• Rainbow Story Hub
• June 15, 2023
• 0 Comments
• 4 minutes Read

Relight The Neon

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Mark Scheuer working restoring the Flashback neon sign in the workshop of City Neon PHOTO BY Peter Hays/Tangerine Productions Historic Edmonton Gay Bar Sign Joins Neon Sign Museum Edmonton – June 15, 2023 “Never in the history of the 2SLGBTQ+ community in Edmonton have we ever had such a visible, prominent and permanent display of our community” says Ron Byers, Director of the Rainbow Story Hub Foundation. “Come out and listen to some great disco supplied by Flashback’s own DJ Mikee (Michael Brennan), hear from the man behind it all – John Reid and cheer with…

• Ron Byers
• May 24, 2023
• 0 Comments
• 5 minutes Read

Partying with Ike & Tina in 1976

Seeing Tina Turner that night at the Edmonton Gardens in 1976 still remains one of the biggest highlights of my lifetime. I was a young 21 year old when I had a chance to “run away with the circus”. I was asked to join a traveling drag show called the Fantasy Follies as their sound and lighting technician. What a chance to go way past my shyness and fears and live in hotel rooms travelling across Canada with a group of amazing Drag performers. We often played in Edmonton at the Corona Hotel but travelled from Prince George, B.C…

• Rainbow Story Hub
• April 9, 2023
• 0 Comments
• 1 minute Read

A Flashback to Flashback

History of Edmonton’s Gay Bars, Part 2: A Flashback to Flashback Author Ron Byers and Rob Browatzke | September 30, 2020 The impact Flashback had on relations between LBGTQ people and straight people was enormous. With LGBTQ members bringing friends to the club (many of them straight), Edmonton’s young adult crowd was quickly changing their opinions on how they viewed the LGBTQ community. As John Reid says, “How better to get to know people than to party together and feel safe? We were proud of [Flashback] becoming a melting pot of differences that found harmony.”  To read this story on the Edmonton City As…

• Ron Byers
• March 27, 2023
• 0 Comments
• 9 minutes Read

Cruising at The Pig

Cruising for sex in the late 60’s and early 70’s was an experience that seems seedy and dangerous by today’s standards but at the time when there were no protected spaces for gay men to connect with each other they had to carve out their own places at local businesses that were willing to allow gay men to gather as long as some discretion was used. The Pig N Whistle Lunch Room was one of those places. Located at 10548 Jasper Avenue, it opened around 1938 and was bought by local businessman Henry Wener in 1942. During the many…

• Rainbow Story Hub
• March 11, 2023
• 0 Comments
• 1 minute Read

ISCWR Ball Program Archive

This collection features digitized copies of the Imperial Sovereign Court of the Wild Rose Coronation Ball Programs. The Edmonton Queer History Project has been working with the University of Alberta Library & MacEwan University Library to support free and public access to important items of historical significance to Edmonton’s 2SLGBTQ+ communities.  The collection is preserved on Archive.org and is accessible to anyone. Please click the link below to access the ISCWR Collection. The Imperial Sovereign Court of the Wild Rose’s mission is to raise funds, through activities by the ISCWR, for charities and other organizations which either provides direct services to the…

• Matthew Hays
• January 13, 2023
• 0 Comments
• 15 minutes Read

Making weird waves: on a crest

In 1972 independent film maker John Waters released a film called Pink Flamingos. The film featured a three hundred pound star, then virtually unknown. The character was ‘Divine — the most disgusting person in the world’. The film played repertory cinemas across North America and eventually Europe and Waters and Divine both gained notoriety for their work. The final scene was particularly noteworthy: in order to prove his title as the most disgusting person in the world, Divine picks up still steaming dog feces and eats it. A star is born.

• Matthew Hays
• January 13, 2023
• 0 Comments
• 6 minutes Read

Divine Memories: The Day I Met The Superstar Entertainer

Watching “I am Divine”, the feature-length documentary about the late legendary performer, I was struck with a powerful, overwhelming sense of nostalgia.

My mind raced back to the very first celebrity interview I ever did. It was 1986, and I was an undergraduate student at the University of Alberta, in Edmonton, Canada, struggling to find my way through a liberal arts degree. Back then, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my life, but I knew I was fascinated with gay politics and culture and I loved movies.

• Ron Byers
• November 24, 2022
• 0 Comments
• 3 minutes Read

Dr. Charles Bidwell

Reverend Charles Bidwell, PhD was an ordained minister with the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) in Edmonton beginning in 1978 and was active in advocating for the LGBT community

• Rob Browatzke
• November 23, 2022
• 1 Comments
• 6 minutes Read

It may be hard for many of you to imagine…

The year was 2003. I had recently left my job as “Towel Boy / Promotions” for Down Under Baths and was uncertain what my future would look like. My friend Michael Brown and I started talking about a queer magazine.

• Rob Browatzke
• August 9, 2022
• 0 Comments
• 9 minutes Read

Murray Billett

When thinking of the Edmonton gay scene, and the people most heavily involved with it, few names come to mind faster than Murray Billett. From work on political campaigns and challenges to discriminatory laws, to his work with the Edmonton Police Service, Murray Billett’s career has helped transform our community, making it a safer, fairer, and juster place.

• Michael Phair
• July 30, 2022
• 0 Comments
• 5 minutes Read

Maureen Irwin – Fierce Lesbian

An ‘out’ Lesbian in the 1980’s, Maureen Irwin was considered fierce and to be reckoned with! At a time when there were very few members of Edmonton’s queer community who were out, Maureen was a strong proud mother, grandmother and Lesbian!

Within the queer community Maureen became an active volunteer assisting GATE (Gay Alliance Toward Equality) as it moved and set up an office and services in the downtown. She also actively worked with and assisted Womonspace, a Lesbian volunteer organization.

• Ian Brown
• May 17, 2022
• 1 Comments
• 7 minutes Read

Gender Journey – You Never Stop Coming Out

My ‘gender journey’ has not been very linear. First I found out what transgender was, and then I went into denial. Then I figured out that being a girl was not going to work, so I said ‘okay, what if I say I’m genderfluid?’ because committing to being 100% a boy was too much commitment.

• Dustin Scott
• May 12, 2022
• 0 Comments
• 1 minute Read

Dustin Scott Talks Queer History – Episode 2

In this audio podcast Episode Dustin talks with Rainbow Story Hub founder Ron Byers in Part Two. Topics featured in this episode are:
The origins of the Pride Festival in Edmonton and the impacts of the Stonewall riots. What is was like to be a gay man in the 80’s when the HIV virus first came on the scene. The origins of the AIDS Network of Edmonton and its transition to HIV Edmonton. His own struggles as a long term AIDS Survivor and the health challenges he faces. How drag queens and the Imperial Sovereign Court of the Wild Rose stepped up to the challenges of raising money for AIDS research and patient care at a time when government funding was non-existent.

• Dustin Scott
• April 30, 2022
• 0 Comments
• 1 minute Read

Dustin Scott Talks Queer History – Part 1

This podcast will discuss several sites on Edmonton’s Queer History Map with Rainbow Story Hub co-founder Ron Byers. Ron shares his perspective as both someone that lived it and as a historian.

• Ron Byers
• March 30, 2022
• 0 Comments
• 7 minutes Read

Edmonton’s Pride Celebration History

Pride is the most visible symbol of the global movement for 2SLGBTQ+ equality, celebrating progress, affirming the existence of 2SLGBTQ+ people, and demanding recognition of their basic human rights.

Pride celebrations are individual and different in every country around the world and many are structured on their individual histories. Change happens at different speeds and degrees and is often done at local levels. Pride is a reflection of each community individually.