Recovering Forgotten Trans History: Storyteller S. Bear Bergman Brings ‘The First Jew in Canada’ to Ann Arbor Church
Founder of first gay-straight alliance on why he is driven to perform despite (or perhaps, because of) current anti-trans backlash
S. Bear Bergman has been a self-described "queer pain in the ass" since adolescence, when he helped found the first gay-straight alliance in the country in 1990 at age 15. Now a writer, performer and educator, Bergman continues his lifelong mission of advocating for the LGBTQ+ community through storytelling. His latest project, "The First Jew in Canada (A Trans Tale)," comes to Ann Arbor's First Unitarian Universalist Congregation on March 29, where he'll share the true story of Jacques LaFargue, a trans Jewish 18th century historical figure whose arrival to colonial Canada in 1738 has been frequently overlooked by historians.
Pride Source spoke with Bergman about his background in activism, what inspired this particular performance and why sharing trans histories matters now more than ever.
You've been involved in LGBTQ+ activism since you were a teenager. Can you tell us about those early experiences?
I am a writer and performer and educator and extremely long-time queer pain in the ass since I was a teenager when my friends and I founded the first ever gay-straight alliance, and I have been continuing to insist as hard as I can on queer celebration since then.
I was 15, and I was a student at Concord Academy in Concord, Mass. At the time, my history teacher was Kevin Jennings, who then went on to found and become the executive director for a long time of GLSEN. We started the chapter because one of our friends and fellow students’ mom came out as a lesbian, and this was in 1990.
It was clear to me then, as it is now, that young LGBTQ and two-spirit individuals need support of various kinds and encouragement of various kinds. They need to be welcomed and celebrated in all of the spaces in which they find themselves, very much including school.
Tell us about your storytelling show, "The First Jew in Canada." What's it about and why did you create it?
“The First Jew in Canada” is a true story about the first Jewish person known to the colonial record to have arrived in what we now call Canada. He was a transgender man, and this was 300 years ago. 1738 is when he arrives in Canada and I love this story, and also I'm mad about it, because I feel a lot of frustration that it wasn't available to me when I needed it.
Like all of that time when I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to be doing or why I was somehow doing everything wrong, I would have loved to know that there was literally one other person in the whole history of the world ever who was like me.
It's hard to feel like you're a person with no history that you want to claim, and I think the erasure of queer and trans stories creates this very difficult reality, especially for younger or more newly out queer and trans people, where it sort of seems like you don't have any access to your culture, you don't have any access to your history.
Why do you feel it's important to recover and share these kinds of trans histories?
One of the things that happened with colonization was that a lot of stories and concepts were purposefully and violently erased, including all of the knowledge and stories about queer and trans people who had existed in Indigenous society.
To some degree this show is a project about queer storytelling, but to some degree it is a little bit of an answer to the people who currently wish to act as though nobody was ever trans before Tuesday after breakfast.
It's hard to feel like you're a person with no history that you want to claim, and I think the erasure of queer and trans stories creates this very difficult reality, especially for younger or more newly out queer and trans people, where it sort of seems like you don't have any access to your culture, you don't have any access to your history. This history is not often passed down because queer and trans people usually have straight and cis parents.
How has it been touring with this show during a time of increasing anti-LGBTQ legislation and rhetoric?
Two things are simultaneously true. One, this is terrible and exhausting and murderous. And, also, I am accustomed. One of the things that is true for me as a person who's been out and yelling about queer and trans issues since the late 1980s is that I am accustomed. I have received death threats before, I have been protested, I have received hate mail.
It's terrible and it's exhausting, and it sort of takes a bite out of absolutely everything because I have to worry about what if this, what if that, what if protesters, what if violence, what if, etc. And also, this has been to some degree the condition of my whole life as a working artist.
I've grown a lot of calluses around this particular kind of pushback against my work-slash-me existing and it's hard, and sometimes I have a lot of big feelings about it. And then for better or for worse, the work requires that I conclude my big feelings as quickly as possible and get back to the job of doing this work because somebody has to.
What can audiences expect when they attend your show?
It's a storytelling show. It's a storytelling show and a Q&A. There are audiences. It's a performance. It's not a lecture or a presentation.
I would say it's probably most like The Moth storytelling show. You go, you sit. Other people tell you stories — except in this show, it's just me telling one long story that is overlaid and embellished with some stories of my life and my experience.
Like many pieces of theater, it's funny sometimes and it's heartbreaking sometimes and it's illuminating sometimes. The whole point of theater is to give you a way to walk into a story that you might not otherwise have a place to walk into, to consider a different experience, a different life, a different truth. We don't go to the theater to see what we already know and have seen.
Your work spans various formats — from performance to books to education. How do these different approaches connect?
I'm only good at one thing. I say that and people try and tell me that's not true, but I'm not being self-deprecating. I'm really good at one thing, but it's just like writing books and telling stories and doing queer education. It's all just one skill wearing a bunch of different hats.
All of the things are about “How do we create a world where queer and trans people can thrive and be well?” And if I can figure out a way, whether that's in writing or in publishing or in performance or in workshops or whatever, I will try.
S. Bear Bergman will perform "The First Jew in Canada (A Trans Tale)" at the First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Ann Arbor (4001 Ann Arbor-Saline Road) on March 29 at 7 p.m., followed by a reception. Entrance is free (donations welcome).
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