Drag artist queers Centretown’s history in walking tours [Video]

If you’re walking through Centretown over the next few weekends, you might run into a glitter-covered cowboy.

Drag artist Morgan Mercury began hosting walking tours of Ottawa’s downtown in early April to highlight the stories behind its 2SLGBTQ+ landmarks and historic spaces.

Beginning and ending in Dundonald Park, the tours explore prominent activist figures and the development of Ottawa’s queer nightlife.

They also focus on the history of a more than 40-year campaign to purge federal public servants from their positions if they were suspected of being 2SLGBTQ+. 

The walks were developed as part of the Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity’s Unpacking the LGBT Purge Youth Summit in March.

Notable landmarks on the route include the former residence of Igor Gouzenko, a Cold War whistleblower whose actions are considered one of the decisive moments that made sexuality a matter of national security.

Also along the route is the Lord Elgin Hotel, a common spot for 2SLGBTQ+ public servants to gather in the 1970s.