LGBTQ youth learn about the movement and find a community
It was 1964. A decade had passed since Brown v. Board of Education put an end to legal segregation in U.S. schools and less than a year since Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech. Within months Malcolm X would be dead.
They were called Freedom Schools. Forty-one were scattered throughout Mississippi attracting some 3000 African-American students. Black history poetry voter literacy and non-violence were some of the subjects taught by the volunteers. Historian author and activist Howard Zinn later wrote that the makeshift classes served as a “provocative suggestion that an entire school system can be created in any community outside the official order….”
It’s 2013. A decade and a bit has gone by since the infamous Calgary police raid on Goliath’s bathhouse and almost eight years since Canada’s Civil Marriage Act passed. Two years ago Naheed Nenshi led the Gay Pride parade — a first for a Calgary mayor.
It’s called Camp fYrefly. Founded in Edmonton in 2004 and expanded to Saskatchewan five summers later the retreat has finally landed in the Calgary area — well Cochrane to be exact. Queer history spoken word media literacy and advocacy are a few of the many workshop options available to the 50-some campers who attend each iteration. Co-founder Kris Wells describes fYrefly as a “critical prevention and intervention site.”
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Camp fYrefly is in every sense a modernized Freedom School vigilantly countering oppression through education. It has evolved a particularly effective approach over the years. Each camp runs for four days. The registration cost is a pay-what-you-can fee upwards from $25 which is enough to ensure commitment but not too much to deter. If necessary the fee is waived. Anyone between the ages of 14 and 24 can be a camper.
Participants are divided into pods of eight to 10 kids. Two youth leaders are paired with each group. A volunteer over the age of 25 mentors the youth leaders. In addition to the dozens of 90-minute workshops talent shows games and outdoor activities are like at any summer camp aplenty. An artist-in-residence — Antyx Community Arts for Calgary’s camp — facilitates the opening and closing ceremonies as well as leading four workshops.
If only a present-day camp for LGBTQ adolescents didn’t have to be modelled after a Jim Crow-era pedagogical experiment. But let’s get real. Bill 44 hasn’t been discarded and school trustees say things like “it would be helpful” if non-hetero kids appeared less gay. Rob Anders and Bishop Fred Henry are doing their anti-queer things. The phrase “conscience rights” continues to hold terrifying relevance. The inspiration is tragically appropriate.
“It really is a citizenship school” describes Kris Wells the co-founder of the annual camp and associate director of the University of Alberta’s Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services (which runs fYrefly). “Here in Alberta we’re still accounting for a K-12 curriculum that has no connection anywhere in it to sexual orientation or gender identity. These young people aren’t getting their history or learning about the LGBT movement.”
Calgary has been on the Institute’s radar as an area to grow into for years. It’s a simple numbers game for one — all the upcoming camps are already overcapacity. But even more pressing was the geography. Some fYrefly campers have never actually seen another gay person until the retreat. Rural communities can do that to a kid. Right-wing religious backgrounds often intensify that isolation. The Calgary region has plenty of both.
“There’s still a lot of fundamentalism and conservatism in Southern Alberta and we’ve encountered that” Wells says. “As Camp fYrefly has moved into the area the barriers have come up. It tells us how needed this work is. I get hate mail. I get death threats. Imagine me getting that in the mail and how much worse it is for these young people.”
We’ve all heard the atrocious stats. Three-quarters of trans students have been verbally bullied. Twenty-one per cent of LGBTQ students have been physically harassed or assaulted. Almost two-thirds of non-hetero kids feel unsafe at school. Egale Canada Human Rights Trust which conducted the national survey of 3700 students recommended anti-bullying policies. In November the Alberta School Boards Association voted against that exact thing.
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Elise Hessel helps lead the gay-straight alliance (GSA) at William Aberhart High School where she says bullying has been minimal and the administration amicable. The 16-year-old has attended fYrefly for the past two years taking workshops on everything from advocacy to starting a GSA to songwriting with the artist-in-residence Kate Reid. In the future she wants to be a youth leader at fYrefly and an adult volunteer when she’s too old for that.
“fYrefy’s taught me more about the gay community and its history” Hessel says. “If I was to ever encounter problems or if there’s someone just experiencing coming out I would be able to help them with that coach them through it and teach them things. It’s great just being able to learn things have fun and be in a safe and inclusive environment for four days.”
Shelby Robinson’s high school experience was similar to Hessel’s. Her time at Dr. E.P. Scarlett was largely positive although she knew classmates who were harassed. Word about fYrefly came through her best friend’s grandparents; the 18-year-old jokes that they signed up to have an excuse to hang out with lesbians. Self-defence and being queer in the workforce were two of the workshops she took. Robinson also wants to return as a leader.
“At the start you don’t know what to say or how to act and you’re scared that people are going to judge you” she says. “But by the time you leave it’s like a big family and you can say whatever you want. When I went to camp I had a lot going on in my life and things were really really hard. People gave me a lot of advice at camp so when I came home I changed a lot of things. Things changed for the better.”
Wells notes that such accounts are common; he’s been told by campers that fYrefly has literally saved their lives. James Demers a former camper who’s hosting five workshops at the upcoming Calgary retreat explains that fYrefly features a tremendous diversity of backgrounds ensuring a uniquely welcoming situation for youth. Juliet Burgess a local queer activist emphasizes that fYrefly is an “invaluable experience” for queer kids.
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The significance of fYrefly is recognized by many. Nick Moore the program co-ordinator of Calgary’s fYrefly says that people have begun to cry when he’s told them about it. Youth living in and everywhere between Cambodia France and New Zealand call and email about the camp. Donations arrive from all over the world. The dozens of workshop facilitators and adult and youth leaders volunteer their time. Many use vacation time to be there.
One of those people is Jayme Fischer a 24-year-old graduate from the University of Lethbridge. She heard about fYrefly a few years ago through Pretty Witty and Gay an annual cabaret in Lethbridge that was raising money for the camp. Last year she volunteered as a youth leader at the Edmonton fYrefly. It was her first experience working with LGBTQ youth but she reports that it was a life-altering four days: “It felt like I made a really big impact.”
And then there’s the money part. The registration fee is remarkably low for a reason: donations grant money and sponsors cover the difference. It costs about $1000 per participant including facility rental travel bursaries a small honorarium for the artists-in residence and outdoor programming (both rafting and hiking are planned). Affirming church communities are paying for cooking and serving most of the food.
“It’s all done through volunteer contributions and donations” says Moore who’s previously served as an adult mentor at the camp. “When you work with a community of people like that — all carrying this positive caring compassionate energy — it’s really exciting. The whole reason that the camp’s successful is because of the volunteers and the generosity of these people to support marginalized youth.”
Wells and the rest of the Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services are banking on the continued generosity of supporters in coming months and years. The Institute is currently fundraising for $5 million largely to take fYrefly across the country. Ontario is being eyed as the next location. It’ll be a national camp within a few years if everything goes as planned. There’s no shortage of need.
Resources and supports for LGBTQ community:
• Calgary Outlink (peer support phone line and resource room)
• Miscellaneous Youth Network (hosts youth events and produces drag shows)
• Fairy Tales Queer Film Festival (library of queer videos for free with a membership)
• Calgary Queer History Project (blog run by Kevin Allen)
• Third Street Theatre (queer theatre company in Calgary)
• Trans Equality Society of Alberta
• Hot Mess (monthly queer dance party)
• Gay Calgary
• Hillhurst United Church (monthly meetings and film screenings)
