After bringing Pride to Morley and having the Elders’ include two spirited people I don’t have to worry if someone criticizes me. I just say, “well that’s your colonial mindset way”. We never even had churches back in the day. We were one with the earth and one with the great spirit. Two spirited people were respected people in our culture. We were healers, we were leaders, we were warriors, we were advisors. 

- Argintina Hailey, Wesley First Nation

It meant that I could use my spare time and energy for a cause that I felt had meaning. I was a stay at home mom, I was doing useless, mind numbing housework and this gave me a chance to think, and plan, and contribute. 

We worked on getting a cleaned up, safe place for us all to meet. We built stages, we fixed wiring, signed permits, brought in all the supplies, and kept it running. I was the one free in the day time. The men had jobs. Three of them had jobs where they needed to be really safe so within three months of opening Club Carousel they phased themselves out, they couldn’t risk their names being out. They faded out and I faded in. So Jack worked the door and the bar and I floated and did whatever needed to be done. 

Initially we sold memberships to 20 friends and four people loaned us $100 each to get supplies and pay rent. Opening night had about 25 - 30 people. About 7 years later when I faded out, decided not to run for election, I think we had 670 members

The most pleasurable thing about Club Carousel was all the young people (21+ and over, that was the age of majority at the time) who would come and drop by before opening hours and tell us their problems. We operated as kind of surrogate mothers, hearing their problems. At the time there was no other community or peer support. During those years we had four kids commit suicide and two directors were murdered … What they have at Calgary Outlink now is what Jack and I used to sit and dream about.”

The main thing was that my family and friends came out openly in support. Because the first time I ran [in 2005] I did it in secret. My mom didn’t even know I was a performer. Then eight years down the road my mom is coming to my shows, my stepdad is coming to my shows. That time being crowned in front of my family was the biggest memory for me. I was accepted. 

 

In the festival’s early years, ticket sales and sponsorships funded the entire volunteer run event. This was done in large part to avoid the drama of homophobia in public arts funding that had been happening throughout Alberta in the 1990s.

 

Rick Bell interviewed me for his column in the Calgary Sun and wrote: The fairies are coming and there’s not a hell of a lot you can do or say about it. After all, they’re not spending your money. Pink dollars are paying the freight.”

 

The only way to be accepted in the gay community in Calgary is to lose weight. This is not unique to Calgary. Weight shaming occurs in other cities across Canada. However, Calgary is the worst city to stereotype other members.

 

Most of the intimidation was not physically threatening, it was the psychological stuff. One drag queen told me I should not talk because I was not as good looking as the others. Other gays would question if I had the right to talk to people who were better looking.

I came to Calgary in 1991 from the UK. The turning point for me was opening a bed and breakfast that catered to the gay community. That was 24 years ago and it is still operating. It has been an interesting 24 years, how the values change. 

The first time in Gay bar – the backlot. Someone chaperoned me into the bar.  About 30 minutes after I started in there the place was raided by the fire department.