Play the game that 'II keep you going around in circles as The Body Politic goes back to court for retrial
ON THE STREETS & IN THE (BOWLING) ALLEYS
The Toronto Gay Patrol gears up for another season — and so does the Judy Garland Memorial Bowling League
OUT IN THE CITY IN MAY
Movies^ theatre, dance, music — all in TBP 's great guide to goings-on
Digitized by the Internet Arciiive
in 2011 witii funding from
Canadian IVIuseum for Human Rigiits.
littp://www.arcliive.org/details/bodypolitic83toro
Number 83 • May 1982 • $1.75 • UK80p
HEPATITIS B: A NEW VACCINE IS ON ITS WAY, BUT WILL WE BE GETTING IT?
A MAGAZINE
EISA GIDIOW
Excerpts from the life of the lesbian poet who 's still going strong — at 83
Now you
can play the game
that's had us going around
in circleSy as The Body Politic
goes back to court
MARY
POPPINS
MEEISGAY
Welly sort of.
Robin Wood and Richard Lippe on Victor/Victoria
DOUbLf
Fun!!
(for them) Risky!! (for you) Expensive!! (for everybody) A game they'd iove to piay with you!!
Double jeopardy.
It refers to the traditional right of citizens not to be tried more than once on the same set of charges and, especially, the right not be tried again after being found innocent.
It's a phrase that smells of raids in the middle of the night, show trials, the sledgehammer tactics of authoritarian regimes around the world.
There's a good reason why double jeopardy carries the odour of authoritarianism. A regime with an unsavory political agenda could dissuade opponents by bringing charges against them over and over again, regardless of the findings of its own courts. It could do so until it secured a verdict more to its liking or until it wrung a plea of guilty from the exhausted victim.
It doesn't happen just in faraway places. It's happening here and now.
In 1979, a searching five-day trial ended in the acquittal of The Body Politic of charges laid after a police raid on the magazine's office. But Ontar- io Attorney General Roy McMurtry didn't like the verdict. So he just asked the courts to do him a
favour, cancel the verdict and order a new trial.
The courts obliged. And people were shocked. They knew you could appeal a guilty verdict; that's all part of giving the accused the benefit of the doubt. But appeal an acquittal? It seemed to fly in the face of justice.
But that's what double jeopardy is all about. It contravenes our sense of justice, but there's no law to stop it from happening in Canada when- ever an attorney general feels the itch.
And there's no doubt McMurtry and his cabinet colleagues, including Premier Bill Davis, are feeling the itch, especially where gay people are concerned. In the past two years, they've refused to extend human rights protections to include us, ignored police intervention against a gay candidate in Toronto's municipal elections, financed an extensive spy network in the city's gay community and okayed the brutal raids on our baths. An unsavory political agenda indeed.
On May 3 1 , the second trial of The Body Politic begins. The defence at the first trial — which cost more than $30,000 — was entirely financed by
people who were angered by the campaign against this magazine. The second trial won't cost as much, but it still won't be cheap. We need your help to win again.
In the game of double jeopardy, they may set the rules, but we can still win. Make your contribution today.
THE BODY POLITIC
FREE THE PRESS
FUND
Send donations to
Ttie Body Politic Free the Press Fund
c/o Box 7289, Station A, Toronto, Ontario
Canada M5W 1X9
Cheques payable to: Lynn King in Trust forTBP Information: (416) 977-6320
2rrHE BODY POLITIC
MAY 1982
"The liberation of homosexuals
can only be the work ol
homosexuals themselves."
- Kurt Hiller, 1921 -
The Collective
John Allec, Christine Bearchell, Rick Bibout,
Gerald Hannon. Ed Jackson, Stephen MacDonatd,
Tim McCaskell. Ken Popert, Roger Spalding
Design/ Art Direction Kirk Kelly/Hick Bibout
The News Chris Bearchell
Danny Cockerline, Ian Dannyck, Philip Fotheringham,
Barbara Harding, Ed Jackson, Gerry Keith, Bill Loos,
Kevin Orr Craig Patterson, Stephen Riggins,
Roger Spalding, Robert Trow
(Toronto News Stall)
Maurice Beaulieu (Quebec), Vt^yne Bell (Kitchener),
David Garmaise (Ottawa), Jon Gates (Vancouver),
Bill Kobewka (Saskatoon), Ric Langlord (Victoria).
Vince l^anis (Vancouver), Andrew Mitchell
(Saskatoon), Rick Parry (Vancouver), Joe Szalai
(Kitchener)
International
Tim McCaskell
Reviews and Features John Allec, Rick Bebout, Stephen MacDonald
Paul Baker, Edna Barker, Colin McEnry, Joy Parks. Phil Shaw, Stephen Stuckey
Out in the City Ed Jackson/David Townsend
Bill Coukell, Jon Kaplan. Colin McEnry, Paul Murphy, Michael Wade, Andrew Zealley
Columns
Jeff O'Malley, Joy Parks, Ian Young
Letters/ Network Paul Baker/John Allec
Layout and Production Rick Bebout
Paul Aboud, George Akrigg, Carol Auld,
Victor Rooster, Danny Cockerline, Michel Lozier,
Elinor Mahoney, Lionel Morton, Sr Opiate ol the
Masses. OPI. Michael Petty, Colin Smith, Don Ullyot,
and members and triends ol the collective.
Printing: Delta Web Graphics, Scarborough
Advertising Gerald Hannon, Ken Popert
Victor Bardawill, Jr, Clillord Chan, Ian Campbell, Gerry Keith, Gerry Oxford
Promotion Ken Popert, Gerald Hannon
Subscriptions and Distribution
Roger Spalding, Robert Trow
Greg Bourgeois, Bill Brown, Terry Farley, Jeft Ferst,
Gerald Hannon, Chris Headon, Bill Loos.
Ian McKinnon. Dan Schneider. Tony Trask,
Bob Wallace, Grant Weaver
Office
Chris Bearchell, Rick Bebout, Gerald Hannon, Ed Jackson, Ken Popert
John Balatka. Greg Bourgeois. Jell Ferst,
Smee Holzberg, Gerry Hunt, Richard McDonald.
Tony Trask, Ken West
Tilt Body Politic is published ten limes a year by Pink Triangle Press, a non-prolil corporation, as a contribution to the building ol the gay movement and tlie growth ol gay consciousness Responsibility lor the content ol The Body Politic resis with the Body Politic Collective, an autonomous body operating within Pink Triangle Press The colleclive is a group ol people who regularly give their lime and labour to the production ol this magazine The opinions ol the collective are represented only in edilorials and dearly marked editorial essays Oltices ol The Body Politic are located at 24 Duncan Street (tilth lioor) in Toronto
The publication ol an advertisement in The Body Politic does nol mean thai the collective endorses the advertiser
Mailing address The Body Polilic. Box 7289. Sin A
Toronto, Ontario, Canada MSW 1X9
Phone (416) 977-6320
Available on microlilm Irom
MacLaren Micropublishing, Box 972, Sin F
Toronto, Onlaiio, Canada M4Y 2N9
Copyright fr 1982 Pink triangle Press
2nd Class Mail Begislralion Ho 3245
ISSN 0315 3606
DISPLAY ADVERTISING DEADLINE
FOR THE JUNE 1982 ISSUE:
THURSDAY, MAY 7
The Body Politic is a member ol the Coalition for
Gay Rights in Ontario and the Canadian
Periodical Publishers' Association
PBINTCD AND PUBLISHED IN CANADA
Sappho at 83
27
"I am going to get a room of my own, " she wrote in tier diary in 1917, "I am going to find my kind of people. " How could a sensitive woman of 19, trapped in a menial job in Montreal during ttie First World War, find her own kind of people? Elsa Gidlow cast a net. An excerpt from her autobiography.
Victor/Victoria 31
Critics Robin Wood and Richard Lippe take a look at what makes the new Julie Andrews flick "the most radical of the recent outcrop of Hollywood movies on gay themes" — and the most fun.
Protection against hepatitis B? 11
A new vaccine due for release soon in Canada and the US provides immunity against "one of the most serious and common sexually transmitted diseases among gay men." It was made from gay blood and tested on gay volunteers — but will it be available to the gay community?
Kitcliener: Beating City Hall 9
The mayor said "no dance" — at least not in a city-owned building. That, the Gay Media Collective decided, was where a great story might begin. . .
Patrolling the Streets— and alleys 70, 73
With the arrival of spring, the Toronto Gay Patrol is stepping up its programme to keep the streets safe for gay men and lesbians, while teams in the Judy Garland Memorial Bowling League battle in the alleys for the coveted Ruby Slippers trophy.
Ireland: Sad news, not Gay News 17
Irish Customs officials have impounded copies of Britain 's biggest gay paper, while the police seem intent on creating a few hassles of their own for the community. This and much more in World News.
