In 2016, the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) in collaboration with The ArQuives were pleased to announce the launch of the revised LGBTQ Education Timeline Poster and a newly published 24-page handbook to be an in-class resource for teachers across the province. This initiative has a rich history that reaches back to “World Pride 2014.” Leading up to the City of Toronto and our communities being celebrated on the international stage, Pride Toronto reached out to The Archives and asked us to partner with them to create an expansive display that would capture the personal stories, the struggles and hard fought achievements of Canada’s LGBTQ2+ communities.
Rebecka Sheffield and Kate Zieman in front of display panel featuring LGBTQ2+ “Defiance and Protests” stories.
The ArQuives’s Community Engagement Committee championed the project. Volunteer Rebecka Sheffield took the lead on the initiative working with volunteers, Kate Zieman and Mike Vokins, Rachel E. Beattie and Robyn Hall. They collectively invested more than 200 volunteer hours to research the facts, write the histories, and collect the graphic assets – newspaper clippings, organizational and personal archives, and photography. The timeline display covered major events, small victories and milestones in Canada’s LGBTQ2+ history, among them: Trans Histories; HIV/AIDS in Canada; and the struggle for Equal Marriage rights. The display was pulled together in less than three weeks, and consisted of nine, 4×8 foot didactic panels mounted at the Toronto City Hall Rotunda for the entire month of June 2014.
three display panels in the Toronto City Hall Rotunda first one featuring Trans Histories, the second LGBTQ2S Education, the third HIV/AIDS in Canada history
Another significant event during World Pride was The ArQuives’s tour and talk for ETFO’s Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) Symposium attendees. During that morning event, ETFO guests were introduced to our collections and we discussed how they could be accessed by students and educators for future projects. For ETFO, this tour planted the seed of an idea to partner with The ArQuives. In 2015, the collaboration to revise and update the LGBTQ Education Timeline poster and create an accompanying booklet was initiated. The ArQuives volunteers Sarah Brown and Thora Gustafsson, and Volunteer and Community Outreach Coordinator Jade Pichette and ETFO members and staff worked tireless to compile news clippings and data to update the project.
section from the LGBTQ Education Timeline handbook describing Sunnyside Public School starting the first elementary school Gay Straight Alliance in Ontario
Among the new content in the handbook is the story of Ontario’s first elementary school Gay Straight Alliance started in 2008 at Kitchener’s Sunnyside Public School, and how, in 2002, high school student Mark Hall legally challenged the Durham Catholic School Board and won the right to bring a same-sex date to his high school prom. It is hoped that educators will use the poster and booklet to increase their own awareness and understanding about important milestones in LGBTQ education. Educators will be able to use this resource with their students to learn about LGBTQ history, communities and education.
section from the LGBTQ Education Timeline handbook featuring newspaper clipping of Mark Hall and his boyfriend Jean-Paul Dumond on their way to attend their high school prom
“Because of the success of the timeline and handbook project, the value of our collection and the depth of resources at The ArQuives, we are looking forward to more partnerships with the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario,” notes The ArQuives Executive Director Raegan Swanson. The LGBTQ Education Timeline Poster and Handbook are available as a web-based resource, you can find them here:
LGBTQ EDUCATION TIMELINE POSTER LGBTQ EDUCATION TIMELINE HANDBOOK
