A look back at the first North American gay and lesbian history conference

The Wilde '82 History Conference, the first North American history conference dedicated to the recovery of LGBTQ2S+ histories, took place June 30 to July 3, 1982 at Toronto Metropolitan University, then known as Ryerson Polytechnical Institute. It marked TMU as an early site of gay and lesbian resistance. The event brought together gay and lesbian theorists and historians from across North America to share research on the LGBTQ2S+ community.

“Wilde '82 was one of the earliest manifestations of collective gay and lesbian studies,” says English professor Craig Jennex who is developing a digital exhibit about the conference in collaboration with fellow English professor Jason Boyd and the Centre for Digital Humanities (CDH) at TMU, slated to launch in 2023.

Conference presenters were critical in the development of queer studies as an academic discipline. Topics covered shared a common theme of homosexual identity as culturally constructed.

Papers like “The Making of the Modern Homosexual,” “Where Gay People Come From” and “The Invention of the Homosexual” all focus on how the way we classify and categorize sexuality is not innate or naturally occurring, says Jennex. “Those are particular subject positions that become possible and logical in specific moments.”

It is this shift in thinking about gay identity that becomes a hallmark of queer theory and subsequent understandings of queerness, says Jennex.

Commemorating the 100th anniversary of Oscar Wilde's visit to Canada, the Wilde '82 conference was organized by the Canadian Gay Archives (now the The ArQuives: Canada's LGBTQ2+ Archives) and a part of Pride events for "Doing It!: Lesbian and Gay Liberation in the 80s”.

“We want to recover some of the early figures of gay and lesbian studies, who I think have largely been sidelined, if not forgotten, and provide information about the formative years of gay and lesbian studies and queer studies,” says Jason Boyd, who is also the director of the Centre for Digital Humanities. “This is really important reclamation work.”

Oscar Wilde a figure of resistance

Boyd, who is also an Oscar Wilde scholar, believes the conference was named after the celebrated poet and playwright by chance. “The centenary of Wilde’s 1882 North American tour was serendipitous. Oscar Wilde was one of the first gay men to be convicted for homosexual offenses. He became seen as a martyr to state oppression of sexual minorities and has become an icon for the gay community.”

In fact, Boyd points out that the conference was very likely spurred in part by tensions simmering between the LGBTQ2S+ community and the police at the time, with the Bathhouse raids having sparked major protests the year before, initiating a modern gay rights movement in Canada.

A burgeoning field of study: Wilde '82 makes history

The Wilde '82 History Conference should be remembered because it brought together academics, community historians, and activists who, Jennex says, became pivotal in the development of queer studies.

Boyd observes conferences like Wilde '82 were the necessary first step towards early publications in queer studies – such as the anthologies Essays on Gay Literature (1985) and Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past (1989).

“There was a critical mass of scholars who were working on gay and lesbian history and literature, but they were all siloed,” he says. “There was a realization that this work could coalesce into a field of inquiry.”

TMU a site of gay and lesbian resistance

As for why this event took place at Ryerson Polytechnical, Jennex believes it was related to the institution's proximity to Toronto’s gay village, home to Canada's largest gay community. He reminds us that in the 1970s and 1980s, Toronto was an important site of lesbian and gay politics and organizing. He is also exploring a connection to a long-time ArQuives volunteer.

“Ryerson Polytechnic was the site of many LGBTQ2+ events ever since the lesbian and gay liberation movement started in Toronto,” he shares. “I suspect this has to do with its location, given it’s so close to lesbian and gay-oriented spaces on Church and Wellesley. But there were also people involved in lesbian and gay liberation politics who were affiliated with Ryerson. Alan Miller, a former senior Ryerson Polytechnic library reference technician, for example, was one of the organizers of Wilde '82 and has been involved in lesbian and gay activism for decades.”

Alan Miller explains that Ryerson Polytechnical was home to a number of gay and lesbian groups from at least 1977, several ‘out’ profs in the 1980s, and that some of the first (non-credit) queer courses took place at the institution. “My manager at the Ryerson Library allowed me to maintain a research guide on Sexual Diversity Studies, now LGBTQ+ Studies Research Guide,” says Miller.

Research assistant and English M.A. student Nadia Ozzorluoglu who is working with Jennex and Boyd on the digital exhibit, believes another reason Ryerson Polytechnical was the host of not only the conference but all of the “Doing It!” Pride events was its proximity to Allan Gardens, one of Oscar Wilde’s North American tour stops and a site closely connected to queer life and resistance. Ozzorluoglu notes that conference participants walked together to the Allan Gardens to commemorate Wilde’s visit.

“One thing that Wilde '82 did was situate Toronto and Canada as a site where questions about lesbian and gay lives were being unpacked and interrogated,” says Jennex.

Centre for Digital Humanities exhibit

The digital exhibit, supported by the Centre for Digital Humanities, will include current research, photographs, audio recordings, and archival materials related to the event, some of which can also be found in TMU’s own library archives.

Participants convened to build a foundation for an important field of study, and offer a model for community-engaged scholarship, says Jennex. “It’s a great reminder of what is possible when activists, academics, community historians and archivists come together for the project of queer liberation.”

A look back at the first North American gay and lesbian history conference

Oscar Wilde a figure of resistance

A burgeoning field of study: Wilde '82 makes history

TMU a site of gay and lesbian resistance

Centre for Digital Humanities exhibit

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