Double Jeopardy!
Thrills, chills, fun for the whole community! Start a magazine, see it raided, go to trial. . . all In a new board game to mark TBP's return to court for a rerun of our original 1979 trial for "immorality, indecency, and scurrilousness." It all starts on page 46, many, many years ago. . .
Out in the City
Toronto entertainment and community listings for the lusty month of May, beginning on page 20, with a centrefold calendar you can pull out and put up for easy reference.
Regular departments
Classifieds 40
The Ivory Tunnel 39
Letters 4
Network 44
SharedGround 38
Taking Issue 8
The cover: Elsa Gidlow. in a 1982 ptiotograpti by Laura Willensky. courtesy of Elsa Gidlow. Pfioto ol James Garner, Julie Andrews and Robert Preston in Victor/ Victoria courtesy of WGW. Design by Rick Bebout.
MAY 1982
THE BODY POLITIC/3
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Oppressive habits
Re: John Alice's "No More Guilt! A Tour of the Territory of Perpetual Indulgence"{7"flP, March):
Recently the "Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence" have received a sizable amount of coverage in the Gay press, both in the western United States and
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now in Canada. To date, however, the other side of the picture has not been presented.
Although I can write only from the San Francisco experience of these "male nuns," I imagine that the situation in Canada is not that different. I must also point out that the context in which I write is that of a Gay man. Christian, Gay Liberationist and Feminist- SociaHst.
That the soi-disanl "Sisters" are a group of men is so self-evident that its import is very likely to be discounted. Nonetheless, that is the heart of the problem. As a group of men, the "Sis- ters" trivialize a group of women (nuns). Likewise, by the particular form of their "drag," they trivialize those transpersons (transsexuals and trans- vestites) who cross-dress out of a gen- uine self-identity. As Gay people we are all too well aware that to trivialize is to oppress: all of the "fag" and "dyke" jokes, the "sissy" and "tomboy" epi- thets, "Little Black Sambo," "Frito Bandito," "Sister Hysteroctoria" pre- sent us with just a few examples.
As a Christian Gay man and priest, I would be the very last to argue that organized religion has not been a major historic source of gay oppression. How- ever, what we see in the "Sisters," despite their contrary claims, is not a depotentiating of that oppression, but men who stand with the oppressor by continuing to oppress women and trans- persons by trivialization — and all in the name of "justice." That is what makes it truly insidious and what calls us to openly oppose it.
The "Sisters" not only reify the anci- ent oppression of man over woman. They also give assent to their and our own oppression by reinforcing the miso- gynistic attitudes and male-chauvinist structures which are the roots of anti- Gay oppression.
As one who has been privileged to
know such saintly nuns as Mother Teresa of Calcutta and others in the peace and civil rights struggles over the years — many of whom I've been arrested with in civil disobedience from time to time — I find the "Sisters" mockery of nuns to be particularly insensitive. If they truly believe they "present the inner, personal reaHty of spirituality" (as "Sister Adi" said in an interview recently), this may, in their minds, conform to their earlier claim that they are "a neo-pagan earth religion to dispel guilt and spread joy" (as one of their number proclaimed from the platform at the 1980 Harvey Milk Memorial in San Francisco). In a pluralistic society such as ours is intended to be, that is certainly their right. However, if they are sincere in those claims, it would seem that there is no reason for them to take the sacred habit of Christian nuns and make mock of it. If they truly perceive themselves to have their own "spiritual path," they should pursue that rather than attacking other people's faith!
I would like the record to show that there are those of us in the Gay Com- munity — Christian and non-Christian alike — who not only are not amused by the antics of the "Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence," but are deeply offended by their reactionary and oppressive trivialization of women, transpersons and nuns.
TheRt. Revd Mikhael Itkin, C.L.C., s.s.j.b. San Francisco
Politics first
I noted with some dismay that I was quoted in a news article in the last issue ("Rural Outreach," TBP, April) as say- ing, "Politics is getting people up off their asses" and, "The important thing is to put politics last."
Aside from the fact that these two statements appear to be mutually con- tradictory, I admit to uttering the first, but deny, or at least don't recall, utter- ing the second. If I did say it, it was cer- tainly taken out of context.
What I recall saying was this: When an organizer goes into a small town or city to organize, he or she is dealing with gay people to whom dancing with a member of the same sex or holding hands without fear of physical violence is a revolutionary activity. Getting such people together for a meeting where they can talk about being gay on a level other than the immediately sexual is a major step forward in building a com- munity, because in these places contact between gay people is so infrequent that when it does take place it is usually for nothing more than immediate sexual gratification. Sexual gratification is wonderful, but not enough. The point of grassroots organizing is to encourage people to build a community of shared goals and values.
An organizer cannot go into a region where gay life is underdeveloped and begin by insisting that people march down Main Street carrying banners and demanding sexual orientation protec- tion from town hall. That kind of politics comes last, but it will come in time. The first and most important
4/THE BODY POLITIC
MAY 1982
''The battle for homosexual liberation is being fought, in terms of sheer numbers, on more fronts by males than by females. "
political activities are, as I mentioned above, the banal — holding hands, dan- cing, kissing, talking. Once people in small cities and towns become used to being able to do these things in a com- fortable environment of their own mak- ing (socials, dances, meetings, rap ses- sions, parties), they will soon come to consider them as inalienable rights of affection — which they are. Once that realization is made it can only be a mat- ter of time before some start the long march down Main Street. But to begin an organizing campaign with such ex- hortations would be a disaster. The first political step is, as I did say, getting people off their asses to begin reaUzing their power to do things for themselves. I would never make a statement such as "Put politics last" except in a very specific context, or possibly if I were ascribing a very narrow meaning to the word "politics." As far as I am con- cerned pontics comes first, and almost every human action, activity and beha- viour is in some way political. Robin Hardy Toronto
Disch and disbelief
I was disappointed to read the letter entitled "Deep Disch" (from Walter Phillips ) in your March issue.
This is typical of the "ghettoization" mentality a lot of gays have. I think gays need exposure to all sides and points of view, and that this is an im- portant part of liberating ourselves that is often overlooked. I did not come out as a gay individual just to be locked into a gay only approach. The type of soul- searching needed to find yourself as a gay person can raise your conscious- ness, but only if your are open-minded. Here's to more liberal input into hbera- tion magazines! Jonathan Bowe Bale D'Urfe, Quebec
I hope that Thomas Disch {TBP, Decem- ber 1981) is still serious about his Do You Still Believe in Santa Claus? A Young Person 's Guide to Disbelief \
I used to believe in Santa Claus: the Roman Catholic Church. It took me over thirty years finally to overcome the effects of its propaganda.
Will the children of the Moral Major- ity grow up happier than many Catho- lics I know? Francis Gallant Charlottetown, PEI
Better to differ?
Eve Zaremba laments that Gay Libera- tion is a male movement {TBP Letters, March) but does not attempt to say why this is so. Can it be that male homosex- uals/or the most part are the ones get- ting arrested and therefore testing the legal system; getting elected to official positions as openly homosexual individ- uals; dealing with police surveillance and harassment at numerous levels; launching and maintaining publications of international repute (some of which are journalistically excellent); fighting publicly in an organized fashion for dignity and recognition while being
oppressed or victimized?
I could go on. The point is that the battle for homosexual liberation, and by this I mean the right to live and love as a , homosexual individual, is being fought, in terms of sheer numbers, on more fronts by males than by females.
We are constantly hearing from female homosexuals about how differ- ent their goals, interests, politics, sexu- ality, etc are from those of males, and much less about areas where some of these things coincide. Many female homosexuals probably think that bath raids and washroom arrests have nothing to do with female homosexual- ity or behaviour. What they do have to do with is the right of consenting adults to engage in sexual activity of their own choosing free of police surveillance and harassment. That is human liberation.
The laws that these homosexual males are running up against could be applied to much of what goes on in the bed- rooms of heterosexuals and female homosexuals if a police officer hap- pened to be around. Each time a male homosexual wins a point in the battle against homophobia and oppression, he wins it as well for any female homosex- ual who could be victimized in similar circumstances.
Zaremba suggests it is "better to dif- fer where we obviously differ and agree to work together freely where our inter- ests coincide." What bothers me is the number of female homosexuals who are preoccupied with these differences, who refuse to "work together freely where our interests coincide." The homosex- ual community here in Vancouver is cur- rently experiencing the fragmentation and disunity this creates.
As a female homosexual, I cannot forget that it was male homosexuals who helped me with their open friendli- ness when I was coming out. And I, for one, would not like to speculate on where homosexual Uberation would be if they all suddenly disappeared.
