AGQ-F0067

Fonds L’Association des pères gais de Montréal (APGM). – 1975, 7 January 1985-6 October 1998. – 40,5 cm of textual records.

 

 

 

Administrative history:

 

The Association des pères gais de Montréal was founded in 1982 by gay fathers, including Roger Beaulieu, who wanted to create a support group for married homosexual fathers. On its website, the APGM mentions the following objectives:

  • Help each other take charge of their gay lives;
  • Giving everyone the means to find themselves within the existing gay world and to live it according to their own options;
  • To encourage the integration of all aspects of the personality into group discussions and the Association’s activities;
  • To make the Association a meeting place for the most pressing social concerns by participating in wider movements for the social promotion of gay life;
  • To achieve these objectives, activities are carefully planned by specific committees. These committees work under the responsibility of a Board of Directors elected by all members in good standing of the Association. (APGM, n.d.).

 

In August 1985, the APGM’s by-laws were adopted at a general meeting. The Association obtained its letters patent on 20 June 1990. It has collaborated with numerous organizations (for example, the GDN, CSAM, Gai Écoute and the CLSC Centre Sud). It also joined the Coalition (a group of sexual minorities in Montreal), a decision taken at a meeting of the Board of Directors on 26 June 1984.

 

Over the years, the APGM has put together a calendar full of activities so that gay fathers (or fathers questioning their sexual orientation) can meet and socialize. Numerous services and programs
have been set up to meet their needs, including a discussion group called La Relance, a telephone hotline, the Tandem program, the Transit service, Plein-air weekends, First Saturdays and numerous social gatherings. The key services are the telephone helpline and Transit (which began in 1985 and is still offered today), which brings together a small group of gay fathers in a private home to help them with their transition from heterosexual to homosexual life. The clients targeted by its services include clandestine gay fathers (those still living with their families and questioning their sexual orientation), gay fathers in the process of leaving their families and fathers who have left their marital home and are living alone or in a couple with another man.

 

The APGM received considerable media coverage on radio and television, notably in January 1987, when Jacques Beausoleil appeared on Jeannette Bertrand’s program Parler pour parler on Radio-Québec. The Association also appeared on Caméra ’87 that same year. It also published a newsletter, which began in November 1984, to keep its members informed of its activities.

 

The APGM is also receptive to requests from university and college students for more information on the situation of gay fathers. In particular, it has helped some of them with their schoolwork.

 

The APGM is still active today.

 

 

Scope and content:

 

The Association des Pères Gais de Montréal fonds documents the Association’s activities, primarily with regard to the development and evolution of its services and programs, as well as its relations with other organizations. The fonds also documents the APGM’s involvement in education and research.

 

The fonds contains a copy of the letters patent, minutes of annual general meetings, special meetings and meetings of the Board of Directors from 1984 to 1994, as well as annual reports and financial reports. There is also correspondence with other organizations (e.g. Jeunesse Lambda), with students (e.g. about student work) and internal correspondence. The committees in the various departments have produced numerous working documents. Some of these documents concern the telephone line module, the Transit Committee, Tandem and La Relance. Copies of the APGM Bulletin are in the fonds, as are calendars of discussion group meetings. The fonds also contains lists of members, membership and renewal forms, and training offered to volunteers who act as responders or facilitators.

 

The fonds contains the following series:

 

  • AGQ-F0067/S1. Documents constitutifs et historiques
  • AGQ-F0067/S2. Mission, orientations et objectifs
  • AGQ-F0067/S3. Membership
  • AGQ-F0067/S4. Assemblées statutaires
  • AGQ-F0067/S5. Gestion des ressources financières
  • AGQ-F0067/S6. Documentation de référence
  • AGQ-F0067/S7. Communications et relations publiques
  • AGQ-F0067/S8. Activités sociales, services, programmes, projets et bénévoles
  • AGQ-F0067/S9. Éducation et recherche

 

 

Notes:

 

Source of title proper: Title based on the contents of the fonds.

 

Immediate source of acquisition: The fonds was transferred to the QGAs on 3 February 1999 by Claude Martin, who was then President of the APGM (acquisition 1999-03). Part of the fonds was also donated in the same year by Jacques Beausoleil (1999-07).

 

Language: Most documents are in French. The only documents in English are from the Gay and Lesbian Parents Coalition International (GLPCI).

 

Finding aids: Digital inventory of the fonds in Excel format.Classification plan is available in PDF format.

 

Accruals: further accruals are likely.

 

Related groups of records in different fonds external to the unit being described:
The AGQ also holds the fonds of Jacques Beausoleil (AGQ-F0069), who was president of the APGM for several years (from May 1986 to November 1990). His fonds includes a file on the APGM in connection with his role within the organization.

 

Copies of the APGM Bulletin can be found in the AGQ periodical collection (Bulletins Liaison, Nov.-Dec. 1992 and Autumn 1994).

 

 

Bibliography:

 

APGM. (s.d.). Our Mission. Retrived from https://apgmqc.wordpress.com/notre-mission/

 

Fugues. (s.d.). Association des Pères Gais de Montréal (APGM). Retrieved from https://www.fugues.com/620-detail-repertoire-association-des-peres-gais-de-montreal-apgm-.html

 

 

 

 

Dernière modification : 2025-07-01