Making a Scene

This well-researched study of twenty formative years of lesbian community-building in Canada covers a lot of ground … Millward has captured the flavor of an era by combining data from previous studies with eyewitness accounts and black-and-white photos from private collections. She proposes a symbiotic relationship between self-defined lesbians and their “scene” or social milieu: a lesbian identity requires a social context, and vice versa.

Andrew Gorman-Murray, senior lecturer of geography and urban studies, University of Western Sydney:
This book pushes forward new insights and opens up new understandings of lesbian geographies. It offers fresh perspectives on how spaces and places were constructed and utilized, making a vital new contribution to scholarship. It will serve as a catalyst, inspiring scholars in other countries to think geographically about lesbian lives and communities.

Julie Podmore, socio-cultural urban geographer and professor of geosciences, John Abbott College:
Liz Millward’s thesis is at once simple and highly original: the lesbian “scene” was created by movement, the movement of lesbians toward each other … This book is also a rare example of a lesbian historical geography at the national scale. It will appeal to a wide array of readers in gender and sexuality studies and others interested in LGBTQ histories.