Carleton’s Gender and Sexuality Resource Centre (GSRC)’s queer library is one of the largest in Ottawa.
The library started with a handful of stories and resource pamphlets at the centre’s conception in 1986, and has since grown into a fruitful collection of over 1,000 books. It is located inside the GSRC on the fourth floor of Nideyinàn.
The Charlatan sat down with GSRC’s program co-ordinator, Val Hussain, to discuss the power of books in an age of censorship and suppression of queer media.
The Charlatan (TC): In your words, what is the queer library?
Val Hussain (VH): The queer library at the GSRC is a collection of media, literature and written media that reflects different queer experiences and stories. A lot of our fiction books delve into representation. Almost like a regular story, but the characters happen to be queer. We also have books that delve into different parts of identity, sexuality, consent and even more risqué topics like kink and BDSM.
If people have questions and might not want to ask somebody, they can just pick up a book. We also have a decent amount of research-based pieces, so different theses or articles that have been popular in queer research and literature that talk about policies or our increase in rights.
TC: How does the library function?
VH: We have a request form where people can recommend books they want in the library. We also take donations and purchase a lot of books. It’s a review process of what we need and what people want, and then we’ll order around three to five books a year. We used to order more, but it’s already a pretty big library.
You can rent a book for up to a semester, and then after the semester is over, we request that you give it back. If you lose a book, you replace it, and if you can’t, then it’s a $50 fine.
TC: What role does the library play in educating students about queer history and culture?
VH: I think any form of information is very powerful. It’s important to keep using the library, especially given the new Donald Trump policies and the banning of books in the U.S. I think now is the time to understand why things are happening and if it has happened before. It is the time more than ever for people who want to be allies to learn more. The more you use queer books, the less likely it is for them to be revoked. With libraries, not everyone’s going to need them, but the people who do, really need them.
You can’t force anyone to do anything no matter how important something is. People need to realize it for themselves. Now, people are realizing that we need banned books back in the U.S., even though they might have not read them in years. This highlights the importance of information, storytelling and keeping information alive.
TC: What have students’ reactions to the library been?
VH: Last semester we had more people taking out books for projects and for fun, but this semester we have more people taking out books on advocacy and policy. Within a week, I’d say we probably have one or two books taken out.
I also think that reading is not something people do anymore. With reading kind of dying down, the library is not as utilized as it used to be. When I first found the GSRC in 2023, the library was used a lot more. We would get a person coming in every day to take a book out. Compared to this year, a lot less people are using it. Many students don’t even know that the library exists.
TC: Why is it important to have physical libraries?
VH: You have more privacy when you’re getting information from a book. There’s no online record. Every time there’s political oppression, books are always one of the first few things to get banned. Let’s say all these books do get banned, then our kids will never know about them and then their kids will never know about them. Those are the people that need to know, because they’ll be the ones continuing the world.
That’s why books like these are important. The internet is a lot easier to shut down, but once it’s written down in a book, you’d have to burn it to get rid of it.
TC: What would you say to those who believe that queer media and education is unnecessary or too politicized?
VH: I would say almost all of our information in education is politicized, unnecessary to an extent. Why do I care what happened to people 100 years ago? Realistically, I don’t. Yet, it’s very important to know, even if it doesn’t affect me directly. It’s history, and queer people exist in history. So even if you think it’s unnecessary to your story, it doesn’t mean it’s unnecessary.
Queer people will never stop existing. When people think of queer, they immediately think of a stereotype, even though they themselves might fall into a spectrum. Within queerness exists misogyny, feminism and other movements that correlate. To take that away would just be silly.
TC: How has the library impacted and supported students?
VH: I don’t think it’s been the cause of any major change in university, but I think it’s definitely changed people’s day. Being able to find a book on the topic they’re looking for, or being able to explore a question they’ve been asking and didn’t really know who to ask.
It comes back to the education system and that fear. I think a lot of people associate queerness with tabooness because of the sexuality aspect; we see it as more sexual than it is. When people come in and find a book about sexuality, that’s not about the actual sex part, but rather someone’s internal and external struggle, and the validation you get from certain things. It kind of reminds them that it doesn’t define them, but it is part of who they are. I think that’s where the change comes in — helping those people answer that question that’s been itching at their brain.
TC: How can students support the GSRC and the queer library?
VH: Using it. As much as we want to keep it, if we see no usage of it, we can’t really allocate funds to buy more books. We’ll never get rid of the books we have, but it’s a big space that could be used for a lot of different things. We prioritize the books because we think they’re important, but there’s other things that could be stored in the library space. If usage decreases, the amount of books we have would also decrease. I think if people keep using it, that’s the biggest service that they could do.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Featured image by Jacqueline MacKay/ The Charlatan.
