“Anyone interested in participating in a campus gay organization. Contact Doug Wilson, Box 203, College of Education.”

It was just a small ad that Doug Wilson placed in The Sheaf in September 1975, but it was an ad that sparked a colourful and emotional chapter in the history of the U of S, led to one of the most sustained early campaigns of gay rights activism in Canada, garnered national media attention and initiated a ground-breaking court case. Even today, interest in the Wilson story has not waned—it is the subject of a new film and continues to be an integral part of the work of one campus culture and gender historian. And all because of one little ad.

The College of Home Economics might be gone, but it is certainly not forgotten.

Cooking class.
University Archives photo A-6323j