This is My Story

I grew up secretly queer in rural Manitoba, where it seemed like queerness was just a hypothetical, dangerous possibility.

Even if that wasn’t true, I was too afraid of what it would mean to investigate further, so I grew up without knowing thriving, beloved, real-life queer adults, only fictional cautionary tales. Winnipeg is not widely known for its historic contributions to LGBTQ+ rights, but queer people have always been there, even before Winnipeg did as we know it. I came out after I moved away and felt homesick for a city I wrote off, only to find out later that I just needed to know where to look.

Eternal Youth considers the ways we learn about ourselves by learning about our queer ancestors, and the ways this development is delayed when we don’t know that those ancestors have always existed.

Eternal Youth is also a celebration of the iconic Golden Boy (actual name “Eternal Youth and the Spirit of Enterprise”) who stands atop the Winnipeg Legislature. This piece is dedicated to the queers who looked up at him decades before I did, from lesbian diners, secret house parties, and especially while cruising the grounds underneath him <3

Follow Shelby on Instagram at @misc.bones