Lastly, Zaremba suggests that TBP does not speak for her because "its con- tent, choice of issues, presentation, em- phasis, advertising policy do not repre- sent my political or sexual orientation." This can also be said of almost all other newspapers, most of the literature writ- ten down through the ages, the bulk of the contents of the public library system and any other heterosexually-oriented media. Does she therefore read lesbian literature only?
I personally find TBP to be a refreshing escape from the persistent hetero suggestion that all I need to be fulfilled is a man and a baby. Eleanor LeBourdais Port Moody, BC
Ridiculous trial
My main reason for writing is to say how much I enjoyed your January /Feb- ruary issue, particularly the article on how your collective operates, describing the main members or stalwarts.
Congratulations to all concerned and my fervent hope and wish that you will be successful in your totally unnecessary and ridiculous trial.
As you no doubt know, gay life be- tween consenting adults is now legal
TW1
'i::f V3r-«m*wcwim^ ri«r*i-^ i .
ra^jT^i]
CHRIS ANDREW
l3lllJUSL
SOIALS
The Body Pofitid
Ten years of gay journalism.
»iC1
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— Tim Keele, CFNY, Toronto
"Best songs are Hegemony and That's Alright (Woman)" - OP magazine, Olympia, Washington
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MAY 1982
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Cold anger
"Angus Mackenzie's" article on fist- fucking has left me cold with anger.
I am not angry about fist-fucking in general. It is none of my business that two potentially pleasant people would care to inflict upon each other probable
^
}
permanent physical damage.
I am not writing to complain that one less-than-large article would contain the terms: "noblesse," "class," "San Pellegrino," "simpatico," and "French nail-clipper" (all of this so "refeened" and non-U that the small hairs on the back of my neck are made to stand on end!).
What, in fact, is really so damned annoying about "Mr Mackenzie's" arti- cle is that Rick Bebout and the rest of the production gang had to waste sever- al valuable hours throwing together such meaningless, poorly written drivel, inked by a bounder too cowardly to sign his real name. Paul Bartlet Toronto
Inaccuracies, innuendo
As a person who has, over the past half- dozen years, been a strong supporter of TBP (including resigning from the Ontario Arts Council because they refused to give TBP its recommended and well-deserved grant in 1978), I can only say how disappointed I am that TBP is guilty of the same biased report- ing as the Globe and Mail was in its "backlash" article of February 25, 1982 (see "Article on local feuds sparks libel action," TBP, April).
Rather than contain what, in its own words, is a "tempest in a teapot," rsP's reporter promptly smashed the teapot, let the genie out of the bottle and created a whirlwind of useless and bitter debate and recriminations.
As the Globe and Mail article was a deliberate, unwarranted and unforgive- ably vicious attack on Peter Maloney and George Hislop, full of inaccuracies and innuendo, sleazily scissored and pasted together using highly provocative and out-of-context statements made by individuals in the gay community, so TBP 's article was a deliberate, unwar- ranted and unforgiveably vicious attack on those same individuals (presumably
to "punish" them for having been "stupid" enough to trust the Globe and Mail's City Hall reporter).
Already victims of the Globe's jour- nalistic "Pit," these individuals must now endure the injustice of TBP's sli- cing "Pendulum." A pox on both papers as far as I'm concerned! It is journalistic ethics and objectivity as well as the credibility of the reporters which is at stake here, and some very impor- tant principles are being jettisoned in the interests of good copy, scoring trite debating points or just simply getting even.
For example, when TBP called Doug Chin to ask him why he considers him- self a "community organizer and youth worker," he told the reporter that he was trained at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute as a social worker with speciali- ties in youth work and community organizations. He said that he worked with the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews as a delegate and youth work- er; that he was President of the Canadi- an Chinese Association; that he was Chairman of the Steering Committee of a special City Hall Committee to look into the needs of Toronto's Chinese community; that he introduced the small group homes concept to Scarbor- ough and was co-founder of Kennedy House for Boys there; that he was the founding President of the Chatsworth Charitable Foundation (charitable branch of the Community Homophile Association of Toronto), the founding President of Gays at Ryerson, the
Gay families for prisoners
I am an inmate at Indiana Refor- matory, and I want to introduce you to our newly planned group "Gay Family for Prisoners."
For the past several weeks the ad- ministration here has been increasing pressure on and harassment of gay prisoners in such a way that we have no grounds for legal action.
What we hope to do is make con- tact with gays all over the US and Canada. We want to be able to exert public pressure when we need it. This can be done by mail if we are in con- tact with a large number of gays who are willing to voice their support by mail. We plan to develop an organization that can help gays all over by uniting into one voice.
There are groups that aid gay pris- oners with legal actions, but most harassments we undergo are due to the negative attitude of the prison staff toward gays. Most gay pris- oners are rejected by family and the public either because they have been incarcerated or because they are gay. So we have no one to whom we can protest our mistreatment. For this reason we are calling our group "Gay Family for Prisoners."
We ask each of your readers to write and make contact with us, so that we can depend on your help in the future. Ron Crichfield Box 30-4 149-27-2 J Pendleton, Indiana 46064 USA
6/THE BODY POLITIC
MAY 1982
"Rather than contain what, in its own words, is 'a tempest in a teapot, TBP promptly smashed the pot and created a whirlwind of useless and bitter recriminations. "
founding President of the TVi-Aid Char- itable Foundation and the founder and director of Canada's first gay group home, Tri-Aid House. TBP's reporter, however, anxious to discredit Mr Chin, makes no mention of any of this, but writes the following about him calling himself a community organizer: "He explains" (when he did no such thing!) "this means he has been on welfare for the last seven years because of ill health and that he does his work on a volun- tary basis."
TVue, Mr Chin is not well, having suf- fered a heart attack in 1976 and having been given only a 50/50 chance of living through his open heart surgery in 1977. That same year, however, this worka- holic, who suffered a heart attack at the age of 35, started Tri-Aid as "occupa- tional therapy." He has worked with 50 young gay people through the Tri-Aid House residential programme and coun- selled over 300 others and, yes, collected about $2,600 medical welfare a year from the City for the past four years, since March 1978. (So much for accura- cy and innuendo, and to think that TBP has Mr Chin's resume on file from pre- vious mailings!)
The reporter also wrote that Mr Chin "admitted" (when, again, he did no such thing!) that Tri-Aid has a "token" board of five persons. Tri-Aid no more has a "token" board than TBP has a "token" collective. Tri-Aid has had a total of 12 people on its board in the last five years: nine men, three women, some straight, some gay, some lesbians, seven of them in some way directly con- nected with social services and four of which were professionally trained social workers Uke Mr Chin. And that doesn't include half a dozen volunteers who worked on the Tri-Aid House project without sitting on the board.
The Globe and Mail article made Mr Chin out to be a "decent," "moderate" "homosexual" in bed with the police, which is not only hysterically funny considering his table-thumping gay mili- tancy and sexual proclivities, but is cer- tainly a measure of how skewed, inaccu- rate and unreal the Globe article was.
TBP has compounded that injury and magnified the distortion in the other direction by making him out as an insig- nificant, shiftless rabble-rouser in bed with the gay community's malcontents. Neither is accurate and neither is journalism!
Karsten Kossman, Secretary, The Tri-Aid Charitable Foundation Toronto
The collective responds: Karsten Kossman may think Denys Morgan 's article, "Backlash against mil- itants forms among some gays, " was an "unwarranted and unforgiveably vicious attack on Peter Maloney and George Hislop, "but that wasn 't Doug Chin 's reaction when our reporter inter- viewed him in connection with our cov- erage. Chin never complained to us thai he was either misquoted or quoted out of context. His concern at the time was to establish that the allegations he was reported to have made against Hislop were justified.
When asked about his role as a street worker and community organizer. Chin
MAY 1982
did indeed cite his qualifications, as outlined in Kossman 's letter. He also said he was on welfare (he didn 't say medical; he did say for seven years).
However, we were (and are) less con- cerned with his professional qualifica- tions than with his accountability to the gay community; we asked about Tri- Aid 's board because it seemed a likely mechanism for monitoring Chin 's volunteer work. But rather than provide assurances. Chin noted that the same lack of concern for the needs of young gay people that had forced him to take on his street work voluntarily had also made it difficult to get members for the Tri-Aid board. "Token" was his adjec- tive, meant, we assume, to convey that board membership is not an onerous commitment.
While, as Kossman states, Tri-Aid has had a dozen board members in the past five years, it now has five, including Kossman, Chin and Chin 's mother. Gay community activist Tom Warner once agreed to sit on the Tri-Aid board, but later withdrew. At the time, he says. Chin 's mother didn 't attend meetings (though, as owner of the property where Tri-Aid operates, she had a number of proxy votes; who these proxies repre- sented, Warner was never able to dis- cover), and that the two other members of the board, in addition to Chin and Kossman, were a social worker who was a cousin of Chin 's and another man who was said to have professional qualifications but was "too paranoid to come to meetings. " Warner says he decided not to remain involved because this situation created problems with Tri- Aid 's true accountability to the community.
