A man named Kelvin Allen journeys to uncover some stories from the past about the LGBTQ community. He is Calgary Gay History Project’s founder and he seeks to tell buried stories from the past.
He started last 2012, when he came to ask himself about gay people, what they do and where they hang out during the 1970s. His dad claims to have known some gay men hanging out at Palliser Hotel that has an underground club.
Homosexuals were penalized during the early times until the submission of the 1969 Bill C-150. For that reason, the community had to keep their stories hidden for many years.
Allen’s goal was to enliven those stories and preserve them. The stories that he has brought back to life now appear on his project’s website: calgarygayhistory.ca. It has several articles about the pride parade in the 1960s.
Moreover, in 2019, he published the book “Our Past Matters” and in that year the project became part of the list of the Community Programming linked to the Governor General’s History Award for Excellence. According to Allen, the project brought relief and happiness to the gay community. The stories freely coming out gave joy to most people.