2 generations of Sask. LGBTQ community reflect on history and the future

Being a lesbian didn't occur to Jean Dudley until university, when she took a women's studies class that also happened to be taught by someone who identified as such.

It was the 1970s, and Dudley says she also "came out" as a feminist. She recalls the LGBTQ and feminist rights movements converging. 

Five decades later, Thios Mwunvaneza is studying the very history Dudley lived through. A psychology student at the University of Saskatchewan, he's enrolled in an interdisciplinary certificate program focused on queer theory, gender diversity and sexuality. Mwunvaneza, who is transgender, believes that young people should learn about the thriving LGBTQ communities that have existed in Canada for decades. 

Meanwhile, Dudley, an artist and retired teacher who lives in Saskatoon, says although the issues affecting LGBTQ youth today are different from those she experienced, they are just as valid. 

To explore the past, present and future of LGBTQ communities in Canada, CBC News organized a conversation between four members of the queer community in Saskatchewan. Joining Dudley and Mwunvaneza were Dave Burgoyne, a retired man who lives with his husband in Saskatoon, and LJ Tyson, a Cree and Métis musician living in Prince Albert, Sask., who identifies as two-spirit.

WATCH | Participants describe their coming out experiences:

Tyson is a country music artist who has been vocal in the past about the lack of diversity in the genre. He remembers his band being asked to perform at Pride in Prince Albert a few years ago, before he had come out publicly. Seeing the 2SLGBTQIA+ acronym displayed throughout the city made him feel at home.

WATCH | Dudley asks how comfortable Tyson is being out about his sexuality now:

Mwunvaneza says he values being surrounded by friends who are also part of the LGBTQ community. 

But in this conversation, Dudley identified an issue that some LGBTQ people begin to face as they age. She says long-term care homes can be isolating places where homophobic attitudes can affect care.

WATCH | Dudley explains why some queer seniors go back in the closet:

Some organizations are tackling these issues by creating housing specifically for LGBTQ seniors, such as the Rainbow Resource Centre in Winnipeg. Research is also being conducted into queer seniors' experiences. Queer Seniors of Saskatchewan launched one such study last spring.

As Dudley focuses on seniors' rights, Burgoyne's current form of 'activism' takes place close to home: he and his husband simply try to "be ourselves in the mainstream of society." 

It's a much different pace than Burgoyne's involvement with AIDS Saskatoon in the 1980s. Today, people can live long, healthy lives after being diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. That wasn't always the case. The disease has killed hundreds of thousands of gay and bisexual men since that decade.