On Our Own Terms responds to a notable absence of material on the experiences of queer and trans femmes in existing LGBTQ2+ histories and archives by exploring femme identity, experience, cultural production, and community-building in 1990s Toronto. During the 1990s, for a variety of cultural and historical reasons, Toronto was an epicentre for dialogue around queer femme culture and identity, and for diverse femme cultural production and political organizing. On Our Own Terms explores the proliferation of queer and trans femme politics and culture in 1990s Toronto through the collection of archival materials – posters, flyers, newspaper clippings, photographs – and close to 50 oral history interviews with 26 queer and trans femme narrators.  

 These femme narratives reveal a complex history of queer and trans femme experiences and an explosion of femme public culture in the last analog decade, an era referred to by some as “the second lesbian revolution” (Sides, 2009) and the second decade of “neo-butch/femme” sexual culture (Faderman, 1992). On Our Own Terms documents this decade from the perspective of queer and trans femmes living in Toronto at that time through a permanent archive of oral history interviews and a digital exhibition at The ArQuives: Canada’s LGBTQ2+ Archives.

We will be launching the in-person and digital exhibitions on September 24, 2026. The in-person exhibition will be held at The ArQuives from September 24 - October 18, 2026.

More details coming soon!

Credits

Principal Investigator: Chloë Brushwood Rose

Co-Investigator: Andi Schwartz

Collaborator: Raegan Swanson, Executive Director, The ArQuives

This project is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and conducted in collaboration with The ArQuives: Canada’s LGBTQ2+ Archives.