February 2022

25 Feb, 2022

Posted at 18:48h in What's new
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Last week, on February 25th, the Quebec Gay Archives welcomed the assistant mayor of Paris, Mr. Jean-Luc Romero-Michel.

A gay rights activist, very involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS, this elected official from Paris visited us to observe how our organisation functions. He would like to see a similar organization in Paris.

Jacques Prince, president of the Quebec Gay Archives, accompanied by Pierre Pilotte, our coordinator, welcomed him and talked to him about our organization, which has now existed for 39 years. Our assistant archivist, V. Samoylenko, gave him a guided visit of our location. Also present at this meeting were Denis-Daniel Boullé, journalist for the magazine Fugues; Jonathan Proulx-Guimond, our communications assistant; and our intern, Marie-Lou Piché.

From left to right : Marie-Lou Piché, Pierre Pilotte, Jacques Prince, Jean-Luc Romero-Michel, Denis-Daniel Boullé, Marine Perrin. Collection des Archives gaies du Québec.

For over an hour, Mr. Romero-Michel and his aide Marine Perrin asked us questions and showed great interest in our work. We are very happy to have met with a sympathetic politician, and not to mention an engaged writer responsible for human rights, integration, and the fight against discriminations at the Paris city council.

He is a candidate for the Parti Socialiste at the next legislative elections in France, which will take place in June 2022.

We wish him good luck!

24 Feb, 2022

Posted at 18:22h in What's new
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The Quebec Gay Archives just acquired two (2) brand new flat file cabinets for a discounted price, which we will use to store nearly 500 posters. These posters had remained rolled for far too long, which is detrimental to their preservation. Up until now, we did not have enough funds for such a purchase.

2022 is starting on a good note. Thank you to all our donors.



21 Feb, 2022

Posted at 18:31h in What's new
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On February 11th, we acquired an important addition to our collections.

It consists of many publications, donated by Robert Schwartzwald, professor at Université de Montréal’s Department of littératures et langues du monde.

Many of these archives are related to gay theatre, a subject not widely documented at the AGQ.

We would like to thank Mr. Schwartzwald for this precious addition to our collections.

21 Feb, 2022

Posted at 18:06h in What's new
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The Quebec Gay Archives are welcoming Marie-Lou Piché, a student at Université Laval pursuing a certificate in archival studies, for an internship starting this month and lasting five (5) weeks. She will be working with our team to process the posters donated by the Montreal LGBTQ+ Community Centre. She will be, as well, writing fonds descriptions to make them more accessible and thus more helpful for researchers.

Our organization is very happy to host this young intern. Welcome, Marie-Lou!

09 Feb, 2022

Posted at 20:56h in What's new
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In the February 2022 issue of the magazine FUGUES, one can find an article recounting JOHN BANKS’ life.

An activist for the recognition of gay rights from the very start, he is today a dedicated volunteer at the Quebec Gay Archives. Serge Fisette’s article traces key moments in his life. For example, he was the initiator of the first Pride march in Montreal in 1979 and was the private secretary of the legendary icon Marlene Dietrich for a dozen years.

Before the pandemic, he regularly visited the Quebec Gay Archives consultation room to work on his archival fonds.

We are very happy to have him among our members.