Our article was not meant to be an attack on Doug Chin or on Tri-Aid, but the fact remains that Chin was quoted in Horgan 's article as a credible voice representing the sentiments of at least a part of the gay community, and that this apparent credibility rests at least in part on his professional status. George Hislop, in the same article, said that while he supported the idea of gay-run social services for street youth, ' 7 don 't think he (Chin) is a good social worker. ...I don 't support the idea of him running it. " Others may share these doubts, but there is no way, other than Tri- Aid's own accounts, of verifying and evaluating the work the organiza- tion does.
Karsten Kossman has indeed been a strong and welcome supporter of this magazine for many years. We remain grateful for that, but we cannot accept his portrayal of Doug Chin as both a seasoned social worker and gay militant (which he undoubtedly is) and a naive innocent in the hands of manipulative media. Mr Chin has lent the credibility of his position to "inaccuracies and in- nuendo, sleazily scissored and pasted together" in such a way as to under- mine institutions and activists in the gay community. We feel we have a responsi- bility to point out that, despite his per- ceived position, he is not accountable to that community for either his actions or his words.
We welcome your letters. Address ihem lo letters. TBP. Box 7289. Stn A, Toronto ()i\ M5W 1X9. l.eliers may he edited for Icngih.
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:ASf^ggl^§m
Now ^^ iinaer one cover.
Flaunting It! A decade of gay journalism.
A joint publication of New Star Books/Pink Triangle Press. $8.95 pbk. Pink Triangle Press, Box 639, Station A, Toronto, ON M5W 1G2
THE BODY POLITIC/7
im
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Shaw Festival 82
P,0. Box 774, Niagara-on-the-Lake Ontario, Canada LOS 1J0
JettO'Malley
Gay in Asia: emotions and exploitation
Two articles have recently appeared in TBP dealing with homosexuality in Cen- tral Asia. The first, in September 1981, dealt with a report to the Third Interna- tional Congress on Child Abuse and Ne- glect, which claimed that gay tourists were "exploiting" and "corrupting" local (Sri Lankan) boys. The second arti- cle, by Australian writer Peter Jackson in the January /February issue, detailed an encounter in Calcutta on New Year's Eve, 1981. I would like to outline my own experience with homosexuality in this part of the world, and in doing so I hope to expand upon some of Peter Jackson's remarks and clarify some of the misconceptions which may have aris- en from the commentary of man /boy love in Sri Lanka.
In July 1980, at the age of eighteen, I began participating in an exchange pro- gramme called Canada World Youth. I was assigned a Sri Lankan partner, (aged twenty) and we lived and worked togeth- er for six months, half of which was spent on a dairy farm near Toronto and half with a family of rice farmers in Sri Lanka. When we met we knew only a few words of each other's language, and our knowledge of each other's cultural milieu was limited to a few inaccurate stereotypes. By January 1981, we could both converse in each other's language. While we certainly did not know all of the each other's cultural nuances, we both agreed that we knew each other bet- ter than either of us had ever known anyone.
One night, shortly after we first arrived in Sri Lanka, my partner and I were discussing Buddhism and Catholi- cism and their respective attitudes towEirds sex. My partner then, much to my surprise, asked, "You have sex some- times with boys?" In a split second I tried to analyze what motivated my part- ner to ask the question; whether it was to confirm a rumour he had heard; whether it was because he found my attitudes towards sex so shocking that he figured my actions might meet even that level of perversity; whether he'd overheard a conversation between myself and another Canadian on the subject; or whether in fact he was simply curious. I tried to evade the question with a generalized answer that most Canadian boys do not; that many people think it is wrong but that I myself do not consider it wrong. At least, I hoped, I could gauge his reaction to that partial answer. The next night the question was again raised, this time with an additional inquiry as to why I did not answer him in a straightforward manner the first time.
Within a few minutes I had revealed that I not only had sex with boys some- times, but regularly. I also introduced a new word into his English vocabulary: "gay." Far from being disgusted or shocked, my partner then asked if Tom, the guy I always seemed to be getting let- ters from, was my favourite "gay sex friend." Very curious by that point, I of course reversed the questioning.
The Sparlacus International Gay Guide's contention that, until recently, a "positive healthy, loving attitude" exist- ed in Sri Lanka in regard to homosexual- ity among adolescents is, quite simply, wrong. My partner has been an active homosexual since he was fourteen, and
his tales of societal pressure against that tendency match the tales any Canadian might tell about being gay in the Fifties.
Three boys in his village, aged seven- teen to twenty, were caught having a threesome by one of the boy's fathers. He proceeded to take them all, his son included, to the local police station. The police shaved their heads, bound them and led them through their village public- ly denouncing their misdeeds. They were then released. They certainly did not in- terpret the subsequent atmosphere in their homes and schools to be a "loving, healthy" one. No Western, morcilistic imperialists were responsible for that atrocity; my partner is from one of the most traditional villages in Sri Lanka.
Peter Jackson said much more which I would interpret as accurate. Marriages are generally arranged; my partner has known his future wife since the age of four. His homosexuality must remain "utterly separate from the social order and expectations that framed his life, that were, for him, reality."
However, "gay" is still more than just a Western concept. While in all likeli- hood my partner and his lover of six years will each marry his respective bride, he explained that they do indeed love each other very much and will be very sad when they must separate. This is much more than Peter Jackson's descrip- tion of physical release. As far as I'm concerned, when a man's consciousness focuses on another man to the extent that love is created, that is "gayness" in its purest form. To avoid "gayness," homosexuality must occur in an emo- tional vacuum. While homosexuality does occur in Asia in the form of a strict physical release, especially amongst ado- lescents, gay people exist as well. My partner, who had never read a piece of literature dealing with homosexuality, estimated that as many as ten per cent of the boys he knew attached emotion to homosexual experiences.
The final point I wish to address, one of the main focuses of both TBP articles, is that of tourists' utilizing prostitutes in Third World countries. While I would not agree that all man /boy relationships are exploitative, I do feel that tourists who buy sex in Third World countries are exploiting their sexual partners,
Peter Jackson is correct when he points out that for most boys hustling in Asia, their bodies are their sole com- modity. The Spartacus contention that "boys who became sexual companions of adults, even foreign adults.., lived happily and proudly" offended me. I be- friended boys who were homosexual prostitutes in both Columbo, Sri Lanka, and Bangkok, Thailand, For these boys, homosexuality is not "gayness" nor is it "physical release," It is not even a free choice, but a matter of survival.
When Westerners go to Asia looking for cheap prostitutes, they are engaging not only in economic exploitation, but in a destruction of the last remaining ves- tiges of pride which the Third World can rely on. Congratulations to Peter Jack- son for touching on this issue of cultural sensitivity in a way few gay tourist have considered, and shame on Spartacus In- ternational for advocating an exploitative and damaging practice. D Jeff O'Malley lives in Winnipeg.
8rrHE BODY POLITIC
MAY 1982
Fightii^ city hall
It is a matter of speculation why 20 cub scouts who were attending an April 5 Kitchener city council meeting to learn about civic government were suddenly ushered out of the chambers as Greg Meadows of the Kitchener- Waterloo Gay Media Collective began to speak.
Collective members were at city hall to protest a ruling that they not be allowed to rent a municipally-owned building for a gay dance.
The collective approached the city's Department of Recreation April 1 to lease the pavilion in downtown Victoria Park for a June 4 dance. They were told that the pavilion was available for that date and received a standard rental con- tract the next day.
On the morning of April 5, however, collective member Joe Szalai received a phone call from a clerk who said that the pavilion was not available. Szalai was told that there had been problems with gay dances held a few years ago by the Riverside Social Club at the subur- ban Bridgeport Community Centre, where pressure from nearby residents led to cancellation of the dance permits. The problems at Bridgeport had involv- ed straight thugs harassing patrons at the dances. Riverside organizers had met privately with Kitchener Mayor Morley Rosenberg to try to have the decision reversed, but were unsuccessful.
Szalai was in no mood for a private meeting. He immediately called the Kitchener- Waterloo Record. "I was furious," he said, "that, as a taxpayer, I was being denied use of a city facility. Using that logic, it was as if the city was telling me that what happened with one heterosexual group was reason enough for denying sevices to all heterosexual groups. That's clearly ridiculous. When applied to a minority like gays, it's clearly discriminatory."
The Record carried the story that day, which also happened to be a city council meeting day. The collective sent Szalai and Greg Meadows to council to demand an explanation.
Meadows presented the group's case before an attentive council and repre- sentatives of local news media. He demanded either a reversal of the deci- sion or the resignation of two men apparently responsible for the discrim- ination — Director of Recreation Bob Arnot and Rick Antaya, a department supervisor.
