Making A Scene by Liz Millward

In the 1960s, a youthful and ambitious lesbian movement began taking shape in Canada. After decades of being pathologized, disparaged, or erased from public view, lesbians were ready to make a scene - both by calling attention to themselves and by creating places to come together and forge their own culture. Making a Scene documents how this unfolded, visiting the spaces lesbians created across rural and urban Canada, from physical locations, such as bars, bookstores, and members' clubs, to ephemeral sites, such as conferences, festivals, and protest marches. Enriched with interviews, this volume captures the exuberance and challenges of this transformational period.

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Review
Starting in the mid-1960s, Canadian lesbians started leaving their closets en masse to find each other and build community. After decades of having their sexuality pathologized, disparaged, or erased from public view, these young women were ready to make a scene – both by bringing attention to themselves in order to challenge prevailing stereotypes and by creating physical spaces and opportunities for lesbians to get together.

Making a Scene documents the lesbian movement that developed in Canada between 1964 and 1984. Not just a story of big-city life, it chronicles the spaces lesbians created across rural and urban Canada, from physical locations – such as lesbian and gay centres, drop-ins at women's centres, communal houses, bookstores, bars, cafés, and private members' clubs – to the ephemeral sites women travelled to in order to meet each other – such as conferences, workshops, festivals, and Dykes in the Streets marches.

Enriched by interviews and a wealth of primary sources, including diaries, letters, newsletters, reports, and minutes, Making a Scene brings to life the exuberance of these young women and the challenges they faced during this transformational period in Canadian history. It consolidates existing work, introduces new research and insights, and is bound to inspire future studies of lesbian geographies.

Review

'Liz Millward's thesis is at once simple and highly original: the lesbian 'scene' was created by movement, the movement of lesbians toward each other. . . . This book is also a rare example of a lesbian historical geography at the national scale. It will appeal to a wide array of readers in gender and sexuality studies and others interested in LGBTQ histories.'―Julie Podmore, socio-cultural urban geographer and professor of geosciences, John Abbott College
'This book pushes forward new insights and opens up new understandings of lesbian geographies. It offers fresh perspectives on how spaces and places were constructed and utilized, making a vital new contribution to scholarship. It will serve as a catalyst, inspiring scholars in other countries to think geographically about lesbian lives and communities.'―Andrew Gorman-Murray, senior lecturer of geography and urban studies, University of Western Sydney