I joined the local fundraising committee of Ducks Unlimited Canada in the 1990s. Ducks Unlimited Canada is an organization dedicated to conserving wetlands and the diverse species that inhabit them. Ducks, of course, are the focal point. Ducks Unlimited Canada has projects across Canada to enhance and reclaim wetlands. Ducks Unlimited Canada was founded in 1938 and, to date, has conserved 6.3 million acres of wetlands. Ducks Unlimited Canada is successful because it relies on conservation-minded volunteers like me to organize local fundraising events. Members of the fundraising committee met in the Chairman’s basement to plan the annual fundraising banquet. It is truly a grassroots organization. Also, it maintains its focus on wetland conservation. It has not allowed itself to be co-opted by other interests unrelated to its mission. It publishes annual financial reports detailing revenue generated and how the money was spent. This is a hallmark of a successful organization with a clear mandate and a strong focus on its mission.

Similarly, in the 1990s, I was involved with an organization called Gays of Ottawa, founded in 1971. I was aware of its existence years before when I was in high school. I remember a 1980 news report in which members of Gays of Ottawa protested outside a movie theatre where the feature film Cruising was playing. Gays of Ottawa published a monthly newspaper, Go Info, from 1972 to 1995. I remember the first time I saw an issue of Go Info. It was during the summer of 1982 when I worked in a bookshop in the Glebe district of Ottawa. A young man came in to pick up a copy. I remember feeling astounded as I smiled at him while trying not to look too intently, thinking, “Wow, a real live gay man!”

I started attending social events at the GO Centre, located above a laundromat at 318 Lisgar Street. It was there I met Alvin, with whom I embarked on a long-term relationship in the Autumn of 1989. Alvin and I remained together until the mid-1990s when we parted company. We remain friends to this day. While we were together, we attended social events and discussion groups at the GO Centre. There was a men’s discussion group on Monday nights where gay rights issues such as gay men’s health, dating, relationships, sex and crucially AIDS and how to protect yourself from exposure to HIV were talked over. We also attended a couples group. I remember one session in particular, where a lawyer addressed the assembled gay and lesbian couples. She provided invaluable advice on what same-sex couples could do to protect their legal and financial affairs, as same-sex relationships did not have the same legal standing as heterosexual couples at the time. Yes, in the 1990s, gay rights advocacy groups had a clear mission: they existed to represent the interests of men and women who experienced same-sex attraction, pressing the case for the destigmatization of homosexuality and recognition of full civil rights for gay and lesbian people. There were no discussions of invented gender identities, pronouns, or heteronormativity and patriarchy—at least not in the gay men’s groups.

I even had a fleeting acquaintance with Charlie Hill, a founder of Gays of Ottawa and a pioneer of the gay rights movement in Canada, who was a curator at the National Gallery of Canada in 1990, when I worked at the National Gallery Library before leaving to enroll in library school in 1991. As Christopher Moore noted in “Queering the archives: the collections of the CLGA #2. “Charles Hill (who had earlier been with Canada’s first post-Stonewall gay group, the University of Toronto Homophile Association), Gays of Ottawa (GO) remained for many years the focus of gay activism in Ottawa.” (Christopher Moore’s History News) Yes, Gays of Ottawa figured prominently in the gay rights movement in Canada. Unfortunately, by 1989, there were elements of the movement that took issue with what they saw as the undue emphasis on straight-acting, white, gay men in the gay rights movement. The board of Gays of Ottawa agreed in 1989 to rename the organization ALGO (the Association of Lesbians and Gays of Ottawa) to address these grievances. It was a noble effort, but the rebranded organization quickly lost its way. It stopped being about gay rights advocacy and was sucked into the stinking morass of identity politics. It ended in complete chaos with competing factions quarrelling over who was the bigger victim and whose grievances should be prioritized. ALGO folded in September 1995. This is what happens when an organization loses focus on its common goals, excluding tangential issues that have no bearing on its mission. There is still a need for gay rights advocacy groups that maintain their focus on safeguarding the welfare and happiness of gay and lesbian men and women, free from the tangential and irrelevant strands of women’s lib and gender identity politics. Hence, we saw the formation of groups like the LGB Alliance and HumanGayMale. I support these groups wholeheartedly and welcome them. May they prosper and succeed.

Posted by Geoffrey