'The broads came out!': Celebrating the LGBTQ history of Broad Cove

An event planned this summer in a smallNewfoundland town aims to unite the province's LGTBQ diaspora and celebrate the lesbian history of the aptly named community of BroadCove.

"Come Home Queer" is a play on the province's Come Home Yeartourism theme, which invites Newfoundland and Labrador expats toreturn to the province for a visit this summer. The event, runningJuly 15-17, is set to take place in Broad Cove,where about 30lesbians most of them friends from St. John's have been settlingor summering for the past three decades.

Organizer Gerry Rogers has planned a performance by Kellie Loder,readings by authors, including Eva Crocker, and storytelling events aboutthe province's LGTBQ history, including the story of Broad Cove,located about 100 kilometres west of St. John's.

"It's busting myths, you know? Rural Newfoundland and Labradoris not backwards," said Rogers who, after 30 years of visiting thetown, is now building a house there to retire in. "There are lotsof people here now who have children or grandchildren or relativesor friends, people in their own community who are queer. And thereis acceptance."

"The broads came out!" she added.

In a province known for its uniquely named communities, WandaCrocker says it was purely coincidence that lesbians settled in atown whose name broad is an old-fashioned and sometimesderogatory term for a woman. Crocker is said to be the first one toarrive;she bought a home there with her partner in 1989, and theybegan inviting friends out to stay with them, Rogers included.

Their guests would pitch tents in the yard and spend the weekend,drawing curious stares from residents, Crocker said in a recentinterview.

"They'd be stopping on the road and they have theirbinoculars out [and] we would just tell them that this is the Holy Heartreunion," she said,referring to the Holy Heart of Mary high schoolin St. John's, which used to be an all-girls institution.

She laughs when she imagines what they must have thought: "Like,my God, they were a poor-looking crowd, that class. They all hadshort hair and glasses!"

It didn't take people long to figure things out, she said. Nordid it take long for her friends to start buying their own oceansidehouses in the town.

Broad Cove has since amalgamated with the neighbouring towns ofSmall Point, Blackhead and Adam's Cove, and roughly 385 people livein the area, according to Statistics Canada. The town sits along thenorthern shores of Conception Bay, on a peninsula home to Heart's Desire, Dildo and Red Head Cove, among others.

In 1985, a Newfoundland town named Gayside voted to change itsname to Baytona. Residents of the town, which is about 420kilometres northwest of Broad Cove, said they were embarrassed bythe name.

That kind of homophobia, however, isn't part of the story ofBroad Cove, Rogers and Crocker said.

Of course some residents were uncomfortable at first with thetown's growing LGTBQ population, they said. A knife-wielding maneven came looking for Crocker one night, about five months after shebought her house, she recounted.

But key "transformational moments," as Crocker calls them, madethem members of the community rather than outsiders.

The community stood behind Crocker when she pursued charges against the man whocame at her, and he contacted her years later to apologize. The townhosted a Pride parade last year. Two members of Crocker's friendgroup were elected to the town council: Sue Rose is deputy mayor and Katherine Burgess is a councillor.

And then there was Beth Lacey and Pauline White's wedding in2008, just three years after same-sex marriage was legalized inCanada.

Many in the town showed up for the ceremony, and even more hitthe dance floor with the newlywed couple in their shed, Lacey saidin a recent interview. It was a transformational moment.

"People came on their quads with packs of beer on the back; wehad a DJ from the community and we had a grand time," Lacey said."One of the heterosexual women from the community came over to meand she said, 'Can we have a dance? My husband doesn't like todance.' It was just so inclusive."

They brought cards and gifts and food, and the owner of the localtransport company hired to bring out the supplies waived her fee asa wedding present, Lacey said.

"And that's the way it's been here," Lacey added, noting thatseveral artists and writers have since bought properties in the townand the surrounding area, too. "We were sort of the start of a boomon this shore."

Crocker said she hopes people from the town come out to thisyear's Come Home Queer celebrations, just like they did for Lacey'swedding.

"It's a long time coming, and it's a good time to celebrate,"Crocker said. "Thirty years ago, I wouldn't have thought in amillion years we'd be having a Holy Heart reunion not undercover.There's no cover this time!"

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