BUILDING A LESBIAN COMMUNITY IN EDMONTON, ALBERTA ...

ofstudent movements, anti-war movements, and civil rights groups active in the 1960s led to the
first gay discussion groups and homophile organizations. As social historian Gary Kinsman
writes," the homophile groups ofthe 1950s and early 1960s were generally identified with a
reliance on medical, psychiatric, and sexological experts to educate the public and legitimize
homosexuality."16 A small number ofhomophile organizations were established in the 1950s with
a view to educate the public that gay men and lesbians as citizens had similar values to the rest of
society. 17 Unlike gay liberationist groups, homophile organizations did not proclaim a distinct gay
or lesbian identitynor did they develop a politics ofsexuality. This trend subsided with the advent
ofthe New Left and the politics ofliberation. As political science professor Miriam Smith argues:
The new social movements, notably the women's movement, questioned the liberal
dichotomy between public and private spheres, arguing that the personal is political. The
liberal separation ofthe public and private meant that certain issues such as sexuality were
privatized, rendered apolitical, and cast as immutable. 18
Lesbians and gays challenged the supremacy ofthe state at both federal and provincial levels to
disadvantage certain groups on the basis ofsexual orientation.
In Canada, most gay and lesbian groups did not form until after 1969, following the
Stonewall riots. The well-documented events that led up to the riots contributed to an
acceleration ofgay and lesbian liberation movements across North America. On the night of27
June 1969, riot police entered the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar on Christopher Street in Greenwich
16 Gary Kinsman, The Regulation ofDesire: Homo andHetero Sexualities (Montreal:
Black Rose Books, 1996), 230.
17 Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy and Madeline D. Davis, Boots ofLeather, Slippers of
Gold: The History ofa Lesbian Community (New York: Penguin Books, 1994), 2.
18 Miriam Smith, Lesbian and Gay Rights In Canada: Social Movements andEquality­
Seeking, 1971-1995 (Toronto: University ofToronto Press, 1999), 6.
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