Looking back to the 1998 Queer issue

Anabella McElroy Coordinating Editor

While putting together this issue, we decided to take a look back at how Pride has been represented in The Ubyssey in years past.

One piece we found was a paper published on February 5, 1998 coordinated by Pride UBC — that year’s Pride issue.

The editors wrote that they hoped the issue would give readers “some insight into the harships we, as a community and as people, must deal with.”

25 years on, reading that issue was a blast from the past (a young Ellen on the cover, references to nightclubs that don’t exist anymore), while also a stark reminder that the struggles of the Queer community at UBC back then are not all that different than those of today.

This page includes snippets of the full issue, which you can find online in the UBC Library Open Collections archive of The Ubyssey.

Some excerpts contain slurs and outdated terminology describing 2SLGBTQIA+ people. They have been printed unchanged from the original issue to preserve the historical record. U

One article highlighted efforts to create a Lesbian and Gay studies minor. Today, students can major or minor in gender, race, sexuality and social justice (GRSJ), or minor in critical studies in sexuality.

In March 2023, 25 years after the article above was published, the Chiliwack RCMP investigated books in school libraries containing 2SLGBTQIA+ and anti-racist content, responding to complaints from a far-right conspiracy group.

24 years before our 2022 spoof issue Girlbossmopolitan debuted its ‘Are You Straight’ quiz, the Heterosexual Questionnaire poked fun at homophobic tropes.

Other articles highlighted intersectionality within the Queer community, specifically Queer people of colour. The ‘Queer among Queers’ article concludes with a call to action.

“As with the problem of racism and homophobia there is no fast solution. What is needed is a deconstruction of the discriminatory standards tahat are deeply entrenched in society. This task is grand, and the first step is to recognize that there is a problem. Bigotry feeds on denial.”