Canadian Resources

 

Affectional orientation/identity

 

Warner, Tom (2002).  Never Going Back: A History of Queer Activism

          in Canada.  Toronto: University of Toronto Press.  ISBN 0-80208-

          460-5.

 

According to reviewer Richard Burnett at amazon.com, “Tom Warner, one of Canada's leading gay activists, documents Canada's gay and lesbian civil rights movement in the comprehensive and highly readable Never Going Back. The book is divided into three parts: the first about gay life up to 1975; the second chronicling the gay liberation movement's 1975-1984 golden era of activism; and the third part charting the contemporary mainstreaming of gay life. Warner contends there is still much to accomplish, and that gay Canadians can better shape their future if they understand their past. In 13 scholarly chapters--each thoroughly researched and footnoted--he concludes that gay liberation is not a spent movement. Chapters explore the roots of oppression within the Canadian family structure; racial identities and racism within Canada's overwhelmingly white gay communities; and how AIDS radicalized gay activism and politics. Warner writes, "Fundamentally, lesbian and gay liberation has been about changing self-image. Like all victimized groups, bisexuals, lesbians and gays have had to tackle how they see themselves in order, in turn, to change how others see them.... Changing a few laws and achieving tolerance are necessary, but insufficient in themselves to achieve fundamental social change." Though Warner could have focused more on the gay-rights movement in French Quebec, Never Going Back is an essential primer on gay rights in Canada and a tribute to the mostly forgotten forebearers of Canada's gay and lesbian liberation movement.”

 

Johnston, Dawn E. B.  Spatial In(queer)ies: Queer Space as Queer Voice in

Calgary.

 

Gender identity/orientation

 

Namaste, Viviane (2000).  Invisible Lives: The Erasure of Transsexual

          and Transgendered People.  Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

          ISBN 0-22656-810-5.

 

From a reviewer at amazon.com, “Invisible Lives is the first scholarly study of transgendered people--cross-dressers, drag queens and transsexuals--and their everyday lives.  Through combined theoretical and empirical study, Viviane K. Namaste argues that transgendered people are not so much produced by medicine or psychiatry as they are erased, or made invisible, in a variety of institutional and cultural settings. Namaste begins her work by analyzing two theoretical perspectives on transgendered people--queer theory and the social sciences--displaying how neither of these has adequately addressed the issues most relevant to sex change: everything from employment to health care to identity papers. Namaste then examines some of the rhetorical and semiotic inscriptions of transgendered figures in culture, including studies of early punk and glam rock subcultures, to illustrate how the effacement of transgendered people is organized in different cultural sites. Invisible Lives concludes with new research on some of the day-to-day concerns of transgendered people, offering case studies in violence, health care, gender identity clinics, and the law.”

 

From a Canadian reviewer:  First, this is one of the few volumes I've read where the situation of transgenderists/transsexuals in Canada is explored with a certain depth. The third part of the book (Research) is invaluable.

 

Thanks to Dr. Namaste, we have an overview of the situation of TG/TS people with respect to:

 

Violence: Chapter 6, Genderbashing, focuses on the situation of TG sex-workers in Montral and how they're related to the gay communities by the police -basically, how they are erased from view in statistics and studies;

 

Access to government programs in Canada: Chapter 7, Access Denied, deals with the policies of the GIC of the Clark Institute of Psychiatry in Toronto -how in the screening process and help system the input of the TS hirself is ignored (only three GIC clinics in Canada can recommend a person for government-sponsored SRS: in Toronto, Montral and Vancouver);

 

Treatment of TS/TG people in these clinics: Chapter 8, Clinical Research or Community Health? -this chapter mainly delves into the way GICs are seen by the people receiving or who have received services at them at some point, in this sense it is a first;

 

The bureaucracy trap and how it influences care: Chapter 9, The Administration of Erasure -again centred on HIV/AIDS as a problem among TG sex workers in Qubec, although the difficulties in dealing with the system are also explored.

 

Overall, this book is a must for any serious researcher and transsexuals/transgenderists living in Canada. The theories in the book itself (after all, Dr. Namaste is a semiotist with training in sociology) come across as rather vague and not well-founded on the research presented, in my opinion. Even so, it is a good starting point for future research.

 

Multiple areas of marginalization/oppression in Canada

 

Sherry Devereaux Ferguson (ed.), Leslie Regan Shade (ed.)

Book Code: AB5961

ISBN: 1-56750-596-1

DOI: DOI:10.1336/1567505961

328 pages, photos, tables

Ablex Publishing

 

According to a reviewer at amazon.com, “No previous volume has collected as interesting and broad a collection of essays on Canadian discourse and culture. This volume of representative case studies reflects the Canadian experience in terms of discourse, society, and public culture, linking its discussions to larger political and social issues and theories. Topics include:

  • Constitutional controversies
  • Cultural sovereignty
  • Feminist voices
  • Globalization
  • Internet issues
  • Marginalized communities
  • Nationalism
  • Nativity

Multidisciplinary perspectives from a mix of established and emerging Canadian studies scholars converge in a highly readable, engaging, and unique book that offers a distinctive portrait of a nation not nearly as well understood as its proximity to the United States might suggest.”