Mayor Rosenberg admitted to council that he had personally intervened to stop the dance. He read a letter, ad-
Victoria Park Pavilion: the dance will go on
andwinnii^
Greg Meadows of gay media collective: a furious response to Mayor Rosenburg (foreground)
dressed to Szalai, from the Recreation Department, outlining the reasons for the decision. The problems which plagued the Riverside Social Club dan- ces figured prominently among the rea- •sons. It immediately became clear that the mayor assumed the collective and the Riverside Social Club, which had
sponsored the Bridgeport dances, were the same group. When Meadows made the point that there was no connection between the two, council's mood changed abruptly.
"Frankly, I don't see any reason to refuse them a permit," said Alderman Al Barron. Alderman Don Travers felt
that the collective "should not be tarred with the same brush" as the social club, but rather be treated as any other new group.
Mayor Rosenberg sat quietly as coun- cil voted 9-3 in favour of granting the dance permit.
Szalai then took the podium and demanded that the city pass a bylaw prohibiting discrimination on the basis of "sex, colour, creed, religion, physical ability and sexual orientation so that all people have equal access to city jobs, services and facilities."
Alderman Judy Balmer responded by saying that she saw no discrimination in this case, and added that the collective should not generalize because of one "misunderstanding." She further stated that the question of human rights ex- tends beyond municipal authority and bylaws. Alderman Will Ferguson asked that city solicitor Jim Wallace provide a report on the subject of human rights. Alderman Balmer supported the request.
According to Szalai, "The city is in a position to augment existing provincial and federal human rights laws, as have Toronto, Windsor and Ottawa, regard- ing sexual orientaton for their own ser- vices. It is a city's prerogative to make contractual agreements between itself and its own citizens — in this case, an agreement prohibiting discrimination."
Meanwhile, organizers are continuing their planning for the June dance. The pavilion holds more than 200 people and a good turnout is expected. Funds raised will be used by the collective for its radio show, Gay News and Views, and for its forthcoming magazine, to be called Gay, eh?
The radio show has been running for more than three and a half years, play-
Another park, another politician
TORONTO — Alderman John Sewell seems uncertain about supporting a Les- bian and Gay Pride Day Committee (LGPDC) request to use Grange Park for this year's June 27 celebration.
Sewell offered his support to the organizers February 16, but withdrew it soon after because he felt "that the proposed use is more regional than local in nature and thus would be better accommodated in a regional kind of park." He suggested Queen's Park. After receiving a number of calls and letters protesting this move, Sewell reversed his decision "with considerable reluctance," and is once again backing the use of Grange Park.
Tom Warner, speaking for the Toronto Gay Comunity Council (TGCC), says, "We're surprised that John Sewell would be putting forth that kind of position. It's something we would have expected from the more conservative elements on city council." The TGCC passed a motion March 24 supporting the LGPDC in its efforts to use Grange Park.
Last year's Pride Day festivities in Grange Park ran into difficulties when a few area residents complained about the noise level that evening. This prompted a discussion of the matter in a city Neigh-
bourhoods Committee meeting and led to the establishment of a new rule requiring that future events in city parks be super- vised to avoid such problems.
In a letter to the TGCC, Sewell ex- plained that a "larger, more regional facil- ity than Grange Park should be chosen (because) one does not manage to win friends by foisting on a community an event which is too large for the facility."
Warner says the size of the facility
"didn't pose any problems from our point of view." There were no more than about 700 people in the park at any one time, with plenty of room for more, according to Warner.
Kyle Rae of LGPDC scoffs at Sewell's concern that Grange Park is too small for the event planned. "John Sewell is play- ing games. He is manufacturing excuses for opposing the use of the park because he does not want to be seen to be aligned with the gay community," Rae told TBP.
Sewell was out of town when TBP tried to reach him for comment.
Dannv Cockeriiner!
1981 gay pride march leaving Grange Park: not big or regional enougti, says Sewell (left)
MAY 1982
THE BODY POLITIC/9
ing a variety of gay and lesbian music and presenting issues of interest to the gay community. The magazine, sched- uled for a premiere issue in June, will be a gay forum aimed at a southwestern Ontario readership.
Collective members were surprised by the extensive coverage this incident received in local straight news media. Contrary to their fears, the media han- dled it fairly and thoroughly, although
THE POLICE
members were very conscious of the need to speak clearly and choose words carefully.
As far as the collective can tell, reac- tion from the local gay community has been quite favourable. The case opens the door to other gay groups in the city who might want to rent municipal facili- ties. And there is a feeling of pride in fighting city hall — and winning.
Wayne P Bell □
Would-be killer finally locked up
TORONTO — A man who vowed to police that he was going to "kill a fag" every night until he had "cleaned up" the city has been sent to jail.
Describing Gordon Fudge, 29, as "a very dangerous man," County Court Judge Hugh Locke gave Fudge a five- year sentence April 18 after he pleaded guilty to a charge of possessing a wea- pon for a purpose dangerous to the public peace. The charge arose out of an incident which took place December 23, when Fudge went to a gay bar and met David Ratz, who invited him home. After the two men had sex, Fudge went to the kitchen, found a large butcher knife and returned with it to the bed- room. Ratz escaped unharmed to a next-door apartment and called police. Fudge was arrested in Ratz's apartment.
In a statement shortly after his arrest. Fudge declared, "I went to a fag hotel to kill as many fags as I could get. If I could kill one I could kill them all." Fudge said he hated homosexuals be- cause he had been raped during a recent term in prison. Ironically, Fudge was himself serving time for rape (his victim was a woman); at the time of his December arrest he was on parole.
Fudge was kept in custody until Feb- ruary 3, when he appeared for a prelim- inary hearing before Provincial Court Judge June Bernhardt. The judge was not told of Fudge's damaging state- ments to police and the defendant's counsel asked for a show-cause hearing into his client's continued detention without benefit of a bail hearing. Before the day was out, he was released on bail of $15,000 on the condition that he stay away from gay bars.
Fudge's unexpected release sent rip- ples of fear through the gay community, and David Ratz went into hiding for fear of his life. Concern soon spread beyond the gay community. Officials of Attorney-General Roy McMurtry's off- ice moved quickly when lawyer Peter Maloney informed them of the danger- ous situation created by Fudge's release.
Before Fudge's preliminary hearing resumed February 4, he was re-arrested on a parole warrant. Judge Bernhardt heard a Crown application for detention and agreed that Fudge was a danger to the public and issued a detention order. As a result, the would-be killer re- mained in custody until his trial.
Bill LoosG
Gay Awareness 101?
TORONTO — A pilot project in gay awareness for police officers working in this city's 52 Division may be in the works. A committee composed of three police officers and three gays has been struck to draw up a curriculum for an experimental course. 52 Divsion was chosen because it is a downtown pre- cinct with a large gay population and a history of abysmally poor relations ^ between police and gay residents.
The project was decided upon at a meeting March 16 between representa- tives of the Toronto Gay Community Council and the police commission's Minority Liaison Committee. That meeting marked the first tentative step in opening the dialogue between police and the gay community recommended by the Bruner inquiry six months ago.
The curriculum committee will work to improve upon what presently consti- tutes a Toronto cop's education on the subject of homosexuality — two 45-min- ute lectures on "abnormal sexual beha- viour" conducted by a physician from the Queen Street Mental Health Centre.
The curriculum committee was given two months to work out its proposals, which will have to be approved by sen- ior 52 Division officers before anything is implemented. How far they are will- ing to move from the insulting myths
ON THE STREETS
dished out in the present courses will be viewed by the gay community as a test of police willingness to work for a better relationship with gay men and lesbians.
BLD
Cop probe: change
TORONTO — A consulting firm hired by the Metropolitan Toronto Police Commission has recommended far- reaching changes in the management of the police force.
In its report to the commission, made public April 8, the firm of Hickling- Johnston, Ltd pointed to a number of problem areas in the force, including shortcomings in relations with the public at large and with minority com- munities in particular, weaknesses in management and accountability, and an outdated paramilitary approach, especi- ally on the part of senior officers.
The comissioners, of course, have heard all this before, but since the study carries a $400,000 price tag, the criti- cisms might hit home this time.
The report comes at a time when the reputation of the Metro Toronto police is in tatters, and pressures for change are at an all-time high.
March saw the arrest of two members of the Intelligence Bureau when the RCMP broke up an international drug- import conspiracy, and the charging of an officer from another unit with traf- ficking in narcotics.
On April 5, County Court Judge Joseph Kane convicted two police offi- cers on charges of forcible confinement.
They had ordered two East Indian men into an unmarked squad car and driven them to a secluded area behind a sewage plant, where the men were slapped around and terrorized. While the offi- cers have not yet been sentenced, the Crown has argued for a jail term on the grounds that anything less would cause a "public scandal."
