Presented by Third Theme/PFLAG, the first event of Stonewall 25 was a screening of the 1993 documentary, Queer Son. Directed by Vickie Seitchik, the film includes a series of interviews of parents coming to terms with their children’s sexual orientation.
This event was held at the Planetarium Auditorium on 100 Rupert Ave in downtown Winnipeg, Manitoba on Saturday, June 25, 1994.
In late June 1994, Pride Winnipeg (then known as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Pride) recognized the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion – Stonewall 25. Also know as the Stonewall Riots and the Stonewall Revolution, the Stonewall Rebellion took place in 1969 at the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in New York’s Greenwich Village. Gay bars were frequently and routinely targeted by police raids in the 1960s, and the Stonewall Inn was once again raided on June 28, 1969. Tired of frequent harassment and discrimination, the patrons of the bar resisted the arrests and fought back against the police, sparking several days of protests, demonstrations, and solidarity marches.
Although the Stonewall Rebellion was not the first act of resistance and activism by the gay community, it is widely considered the catalyst for the modern Gender, Sexual, and Relationship Diverse (GSRD) rights movement in North America. With the slogan, “It’s a Riot!” the 1994 Winnipeg GSRD community acknowledged these pivotal riots with numerous events including a march and variety show.
For the perspective of Stonewall, it was really important that when myself [Karen Amirault] and a few other people [including Gloria Enns, Michelle Paquette, and Rob Taylor] started to brainstorm what we would do, we would try and just really put together a historical kind of perspective of what were the events? We could kind of do a staged event of Stonewall and the riot that started there.
In an interview with CPHS founder Jonathan Niemczak, an organizing member of Pride Winnipeg, Karen Amirault, recalls planning the 1994 event:
When you're fighting for rights, the politics are very much front and present. When things have been achieved, that tends to get forgotten. And that's why the history is very important, to say “this is why we were active and why we celebrate it”.
Karen Amirault had been part of Pride Winnipeg since its conception in 1987. She commented on the importance of the Pride movement:
We’re actually doing a historical review for people who weren't around in the days of the 60s, the 70s, the 80s. We really brought in to make a show. And we did it mostly with music and a narrative that was talking about what each of these time periods were doing in terms of being out, being LGBTQ. And people don't realize that the letters weren't there in the acronym, but everybody was there. Everyone that is here today was there in representation.
And we did that show public. The Forks didn't shut down.
Although the 1994 Variety Show was held 25 years after Stonewall, Karen stressed the importance of not only celebrating the anniversary of Stonewall, but everything that came after in the fight for 2SLGBTQ+ rights and representation.
