Amy Gottlieb

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Amy Gottlieb (born 1953, died July 27, 2023 [1] ) is a Canadian queer activist, artist and educator. She was one of the organizers of the first Pride Toronto (then called Lesbian and Gay Pride Day) in 1981. [2] She was also an organizer of the Dykes on the Street March, organized by Lesbians Against the Right, which occurred in October of the same year. [3]

Contents

Biography

Amy Gottlieb was born in 1953. Since the early 1970s, she was involved in socialist and feminist activism. Gottlieb's political involvement started with the peace movement and the civil rights movement. She met her first lesbian lover in 1973 and soon began to dedicate herself to queer causes as well. [4] Subsequently, Gottlieb was active in numerous queer, Jewish, and artistic causes, including the Lesbian Organization of Toronto (LOOT) [5] , the Jewish Women's Committee to End the Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, and MIX: the Magazine of Artist-Run Culture.

In June of 1981, she spoke at The Toronto Marxist Institute with Gary Kinsman and Tim McCaskell at the public forum titled "Strange Bedfellows: Lesbians, Gays, and the left" [6] .

In 1998, Gottlieb's portrait was painted for The ArQuives. [7]

In 2017, Gottlieb published an essay discussing her experiences as an organizer of Toronto's first lesbian march titled "Toronto’s Unrecognized First Dyke March" in Any Other Way: How Toronto Got Queer (Coach House Books). [8]

In 2020, the Rise Up Feminst Archive published an interview with Gottlieb and well known feminists Sue Colley and Meg Luxton about becoming feminist activists. [9]

In 2022, the Globe and Mail published a first person account of Gottlieb's battle with cancer. [10]

In 2023, Spacing magazine interviewed Gottlieb about the early years of Pride organizing in Toronto and protesting the bath house raids. [11]

Video and Photography

Gottlieb's artistic work [12] explored family history, and the relationship between personal and historical memory. Her 1997 award-winning video "In Living Memory" [13] screened at festivals across North America and on television. "Tempest in a Teapot" [14] a 1987 video about Gottlieb’s mother and her radical political activities screened at five Toronto festivals and was exhibited at Toronto's A Space Gallery. Gottlieb's 2010 photo-based work, "FBI Family" speaks to state surveillance. Gottlieb's photomontages are layered images combining her mother’s FBI surveillance files with family photographs.

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References

  1. ↑ "United Jewish People's Order" . Retrieved August 5, 2023.
  2. ↑ Kinsman, Gary; Gottlieb, Amy (July 6, 2016). "Black Lives Matter Toronto recaptures Pride's activist roots". CBC. Retrieved June 14, 2020.
  3. ↑ Gottlieb, Amy (June 21, 2018). "Queerly Reading: Toronto' Unrecognized First Dyke March". Coach House Books. Retrieved June 24, 2020.
  4. ↑ "AMY GOTTLIEB (1953- )". The ArQuives: Canada's LGBTQ2+ Archives. 1998. Retrieved June 24, 2020.
  5. ↑ Crompton, Constance; McLeod, Don; Schwartz, Michelle. "Lesbian and Gay Liberation in Canada". lglc.ca. Retrieved 26 February 2024.
  6. ↑ June 1981, "Marxist Institute" vertical file, Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives, Toronto.
  7. ↑ "Amy Gottieb (1953-)". The ArQuives Digital Exhibitions. 1998. Retrieved July 11, 2021.
  8. ↑ Chambers, Stephanie; Farrow, Jane; FitzGerald, Maureen; Jackson, Ed; Lorinc, John; McCaskell, Tim; Sheffield, Rebecka; Taylor, Tatum; Thawer, Rahim, eds. (2017). Any Other Way: How Toronto Got Queer. Toronto. ISBN   9781552453483.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  9. ↑ "Rise Up: Becoming Feminists". 2020. Retrieved July 28, 2023.
  10. ↑ "Cancer changed me, but I'm still the same person". The Globe and Mail. 2022. Retrieved July 28, 2023.
  11. ↑ Mary Fairhurst Breen (June 1, 2023). "Pride and Prejudice" . Retrieved August 5, 2023.
  12. ↑ "Artist: Amy Gottlieb" . Retrieved August 5, 2023.
  13. ↑ "In Living Memory". 1997. Retrieved August 5, 2023.
  14. ↑ "Tempest in a Teapot". 1987. Retrieved August 5, 2023.


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