Here and queer in Vancouver : queer poetry, small presses, and lesbian and gay liberation movements

As LGBTQ2+ activists reflect upon the beginnings of lesbian and gay liberation movements, this dissertation brings histories about Canadian queer activism into dialogue with Canadian literary studies examining small presses’ cultural activism. Though queer historians have begun to recognize the importance of queer literature to lesbian and gay liberation movements, this dissertation’s analysis of Vancouver’s blewointment press and Press Gang Publishers investigates how these presses influenced queer counterpublics. By examining how these small presses generated queer-friendly collectives, produced radical poetry, and developed do-it-yourself methods of circulating their works, I demonstrate how blewointment press and Press Gang contributed to the advancement of lesbian and gay liberation movements in Vancouver. This dissertation builds on a recent body of scholarship that has identified how small presses engendered spaces for community building as well as radical research and literary production. Moreover, it responds to a nascent body of scholarship that has hinted at the importance of blewointment press and Press Gang Publishers to gay and lesbian liberation movements, respectively. To do so, this research project asks: how and to what extent did the presses contribute to lesbian and gay liberation movements? Though doing so was dangerous, why did these collectives embrace the stigma tied to queer forms of sexuality by producing radical queer poetry? In what ways did these small presses reach their readers and how were they affected by these works? What are these small presses’ legacies? By drawing on LGBTQ studies, queer theory, and feminist theory as well as by focusing on the concept of the “public,” this project examines the presses’ works, archival records, and oral histories to argue that they contributed to lesbian and gay liberation movements and to the formation of queer counterpublics and reading communities in Vancouver. Moreover, since scholars have critiqued these movements for being historically dominated by white, middle-class, men, I consider how blewointment and Press Gang might reflect and challenge these movements’ limitations. Overall, this project brings attention to Vancouver’s earlier queer cultural activism to reignite debate about these small presses’ ongoing importance for current LGBTQ2+ activists.Creative and Critical Studies, Faculty of (Okanagan)Graduat