Meanwhile, police are still smarting because allegations of systematic torture of suspects by members of the Holdup Squad have been turned over to the human rights organization. Amnesty International. Paul Walter, head of the police union, has retaliated by publish- ing the names of 71 Toronto criminal lawyers in the April issue of his associa- tion's publication, News and Views. The list of names carries a warning that the lawyers are "anti-police" and that officers should "be guided accordingly" in dealing with them. The lawyers all signed a petition to Amnesty asking it to investigate the torture charges.
For comic relief from the scandals, there has been the spectacle of internal police trials of officers for such crimes as, in one case, eating a pear while on duty and, in another case, for growing a moustache half-a-centimetre longer than regulations permitted. (The pros- ecutor in the moustache case said it con- stituted a "breakdown in discipline" which could lead to "chaos.")
After a month of public discussion and reaction, the police commission will consider which of the consultant's recommendations to implement, if any.
BLD
Gay patrol: a different kind of streetwalking
TORONTO — With the smell of doggy- do in the air, the Toronto Gay Patrol (TCP) is once again intensifying its efforts to make downtown streets safe for lesbians and gay men. This does not mean a massive "Stoop and Scoop" campaign; rather, it is an effort to deal with a much more serious kind of shit, namely the harassment gay men and les- bians are forced to endure on the streets of their city.
The patrol organized last May to compensate for inadequate police protection and to embarrass police into taking action against queer-bashing incidents. These attacks are no longer seen as isolated events, but as examples of a pastime that, if not actually condoned by police, is certainly not discouraged. "Until we feel that the police are doing an adequate job of protecting us, we will continue to
A Toronto Gay Patrol team on duty: spring has reappeared, but so have queer-bashers
lOrrHE BODY POLITIC
patrol," says TCP's Paul Aboud.
Liz Devine, also of TCP, adds, "We are not the 'gay police.' There is a mis- conception in the community that the patrol will work gay dances or marshal demos to keep gay people in line. This is not our function."
The patrol sees itself as a reminder to gay people of the need to be wary of the threat of attack. "Awareness of danger is the key to prevention," says patrol member Rob Fulton.
TOP is presently recruiting new members who must undergo 24 hours of training in self-defence and medical and legal matters. The emphasis in the train- ing is non-violent. As Fulton says, "We are here to prevent violent situations, not to encourage them. 'Straight-bash- ing' is not tolerated."
A desire to do something about queer-bashing is cited by patrol mem- bers as their primary reason for joining TCP. Another reason is the chance to meet like-minded lesbians and gay men who share a desire for community action. As Jack Fowler of TOP explains, "There are lots of fringe benefits in- volved, but the emphasis remains on community responsibility."
Lesbians are encouraged to join the patrol. Chris Higgins explains, "Queer- bashing is not just the concern of gay men; lesbians, too, are targets of these attacks." She adds, "I joined the patrol to expose myself to gay men and learn more about them." This year the patrol will expand its territory to include a bar frequented by lesbians.
Anyone wishing to join TOP or to start a patrol in another city is invited to call 928-3325, 488-2578, or 961-8046. Classes will begin in May.
Danny CockerlineD
MAY 1982
PROSTITUTION
Mayors afraid of scaring the horses
VICTORIA — The methods that prosti- tutes and their customers use to "get to- gether" have come under fire recently from various British Columbia politi- cians who want to see changes in Cana- dian laws dealing with soliciting.
Municipal officijils in Vancouver and Victoria are urging the federal govern- ment to amend the Criminal Code to make it easier for police to charge people with soliciting, which now has to be "pressing or persistent" to be an offence. Prostitution itself is legal in Canada, but people can be charged under various soliciting, loitering, or "bawdy house" laws (See analysis in
MEDICINE
TBP, October 1981).
Vancouver recently adopted its own bylaw, with fines ranging from $350 to $2,000 for anyone trying to buy or sell sex on the city's streets. After the bylaw was passed April 6, Mayor Mike Harcourt explained that residents of the West End neighbourhood had been pre- paring to confront and photograph prostitutes if the city had not taken such action. According to Harcourt's execu- tive assistant, Jane MacDonald, the bylaw is only an interim measure, and Vancouver's municipal officials will continue to seek changes to the country's Criminal Code. MacDonald emphasized that the mayor is "not against prostitution. There are 101 ways of people getting together to do this," she said. "Prostitutes shouldn't be taking over entire neighbourhoods. What the mayor is saying is, 'Be discreet; don't use the street.' "
In the first week of enforcing the
bylaw, Vancouver police presented ele- ven people — three prostitutes and eight customers — with summonses.
Victoria's mayor, Peter Pollen, says that no similar bylaw is planned for his city because of the expected two-year challenge of the Vancouver law's valid- ity in the courts. "The whole thing has been blown up," he told TBP. "The cause of it was the growing frustration and group paranoia among police offi- cers. The public looks upon the police officer with great expectations, and when he doesn't have a law to use, he gets frustrated."
Pollen said that he, like Harcourt, was not against prostitition itself, but was opposed to its public manifes- tations. "I guess it shows hypocrisy to a degree," he admitted. "Lady Astor said, 'I don't care what you do as long as you don't scare the horses.' And that's about how I feel with prostitution." KevinOrrD
Will we get the vaccine we helped make?
Representing one of the most significant medical advances of the past decade, a vaccine to combat hepatitis B is soon to be released for general distribution.
Tests over the past five years on sever- al thousand American gay men have already shown that the vaccine is extremely effective in providing long- term protection against infection with the hepatitis B virus.
Merck, Sharpe and Dohme (MSD), the Pennsylvania-based pharmaceutical firm which developed the vaccine, recently announced that the product will be available for purchase July 1 in the US, and in Canada as soon as the federal Department of Health and Wel- fare issues a licence. The MSD distrib- utor in Canada estimates that they will begin distribution here by September or October. But fears are mounting in the gay community that the high cost and the limited quantities likely to be re- leased initially in Canada may mean that most gay men will not get the vaccine.
Hepatitis B is one of the most serious and common sexually-transmitted dis- eases among gay men. In any twelve- month period, as many as one out of every four sexually active gay men will contract the disease. Those affected may exhibit mild to severe symptoms, such as inflammation of the liver, jaun- dice, fever, weakness, loss of appetite, malaise, headache and muscle pain. About 6 to 10% of patients will become chronic carriers, with virus or viral pro- tein continuing to circulate in their blood. Up to one in a hundred cases will result in death, either from acute Hver failure or from the eventual appearance of liver cancer.
In addition to gay men, other persons at high risk of contracting the disease are those routinely exposed to blood (surgeons, dentists, nurses, medical lab technicians, kidney dialysis patients) as well as individuals in mental and penal institutions. With 100,000 new cases of hepatitis B occurring each year in North America, demand for the vaccine prom- ises to be fierce.
MSD representatives have said that, at least initially, quantities of the vaccine will be limited. It is the first vaccine to be made from human blood, and the 65 weeks necessary for production and testing is longer than the manufacturing time of any other vaccine.
The process begins with the collection
/
of blood plasma from individuals known to be chronic carriers of the virus. Because of their high infection and carrier rate, gay men have supplied much of the starting material for the vaccine's production.
During the manufacturing process the blood plasma is treated to inactivate any residual virus, subsequent to the purifi- cation of viral proteins. Studies on gay men, first in New York City and then in five other major US centres, have
shown that three injections of the puri- fied viral protein given over a period of six months result in complete protective immunity in almost all cases.
The vaccine does not provide any protection against hepatitis A, which is caused by a completely different virus and which is responsible for about half the hepatitis cases in gay men. Hepatitis A, however, is not considered as serious an illness because it does not give rise to the carrier state nor to Uver cancer. The vaccine also will not provide protection against much rarer viruses which can also cause hepatitis.
Hubert Martel, vice-president of MSD Canada, told TBP that the company hopes there will be no shortage of vac- cine in Canada. "Hundreds of thou- sands of doses will be available," he said, "and while there is a limited sup- ply, we expect to be able to meet demand." Martel also remarked that the vaccine will be very expensive, per- haps $150 for the three injections. Prov- incial health insurance programmes will not cover this expense in most circum- stances, leaving a heavy financial bur- den upon individuals.
However, TBP has learned from reliable sources in the US that the quan- tity of vaccine to be released here is almost certain to be far less than "hun- dreds of thousands" of doses. Because of production shortfalls, Canada will likely receive enough vaccine to immu- nize only 30,000 people. This will clearly be far less than the demand, given that in Ontario alone there are 20,(X)0 high- risk health professionals and 10,(X)0 ins- titutionalized persons in addition to a large gay male population.
