Remembering ‘‘A Great Fag’’ 1 : Visualizing Public Memory and the Construction of Queer Space Thomas R. Dunn This essay examines how public memory is visualized in the statue to Canada’s ‘‘gay pioneer,’’ Alexander Wood. By analyzing three viewing positions of the statue*the official democratic memory, traditionalist countermemory, and camp countermemory* I argue each position enacts a distinct form of remembering Wood with implications for both materializing queer memories and how space and identity are understood in the city. Based upon these visualizations, I extend arguments for how rhetoricians critique memory texts and contribute to defining ‘‘queer public memory’’ in light of this statue. Keywords: Queer; Memory; Visual Rhetoric; Alexander Wood; Material In the summer of 2005, a prominent statue with a wry smile, historic dress, and a ‘‘gay flair’’ was unveiled for the first time in the Church Wellesley neighborhood of Toronto (fig. 1). 2 The more than 300 people in attendance would be the first to see the monument to Canada’s ‘‘gay pioneer,’’ Alexander Wood, a Scottish immigrant to the small town of York (present-day Toronto) in 1797. A man of means at the age of 25, Wood quickly became engaged in the life of his new home as he rose to the position of magistrate in 1800. By most accounts, Wood excelled in his position until a scandalous incident in 1810 that would forever link the name ‘‘Wood’’ with ‘‘molly’’ (a derogatory term for gay throughout the period) in Upper Canada. 3 During his time as magistrate, a local woman reported to Wood that she was raped. Distraught, the woman had difficulty describing her assailant; however, she believed a scratch she inflicted on his genitalia in the course of the attack could identify the perpetrator. As a dutiful enforcer of public safety, Wood leapt into action. Calling before him several local men of the right age, Wood ordered them to face forward and drop trou. Thomas R. Dunn is a Ph.D. Candidate in Communication at the University of Pittsburgh. The author would like to thank Ronald Zboray, Mary Zboray, Lester Olson, the Editor, and the reviewers for their helpful comments in developing this essay. Correspondence to: Thomas R. Dunn, University of Pittsburgh, Communication, 1117 Cathedral of Learning, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA. Email: mrtdunn@yahoo.com ISSN 0033-5630 (print)/ISSN 1479-5779 (online) # 2011 National Communication Association http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00335630.2011.585168 Quarterly Journal of Speech Vol. 97, No. 4, November 2011, pp. 435460