Drag artist queers Centretown's history in walking tours

CBC
·2 min read
Drag king Morgan mercury dons a cowboy hat and fairy wings for their guided walking tours of Centretown. The tours, which began earlier in 2024, are intended to showcase the queer history of the downtown Ottawa neighbourhood. (Maggie May Harder - image credit)
Drag king Morgan mercury dons a cowboy hat and fairy wings for their guided walking tours of Centretown. The tours, which began earlier in 2024, are intended to showcase the queer history of the downtown Ottawa neighbourhood. (Maggie May Harder - image credit)

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, with the goal of highlighting the stories behind 2SLGBTQ+ landmarks and historic spaces in the nation's capital.

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.

The Lord Elgin Hotel on Elgin Street in Ottawa.
The Lord Elgin Hotel on Elgin Street in Ottawa.

The Lord Elgin Hotel is just one of the stops on Mercury's tour. (Laura Osman/ CBC)

 

In an interview with All In A Day, Mercury — whose real name is Meghan Aglaia Burns — said they had received no negative feedback on the tour thus far, despite concerns about anti-2SLGBTQ+ hate.

"I think it's really important to realize that everything that we're doing and talking about is in a environment and a climate of a lot of fear and a lot of hate and a lot of backlash," they said.

"I think that this is a space that I want to create that is kind of in opposition to that."

Morgan Mercury, at the far left, gathers with walking tour participants around a picnic table in Dundonald Park on April 7, 2024.
Morgan Mercury, at the far left, gathers with walking tour participants around a picnic table in Dundonald Park on April 7, 2024.

Morgan Mercury, at the far left, gathers with walking tour participants around a picnic table in Dundonald Park on April 7, 2024. (Maggie May Harder)

Mercury said the tour is a way of acknowledging 2SLGBTQ+ stories and spaces that already exist.

"I'm hoping that this also then gives a chance for folks that maybe don't know a lot about queer history [to have] an accessible way to learn and engage with some of this discourse."