With the threat of a shortage loom- ing, some provincial governments are considering purchasing quantities of the vaccine for distribution. Saskatchewan apparently has already placed an order with MSD Canada's head ofice in Mon- treal. Dr R Andreychuk of the Ontario Ministry of Health told TBP that they are presently holding discussions to decide the extent to which the province will become involved in the distribution of the vaccine. If substantial quantities are purchased by provincial 'govern- ments, the priority for distribution would lie with the provinces instead of MSD.
In either case, gay men may find themselves ranked with low priority compared to dentists, doctors and ins- titutionalized persons, it would be ironic indeed if a vaccine made from gay blood, and safety tested on gay vol- unteers, were not readily available to our community.
Bill Lewis I]
Mandatory VD testing dropped
TORONTO —The local Board of Heath has officially "canned" the court pro- gramme that led to 20 men, charged as "keepers" in last year's bath raids, be- ing ordered to undergo VD testing.
The VD Review Committee, in a recent report to the board, recommended that the programme be terminated on the grounds that its social benefits did not justify the threat to individual liberties.
The issue of mandatory VD testing was called into question after Dr William Frank of the Department of Public Health VD Control Section was quoted in the media on February 12, 1981, stating that the men charged as "keepers" would be required to undergo testing. This ac- tion prompted a letter from two Toronto physicians, Randall Coates and Stephen
Atkinson, to the Board of Health criti- cizing the programme and questioning the motive in maintaining it. "We are hard pressed to view these issuances as measures of VD prevention. Rather, they appear to us as additional indications of harassment of the gay minority under the guise of an archaic legal mandate," wrote Coates and Atkinson.
The rationale for the court pro- gramme, which routinely ordered those charged with certain sexual offences to undergo VD testing, was that these indiv- iduals ran a greater risk of being infected. Although the VD Review Committee found this to be true of prostitutes, they found no sound epidemiological evidence to justify mandatory screening of "keepers of steambaths."
The report also emphasized that confi- dentiality was being breached by the court programme, since it was public knowledge that people charged with cer- tain sexual offences would be required to undergo VD testing. The VD Prevention Act guarantees that all information rela- ting to individuals tested would remain strictly confidential.
In a similar incident in Montreal in October 1977, 144 men charged as found- ins after a police raid on the Truxx bar were forced to undergo medical examina- tions for VD, and then ordered to submit to further tests as one of the bail require- ments pending trial. After a long battle, the Quebec Court of Appeal decided in August 1979 that the municipal court had exceeded its jurisdiction in ordering these subsequent tests. The legality of the first test, however, since the Public Health Act regulation allows ihcm, was upheld. I)ann> C'ockerline
T
MAY 1982
THE BODY POLITIC/11
ORGANIZING
Lesbian action sparks new groups
Montreal, Toronto and five British Columbia cities were the sites of organized lesbian activity against the right March 27. The day of simulta- neous events was planned at last May's lesbian conference in Vancouver.
In the province where the idea first caught fire, coordination was provided by the Lesbian Action Committee of the British Columbia Federation of Women. While only small numbers of women attended a workshop on lesbians and the law in Vernon and a video screening in Terrace, in both centres les- bian support groups have been formed as a result. Northern Lesbians, based in Terrace, has established links with gay people in Prince Rupert and Alaska, while Vernon has already arranged a social event involving lesbians from all over the Okanagan Valley, including women from mixed gay organizations in Kelowna and Kamloops.
In Victoria, a series of social and edu- cational activities was organized by an ad hoc group of lesbians from the Les- bian Caucus of Rape Assault and the Vancouver Island lesbian newspaper, Flagrant. It included radio and televi- sion interviews, a display at the women's bookstore, a film and video festival and the first mixed (lesbian and gay male) dance the city has seen in six years. The dance was co-sponsored by the Island Gay Community Centre and proceeds went to the lesbian community.
A group of eight Vancouver women took only three weeks to pull off the most ambitious of the March 27 pro- jects. The festivities ranged from a Sat- urday lunch, to a rally emceed by come- dian Lorna Boshman and entertained by singers Maura and Luna, to a march led by marshalls wielding lavender pom poms, which wound its way through throngs of Saturday shoppers in fash- ionable Gastown. A day of workshops took place on Sunday.
Montreal's Day of Lesbian Solidarity seems to have been the most serious of the affairs. A day of workshops, con- ducted in French, began at 9 am with 50
participants. Attendance had tripled by the time the discussions concluded. Ac- cording to one observer, discussing topics like Differences Among Lesbians and Lesbian Visibility kept the day from living up to its name or the hopes of the organizers. "Beginning with the ques- tion of what a lesbian is really brought out divisions rather than solidarity," she noted.
The workshops were followed by a plenary, a film showing and a dance. In the plenary, some lesbians raised objec- tions to other women participating in this year's gay pride march. Two deci- sions were made: to prepare a manifesto and to meet again in October.
The Lesbian Day of Action held in Toronto also departed from the fighting the right theme set out by the Vancouver conference.
The afternoon began with ballroom dancing (essential for the socially cor- rect dyke this season, according to the poster) and a self-defence demonstra- tion. Discussions of politics and sex drew the most enthusiastic response from the more than 1(X) women in at- tendance. "Women were attracted by our fun approach," said organizer Weir, "but once they got there they were interested in serious discussions."
The sex workshops were the first such public discussions organized by a les- bian group in Toronto. "It wasn't possi- ble for everyone to open up in such a large group," one participant com- plained afterwards. "I couldn't have said what I was really thinking, when we were talking about what turns us on, for fear of being judged," said another.
It was an important beginning, Weir insists. "We're moving away from les- bian feminism as defined by the Furies in 1970 when everything was wonderful and we were all supposed to think alike," she said. "That orthodoxy is breaking down; knee-jerk responses aren't good enough any more. I think that's the best that can be hoped for."
The day was financed by a grant from the Gay Community Appeal.
Chris BearchellD
Getting set for Doing It!
TORONTO — "Doing It! Lesbian and Gay Liberation in the 80s," a national conference and festival, will be held here June 26 to July 4.
A dance put on by Toronto's Gay Community Dance Committee will launch the festivities, followed by Les- bian and Gay Pride Day celebrations the next day.
The conference will begin June 30 and will include lots for the brain (discussion on policing, lesbian and gay youth, the right, the politics of sex), lots for the soul and brain (movies, theatre events, art displays) and lots for the soul alone (dances, picnics, opportunities to meet people).
Groups like Gay Fathers and the North American Man /Boy Love Asso- ciation will be holding mini-confer- ences. There will be sessions with names like "Wilde 82" (herstory and history), and "Lesbians in the Gay Movement" (sponsored by the Coalition for Gay Rights in Ontario) and a gay media con- ference sponsored by TBP.
A highlight of the conference will be the world premiere of a film on Toron- to's 1981 bath raids, with a cast of four thousand.
For registration or further informa- tion, contact "Doing It!" in care of the Toronto Gay Community Council, 730 Bathurst Street, Toronto, ON M5S 2R4, or telephone (416) 533-6824.
Come and "Do It" in Toronto this summer!
Danny CockeriineD
Gay council a new umbrella for Toronto
From an underground subculture a decade ago to thousands of angry — or celebratory — lesbians and gay men in the streets (not once, but eight or nine times in the past year), Toronto's gay community has seen some dramatic changes. Growth hasn't always been an easy, or an even, process. The early Toronto gay movement was
dominated by one or two umbrella or- ganizations, much like those that thrive in many Canadian cities today. The typical gay liberation umbrella group has a newsletter, a lesbian caucus, an education committee, a phoneline, a political action committee and a dance committee. And nowadays, in larger cities, much of its activity is probably geared to what the Moral Majority calls recruitment — making it easier for more of us to come out.
In the course of a decade in Toronto, a disjointed collection of 60 or more so- cial, religious, political, cultural, pro- fessional, recreational and community service organizations (not to mention many gay-identified businesses and in- dividual professionals) has emerged.
Somewhere along the way, though, they or their forebears gave up trying to fit under one organizational umbrella. By 1978, when a meeting was called to organize a common response to Anita Bryant's visit, many lesbian and gay male activists were surprised at how many others showed up, at how many people they knew, and at how many they didn't.
Since then, especially through George Hislop's attempts to enter municipal politics, Toronto's gay population has acquired a much higher public profile which has contributed to its own confi- dence and development. The higher profile has proven to be a mixed bless- ing, bringing with it increased hostility, most notably from the police, which has in turn hastened the community's trans- formation.
In the wake of the bathhouse raids, an idea that had been kicking around for a while took on new urgency. The Gay Community Council was formed.
Membership has ballooned since the first dozen groups began meeting in the drafty basement of the 519 Community Centre in March 1981. As many as 25 organizations at a time, from among a total of about 35 participants, send rep- resentatives to meetings held the fourth Wednesday of every month.
