LGBTQ2+ phone lines operated differently depending on the organization, meaning that callers might hear pre-recorded information or be connected with a volunteer available to chat. Pre-recorded messages provided vital knowledge, such as general information on homosexuality, referrals to organizations and resources, and information about regular community events. For example, the Gay Community Calendar’s (923-GAYS) voicemail listed gay community events, keeping callers up to date on local functions and gatherings. Pre-recorded messages were also less intimidating, as callers could simply dial up and listen without the pressure of speaking to someone. 

Peer support counselling, sometimes also referred to as “kitchen table counselling,” allowed ordinary people to speak to one another without the formality of a professional interaction. Simply having someone to listen and offer emotional support was highly beneficial in providing a crucial entry point into the community, being less intimidating and more accessible than face-to-face conversations or community events [4]. Phone lines allowed callers to be as anonymous as they wished while providing them with a sense of support and community. The goal of conversational phone lines was to make people feel heard and accepted in the queer community and offset feelings of isolation, fear, self-censorship, social rejection, and loneliness [5].

Volunteers were responsible for answering the phone, organizing events, and looking for funding. They offered informal peer counselling and often had to deal with the annoyance of hang-ups or prank calls, which wore down morale due to their high volume. Volunteers were also expected to maintain call log records, in which they wrote down information about each call such as the date, reason for calling, and the advice or information provided. Volunteers were intrinsic to the operation of these phone lines and should be understood as important activists in the ongoing project of Canadian queer liberation. 

Phone lines were also beneficial in creating community relationships amongst other organizations by linking phone lines to each other to form a network of queer organizations across Canada. Phone lines often shared spaces and members; for example, the Gay Community Calendar (923-GAYS) was created by TAG member Harvey Hamburg, and although it was a separate endeavour, 923-GAYS shared an office with TAG for many of their operational years [10]. Beyond this, some of the most prolific Black queer activists in Toronto, including Douglas Stewart and Makeda Silvera, met working at the Black Youth Hotline run out of the Immigrant Women’s Centre on College Street [11].  National conferences also connected groups with phone lines and provided them with ties to a broader LGBTQ2+ community in Canada, such as Connexions, the conference for lesbian and gay phone lines in Atlantic Canada that took place in the summer of 1983 [12]. In this way, phone lines can be compared to social media platforms, which today is often the first point of contact that many young, closeted queer people have with the queer community due to its accessibility and anonymity. Though technology has advanced and methods have changed, the desire to make contact with the queer community in a safe environment remains. 

While many calls led to conversations focused on the problems and anxieties around non-normative sexual and gender desires, gay phone lines also promoted and discussed the beauty, joy, and potentiality of queerness. For example, lesbian phone lines offered counselling for queer women dealing with difficulties but also discussed “‘the good times of coming out [13].’” Phone lines also encouraged people to get out and have fun and the call logs themselves could be viewed as “an archive to the economies of care available” during this period [14]. There were also specific phone lines dedicated to putting people in contact with potential sexual partners, such as Cruiseline. McCaskell states “[i]n the midst of the AIDS crisis, there was nothing safer than telephone sex [15],” and Cruiseline provided this outlet for many queer men. In this way, certain phone lines provided an outlet for sexual connection and queer pleasure while maintaining physical safety in a time when sexual activity was widely perceived as dangerous.