NOGLO

Posted on 30 September 202230 September 2022 by Vernon Museum

A view down a street over the rooftops of houses. A green hillside is visible in the background. A double rainbow is also visible, with the bottom one being much stronger and the top one quite faint. — View of a double rainbow over the rooftops of Vernon’s Foothills development in 2014. Photo by F. Arseneault.

LGBTQ+ History Month

October is LGBTQ+ History Month in Canada, the United States, and Australia. Meanwhile, one local organization that fought against discrimination of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community members was the North Okanagan Gay and Lesbian Organization (NOGLO).

Socializing without fear

NOGLO was founded by Arne Kirkeby and his partner Chris, who arrived in Vernon in the 1990s. They wanted to become part of a community, and so through word-of-mouth organized a dance with other LGBTQ+ couples. The event provided a place for Vernonites to socialize without fear and was a major success, with around 300 attendees. More events would follow in the coming years.

In 2013, NOLGO embarked on a number of projects to raise funds for community events, including a garage sale and the production of a business directory. These projects helped support events like a Halloween Howl later that year, hosted in memory of Chris and other NOGLO members who had passed away. Prizes were offered for the most creative individual and group costumes.

YouthGlo

Brian Webb, a former North Okanagan resident and board member of NOGLO, received the People Choice’s award in the 2012 competition of Mr. Gay Canada. Webb also served as a peer counsellor at YouthGlo, an organization dedicated to helping LGBTQ+ youth in the North Okanagan. In 2013, he founded HomoCulture, a leading online resource that attempts to increase awareness of the interests and values of the LGBTQ+ community across North America.

As for NOGLO, the organization later disbanded, but others have emerged to fill its void, including the Vernon Pride Community who worked tirelessly to host their first Pride event earlier this year. Two former NOGLO members, Dawn Tucker and Susan Armstrong, alongside Madeline Terbasket, will present how the lived experiences of the historically underrepresented 2SLGBTQIA+ community can have more Pride in Place in local museums, archives and other cultural institutions at the Vernon Museum on October 13. Click here to learn more.

To explore more of Vernon’s history, check out our other blog posts!

Gwyneth Evans, Research and Communications Coordinator

Preserving LGBTQ2SIA+ History

Posted on 10 June 202217 August 2022 by Vernon Museum

Happy Pride!

One area of historical underrepresentation within the Vernon Archives is that of the LGBTQ2SIA+ community; few, if any, records relating to their lived experiences can be found among the archives’ many stacks of papers and shelves of books. For several months, museum staff have wondered how to correct this representational gap so that Vernon’s historical record may more fully represent the city’s diverse population.

It was within this context that the museum came to make contact with Donna Langille, the Community Engagement Librarian at UBC’s Okanagan Campus, who hosts a podcast that seeks to address this very lack of LGBTQ2SIA+ records and resources within cultural heritage institutions in the Okanagan.

A Podcast with a mission

The Okanagan QueerStory podcast began as a response to many of the same limitations the museum is facing today; when Langille and her research partner, Taysha Jarett, were awarded funding through the 2020 Public Humanities Hub Okanagan Impact Awards, they originally intended to create an exhibit of local LGBTQ2SIA+ artifacts and collectibles to highlight the Queer history of the Okanagan. However, they quickly faced a lack of representational records, and even after items were secured through a call-out to the public, the COVID-19 pandemic halted the exhibit from opening.

Langille and Jarett decided to turn to podcasting to continue with their project in a pandemic-safe format. Three episodes have been published so far, with each providing an open and honest discussion around topics such as homophobia, isolation, self-worth, acceptance, and unity.

Stories Neglected

Langille believes that it is important to share and preserve the histories of the Queer community in the Okanagan because these stories have historically been, and in many cases continue to be, silenced, censored, ignored, or neglected. Communities benefit when they can see themselves and their identities reflected in public spaces, including cultural heritage institutions like museums and archives.

The Okanagan QueerStory podcast, a community-led project, is one approach to amplifying Queer stories and voices, in the hope of being able to contribute to a shared sense of history among the Queer community in the Okanagan. It is the work of individuals like Langille and Jarett that will allow the Vernon Archives and other cultural institutions to become more reflective of the entire communities they serve.