Here and queer
Bella Coco, Staff Writer |
On March 6, the Aveline-Vázquez 2SLGBTQIA+ Collection Launch was celebrated at the Riddell Library and Learning Centre at Mount Royal University (MRU).
The Aveline-Vázquez 2SLGBTQIA+ Collection boasts over approximately 1,000 items, including books, posters and pamphlets on queer history and the queer community.
An overwhelming number of students, faculty, staff and other members of the queer community gathered in the Ideas Lounge to commemorate the collection launch. Starting off strong, Peter Houston, who leads the archives and special collections at the library, kicked off the launch.
The collection launch was arranged back in Sept. 2023, when David Aveline, the owner of the collection, called Houston about donating his findings to the MRU Library— specifically to the archives on the fourth floor.
The archives house 113 years worth of history, including collections on sports history, medieval times, the Salem witch trials, and Canadian history. However, there seemed to be an astounding lack of queer history in the MRU archives.
It was important to Houston that MRU had an accessible collection of queer history, as students and faculty frequent the archives for research and class assignments.
“With the archives, we support teaching, learning, and scholarships through the development of archival holdings,” Houston said in his speech.
Currently, Aveline’s collection is being adapted to be archival friendly, but it is ready for visitation. Houston said that anyone is free to visit the archives, not just students and faculty at MRU.
Archives intern and MRU student, Sydney Morrissette, spoke about their opportunity to work with Aveline and Houston, and their appreciation to go through Aveline’s collection.
“What it means as a student to do this— the opportunities for research are endless,” Morrissette said during their speech.
Morrisette touched on that with vast research opportunities comes vast opportunities for queer representation and celebration.
“There’s all this hate that you see on social media and on the news, so it means so much to have this and to be here. People have been afraid of the hate we’re receiving. For us to have this collection, for us to have this public launch and for us to have this queer joy, it’s so important to preserve this,” Morrissette said.
Aveline’s presentation held two parts: an introduction and timeline from 1960-1990, and an explanation on the true nature of the collection’s representation.
For Aveline, it all began back in 1967 with a simple errand run.
“I was 16 years old and I walked into a pharmacy… And, I looked at the books on the wall. And this one title struck me. It was simply called Homosexuality,” Aveline told The Reflector. “I kind of, snuck up to it and I picked it up and I was always looking behind me. Maybe somebody was watching me or something like that, but, after about five or six times, I bought it…I still have that book and it’s still in the archives. From there, I came out.”
Since then, Aveline began going out to queer bars and collecting items. He participated in queer rights marches, parades, and protests.
When referring the “gay bar scene” in the 1970s, Aveline saw it as a time “pre-Stonewall” and “pre-AIDS.” Whereas the 1980s were a time of fear of queer erotica and an “anti-sex ear.”
One of the biggest liberation events Aveline took part in was the Truxx Raid, which is commonly referred to as the Canadian Stonewall. The Stonewall Riots were a series of riots that took place throughout June 1969 in New York’s Greenwich Village. The riots were coined as one of the most significant uprisings against police for 2SLGBTQIA+ civil rights.
Canada had its own Stonewall moment on Oct. 22, 1977, when Montreal police raided two popular gay bars— Le Mystique and Truxx Bar, and arrested 146 gay men.
“Now, they took these men, and they took them down to the police station, and they gave them forcible V.D. [venereal disease] tests. Now, V.D. is something very specific. What that involves is swabbing people, and if you didn’t want to be swabbed, you would be held down by the police. Then they would basically take a sample from your anus or elsewhere, right? Now, to me, and to everybody else, that’s rape. You know, 146 men were surgically raped by the Montreal police and the city of Montreal,” Aveline said during his presentation.
The next day, over 200 members of the queer community gathered on the streets of Montreal to protest the Truxx Raid.
Aveline said not long after the gathering, the police came and shoved the protestors off the street and onto the sidewalk. The group played a long game of cat-and-mouse with the police, and with each entrance back to the streets, another 100 people would join the cause.
Eventually, 2000 people were on the streets of Montreal, and Aveline found himself no further than six feet away from a police officer.
“I basically yelled, ‘fuck you’ and we blocked the city for a while. That was great, until they brought out the riot squad. They came, they were all in a row, they had their shields, and bang, bang, we’re dead. That’s all. We dispersed” he said.
Aveline ended his presentation with questions from attendees. The final note Aveline left was the hope that younger generations of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community would appreciate the struggles of the people before them.
“We have a rich past of struggle, of 2SLGBTQIA+ struggle and injustices of people being gay, bashed, beaten up and considered lesser citizens. I guess I would, if anything for young 2SLGBTQIA+ people, I would like them to appreciate the history that they came from,” Aveline said.
