Our History

Rainbow Story Hub began its journey sharing Edmonton’s Queer History in February of 2020. When the Edmonton Heritage Council‘s Edmonton City As Museum Project reached out looking for someone to write a story sharing the history of the Imperial Sovereign Court of the Wild Rose (ISCWR) they were directed to Ron Byers who was a founding member of the organization and had a passion for our communities history.

In addition to writing the History of the Imperial Sovereign Court of the Wild Rose (ISCWR) with Rob Browatzke they also wrote a 6 part series on the History of Edmonton’s Gay Bars.

It felt time to take recording our history to the next level and the first online presence of Rainbow Story Hub project began with Ron and Rob sharing duties in bringing our history to light. During the summer of 2021 they put together an Advisory Committee to help guide the project in defining what direction it would take and bring its identity to align with the new mandate of telling stories from the perspective of those who lived it. The committee included Marni Panas, Micheal Phair, Darrin Hagen, Liz Massiah and Anita Jenson.

Later that summer our committee met with the Royal Alberta Museum to explore ways we could cooperate in developing their LGBTQ+ artifact collection for a new Museum display potentially in a few years.

In the Fall of 2022 we decided to position the project for future funding and grant opportunities so it was registered as an Alberta Not For Profit Society and adopted its new formal name of Rainbow Story Hub Foundation.

Also in the Fall of 2022 Ron Byers attended the City Council’s Budget Hearings planning their new 4 year budget and requested City Council to provide additional funding to the City of Edmonton Archives to hire and additional Archivist dedicated to processing the backlog of LGBTQ+ donations that had been in storage for many years. Councillor Anne Stevenson made the motion which passed by a vote of 10-3.

We now work directly with the City of Edmonton Archives on a new and unique Sexual and Gender Diversity Archives Advisory Committee.

We actively seek folks to share their stories which can bring the history of the Edmonton Queer community to life for future generations. Share your story or the story of someone you know.