Prof Conrad’s New Publication: “Danny Cockerline: Toronto’s Patron Saint of Whores and Hustlers (1960-1995)”
In spring 2024 Prof Ryan Conrad was selected as one of the inaugural fellows for the OutHistory Fellowship Program. OutHistory was founded in 2008 and is a dynamic public history website offering evidence-based digital exhibitions on LGBTQ history intended for a general audience. Fellows are invited to create a digital exhibition comprised of text, images, videos, and audio that foregrounds their area of expertise in some facet of LGBTQ history. Prof Conrad’s research on queer, HIV/AIDS, and sex worker social movement histories in Canada has led to the creation of his new exhibition title “Danny Cockerline: Toronto’s Patron Saint of Whores and Hustlers (1960-1995).”
This exhibit focuses on gay HIV-positive sex worker activist Daniel Charles Cockerline (1960-1995) who was born and raised in North Bay, Ontario. He was involved in the founding of numerous sex workers’ rights organizations in Toronto, Ontario, from the early 1980s to the mid-1990s. The exhibit highlights his largely underrecognized contributions to the sex workers’ rights movement in Canada, including his production of some of the first HIV-prevention materials created by and for sex workers.