running on the Queen’s University Archives’ Instagram account.
Today, the AMS is still working to create new, and revitalize old, queer initiatives on campus. In an interview, Queer Initiatives Lead Vipushan Raveenthiranathan and Social Issues Commissioner (Internal) Edward Sy told The Journal about plans to start a new club that will support 2SLGBTQIA+ students across all years and majors.
“It’s been necessary since 2023 when EQuiP, [the Education on Queer Issues Project] was dissolved and consolidated into my position as Queer Initiatives Lead,” Raveenthiranathan said. “While I do have the capacity and time to run initiatives and stuff like that, we think it’s important to democratize decision-making in running events.”
READ MORE: CARED, EQuiP, and AQ all dissolved at the Social Issues Commissions
Sy explained that the financial and advisory supports exist already exists for a queer club of that nature, but that, until now, there hasn’t been a movement to coordinate one.
Raveenthiranathan explained that he started drafting plans for the club in January alongside a working group of six queer student leaders, and that he hopes the club will be able to start running events by the start of the upcoming academic year.
Alongside the new club, Sy and Raveenthiranathan are also excited about hosting the SIC’s annual Queer Prom with an 80s/90s theme and live entertainment from a Queen’s student band on April 2.
Corrections
A previous version of the article incorrectly spelled Isabella Bickle’s first name, which has now been updated. Incorrect information appeared in the March 20 issue of The Queen’s Journal.
The Journal regrets the error
Tags
AMS, Queen’s Archives, Queer, Queer Prom, SIC
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