Queer Toronto on Cable: Rescuing, Remediating, and Reactivating This Show May Be Offenstive to Heterosexuals (1978-1979)

This article discusses the groundbreaking screening of the first episode of This Show May Be Offensive to Heterosexuals , a Toronto-based lesbian and gay cable access show produced and aired from 1978 to 1979, at the Global Audiovisual Archiving Conference held at TIFF Lightbox on July 12-14, 2024. In particular, this article asks the following questions: How do we reactivate incomplete audiovisual archival archives that hold important yet neglected local queer histories? How can the recovery of media objects now considered obsolete help counter the presupposed obsolescence of the histories they contain? The author argues that the remediation and reactivation of underrepresented audiovisual archives, namely archives of forgotten media objects created by and for LGBTQ2+ communities, enable contemporary viewers to reckon with queer history’s complexities while providing blueprints for current political interventions.