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This fonds contains records related to Gay Bell's involvement with the early lesbian movement in Toronto, prisoners' rights activism, labour activism, and women's liberation. Including brochures, pamphlets, flyers, correspondence, buttons, and photographs related to the local instantiation of these movements in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Bell collected alternative publications and periodicals that detail their wider historical context. The fonds also contains scripts, rough notes, photographs, and newspaper articles related to Bell's theatrical performances, which were often innovative and sometimes controversial. When Bell donated these records in 2011, she included explanatory notes that provide detail and context for local events and initiative which have been lost to history. This fonds is thus invaluable for studying the early lesbian movement, queer involvement in labour organizing, prison activism, and the expanding purview of women's liberation in the last decades of the 20th century.
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Ce fonds contient des documents relatifs à l'implication de Gay Bell dans le premier mouvement lesbien à Toronto, le militantisme pour les droits des prisonniers, le militantisme syndical et la libération des femmes. Il comprend des brochures, des dépliants, des prospectus, de la correspondance, des macarons et des photographies liés à l'implantation locale de ces mouvements à la fin des années 1970 et au début des années 1980. Bell a rassemblé des publications et des périodiques alternatifs qui détaillent leur contexte historique plus large. Le fonds contient également des scénarios, des notes brutes, des photographies et des articles de journaux relatifs aux représentations théâtrales de Bell, souvent innovantes et parfois controversées. Lorsque Bell a fait don de ces documents en 2011, elle y a joint des notes explicatives qui fournissent des détails et un contexte pour les événements et les initiatives locales qui ont été perdus dans l'histoire. Ce fonds est donc inestimable pour l'étude des débuts du mouvement lesbien, de l'implication des queers dans l'organisation du travail, de l'activisme en prison et de l'élargissement du champ d'action de la libération des femmes dans les dernières décennies du XXe siècle.

This series contains records related to Gay Bell's plays and performances, including scripts, rough notes, and research material for her one-woman shows and other plays she wrote or performed in. This includes documents related to the following plays: "A Fine Kettle of Fish : Lesbians and Feminists in the Women's Movement," "Pink Triangle Tears, a bawdy political satire," "I am Quilty," "Mother Teresa,"Lesbian Triptych," "The Pink Raygun Show," and more. The series also contains brochures, flyers, and articles related to the queer performing arts scene in Toronto in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and journal articles that address avant garde and participatory theatre.

This series contains records related to Gay Bell's involvement with the lesbian movement in Toronto, such as newsletters, correspondence, pamphlets, brochures, notes, and posters produced by the first lesbian center in Canada, LOOT (Lesbian Organization of Toronto), including the poster for the first ever Dykes March which took place in the late 1970s. This series also contains records related to the first lesbian conferences which were inaugurated in the late 1970s and early 1980s, such as the Bi-National Lesbian Conference, the Lesbian Sexuality Conference, the Ontario Lesbian Conference, and "Coming Together: A Women's Sexuality Conference," among others, and contains documents that highlight prominent women in the Toronto lesbian movement, including Pat Murphy, Holly Devor, Becki Ross, and Naomi Binder-Wall.

This file contains records related to Gay Bell's involvement with LGBTQ+ initiative in the Canadian Union for Public Employees (CUPE) and the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), such as the CUPE Pink Triangle Committee. Bell also collected records related to immigrant workers' rights, cleaners' rights, sex workers' rights, and particularly the labour struggles enacted by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU). Judging by the records, Bell was particularly concerned with the working conditions of women whose labour was socially devalued, such as office and hotel cleaners, nursing attendants, garment workers, and mothers on welfare. The series also contains records related to skills training for women, ESL, and workplace reproductive hazards.

This series contains records related to Gay Bell's involvement with prisoners' rights groups, including the Prisoner's Justice Day Committee, the Commission of Inquiry into Certain Events at Kingston Prison for Women (related to the Arbour Inquiry), the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies, and correspondence between Gay Bell and incarcerated women, such as Yvonne Johnson, whose poetry she helped distribute through the A Space gallery in Toronto. The series also contains newsletters, pamphlets, articles, and newspaper clippings related to women prisoners and political prisoners in North America and the disproportionate number of Indigenous women incarcerated in Canadian prisons.

This file contains miscellaneous records that fall outside the scope of Bell's activism on labour, prison, and lesbian and gay rights but are primarily related to women's rights and women's liberation. Some topics covered include International Women's Day, abortion, violence against women, negative representations of women in arts and culture, women's health, women and poverty, women's psychology, rape and sexual harassment, racism, self-defense, women and the law, education, and public safety. Bell collected newspaper clippings, articles, alternative publications, brochures, pamphlets, flyers, and more.

This series contains records related to the progressive artists' community in Toronto that fall outside the scope of theatre and performance, which are included in their own series. The series includes creative writers, painters, photographers, and filmmakers, among other artists, and covers topics such as the A Space Gallery in Toronto, controversy at the International P.E.N. Conference, writers of colour, Asian Canadian artists, books banning, and writing workshops. Gay Bell also collected publications and periodicals related to art activism and artistic experimentation.

This file contains buttons related to women's rights, abortion, lesbian and gay pride, women's labour, and local activist and/ or artistic initiatives, such as the Company of Sirens, CKLN 88.1 FM, police raids on Toronto gay steam baths, and the Woman's Common. Many of these buttons include explanatory notes by Gay Bell.

This series contains photographs of Gay Bell and her fellow activists, including photographs of performances at Val Fullard's Pink Raygun Show, Lesbian Triptych, and A Fine Kettle of Fish. This series also includes photographs of Gillean Chase, Marcia Cannon, and Maureen Fitzgerald, who were Bell's friends and colleagues in the Toronto lesbian movement and women's liberation movement.

This file contains photographs from Gay Bell's performances, LOOT organizing meetings, and other events.