A temporary structure for the council was adopted in January of this year and it is still, carefully, unfolding. A com- mittee of five coordinators keeps things going between meetings. Standing com- mittees have been formed to investigate gay community/police relations (the sin-
Find the answers to these and other grave questions at the
^^^^
SOAP OPERA NIGHT
jf^^ic^ The Late Great Cafe • 580 Parliament (At Wellesley) • Toronto, Canada • 922-6655
12/THE BODY POLITIC
MAY 1982
gle biggest item on the council's agenda since the release of the Bruner Report), social services for young lesbians and gay men, a committee to organize "Do- ing it!" Lesbian and Gay Liberation in the '80s — a conference scheduled for June 30 - July 4, the inescapable finance committee and, working closely with it, a membership committee.
This last, modest-sounding project — a membership committee — is pivotal to the council's future, according to con- ventional wisdom among existing coun- cil representatives. They know they have to be able to sell the organization as a more innovative, vital version of the too-often-disputed "umbrella," both to the members of their own groups and to the many groups that have so far only received council minutes.
With a membership structure that al- lows each group to choose its own level of participation, fees designed to cover costs while not taxing anyone's re- sources beyond what they can afford and a commitment to an efficient ver- sion of consensus decision-making, they shouldn't have too much difficuhy. Gay people not affiliated with other groups may participate directly in the council through its own committees and by sup- porting its projects — particularly "Do- ing it!" and the 24-hour recorded telephone calendar (923-GAYS), for which the council has now taken re- sponsibility. The council has two impor- tant things going for it: a lot of exciting things cue happening in the community, and many of the people who make them happen recognize the value of talking to each other.
Chris BearchellD
City pays GO stafT
OTTAWA — Gays of Ottawa has received a $10,000 municipal grant to hire a volunteer coordinator, whose job will include improving liaison between the gay community and social service agencies, as well as generating greater gay community involvement in the ac- tivities of Gays of Ottawa.
The grant was awarded on April 7, after being initially rejected in the city's committee system. According to one GO activist, much lobbying was re- quired for City Council to overturn the Social Planning and Development Com- mittee's initial verdict.
On the day of the vote, broadcaster Lowell Green used his three hour hot- line radio show to get 155 people to reg- ister their opposition to the grant by phoning city hall. Green admitted that he didn't know what the grant was for, just that it was going to Gays of Ottawa.
Apart from that, GO deliberately tried to keep media coverage to a mini- mum before the grant was approved. "We were more interested in getting the money than the publicity," gay activist John Duggan said. "But the extensive coverage that did occur after the vote A-as surprisingly non-sensation- alistic."D
SPORTS
In pursuit of the coveted ruby slippers
Correction
In last issue's story on submissions to the Alberta Human Rights Commis- sion ("Groups pressure AHRC," page 11), the name of Henry Berg was incorrectly substituted for that of Ben Berg, the member of Gay In- formation and Resources Calgary who presented a brief to the commis- sion on April 7.
Our apologies lo Ben Berg for this error. The Collective
TORONTO — The Judy Garland Memorial Bowling League played the last evening of its regular season April 19 and, for the second year running, the team with the unlikely name of Rain- bow High captured the coveted Ruby Slippers trophy.
The JGMBL is one of the oldest gay sports leagues in North America, dating its origins in the mid 1960s.
In the 1966-67 season, the St James Bowling League consisted of eight teams, one of which boasted four les- bians and one gay male known to the league as "Gypsy." When one of the team members took ill, Jim Smith (not his real name), a friend of Gypsy, was asked to substitute. The next year there were two gay teams, and by the follow- ing year half the league was gay. Jim Smith became secretary, the only official position the league had then. In 1969 the league declared itself all-gay and changed its name to the Judy Garland Memorial Bowling League.
Smith recalls the early days of mixed- orientation play with amusement. To the dismay of straight bowlers the members of one of the early gay teams, who called themselves the Butter Tarts, were not at all closety about their sex- uahty. They developed disconcerting habits such as shrilling in unison "oh no!" whenever a team member bowled a gutterball. One night the straights got so upset they challanged the gays to "step outside." Unimpressed, the But- ter Tarts, hands on hips, retorted "Are you kidding?"
With the formation of the JGMBL, such problems were eliminated. The new name was taken from a spot on Fire Island between the Pines and Cherry Grove then called the Judy Garland Memorial Park (now spoken of as the Meat Rack). The Judy Garland theme has inspired team names such as Emerald City, Friends of Dorothy, and Toto Too.
In 1980 the International Gay Bowl- ing Organization (IGBO) was formed, the JGMBL being one of the founding members. All the other leagues were
American. The proliferation of gay bowling leagues in most large American cities since then has been remarkable. There are eight in Milwaukee alone.
Smith, still the league secretary, at- tributes bowling's success to the fact that it is an equahzing sport. Under the handicap system, each player competes
against his own averge score, so that anyone can be a "star for a night" by bowling much better than her average. Smith contrasts this to softball (of which he is a avid player) where the less skilled team members never really get a chance to save a game. "Bowling is something you can do outside the bars on a week night that includes competi- tion but not too much pressure," Smith said. "It's very social. In the course of the season you get to meet almost everyone in the league."
The American leagues are continually amjized by JGMBL's outrageousness at international tournaments. At the Texas Roll-Off Tournament (TROT II) in Houston which took place at the time of last July's royal wedding,- the Rainbow High team sported tiaras and handed out royal couple matchboxes "from the family" "All those big hunks said
things Uke, 'Can I have two? My mother collects them,' " Smith chortled.
Thirty-five JGMBL players attended the Second Dixie Classic in Atlanta over the Easter weekend. They took "lots of Toronto postcards and those Dominion shopping bags that say, 'You'll love us for more than our meat'." Obviously the Americans do; Houston for one won't play in a tournament unless Toronto is invited.
But the history of the league hasn't been all smooth rolling. In the summer of 1979, the downtown Olympia Ed- ward bowling alley closed, causing the other Toronto gay league (SLY I) to fold and the JGMBL , with a depleted membership, to play the following season at an alley in suburban North York. Since then membership has swell- ed again and this past year has seen a switch to ten-pin bowling (which the Americans play) from five-pin.
With nicknames for its members like Betty Anne, Gypsy, and Porno (Jim Smith), and a nightly Tessie Time fea- turing the tacky jokes of "Tessie", who has become almost a league institution. Bowling night for the Judy Garland is as much a party as anything else.
As this season draws to a close with the playoffs, the league looks forward to its infamous annual banquet. True to the tradition started by the Butter Tarts in 1969, when they affronted the for- mally-dressed straights by arriving in tennis shorts and elbow-length gloves and handing out two dozen butter tarts (the edible kind) to their "favourite players," the banquets have always been the occasion of much outrageousness.
The banquet has been held at the Town and Country and at the Metropolitan Community Church. Both places told them never to come back. For three years the banquet was also held at the now-defunct Carriage House Hotel and at the old King Edward Hotel. Quipped Smith, "we're good at closing places down."
Gerry Keith D
MAY 1982
BAWDY POLITICS
On the road with the found-in follies
TORONTO — With its cast of thou- sands and its three locations, Toronto's famous bath-raid trials seem to be all over the map. Here's an update:
Back Door Gym and Sauna
Allan C Fetterly, owner of the Back Door Gym and Sauna, was found guilty of keeping a common bawdy house in a judgement handed down by Judge H Meen, March 26. Fetterly was fined $3,000. A sum of $1 ,200, confiscated by police on the day of the raid, was ordered returned to Fetterly over Crown objections. Co-accused, Dale DeLong and Gerald Willett, were given condi- tional discharges and one year's probation.
Fetterly is appealing the conviction, a process which could take up to ten months. However, the Crown is report- ed to have advised the Back Door's landlord of the convction. Such a notice obliges the landlord to "take all reason- able steps to prevent a recurrence of the offence," which means the bath could well be closed.
Until the appeal is heard, however, closure is halted. The Back Door Gym and Sauna remains open. "Business is booming," Fetterly told TBP.
Barracks/Club Baths
Did police have "reasonable and probable" grounds for laying con- spiracy charges against the owners of the Barracks and the Club? As defence counsel Morris Manning sees it, they did not.
A preliminary hearing began before Judge D F Graham April 1, the details of which we cannot report. However, Manning brought the proceedings to an abrupt halt by giving notice of appeal of a decision made within the hearing, which is now not expected to resume until September at the earliest.
The conspiracy charges were laid by Sgt Carter of Intelligence. His inves- tigation, he told Manning before the hearing, did not discover any links between the bath owners and organized crime.
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RTPC legal co-ordinator Dennis Findlay: how one helping hand can get two found-ins off
Scarborough Fare
"Scarborough? Isn 't that where the bluffs are?" "Yeah. They used to be along the shore. Now they've moved them indoors. " (Overheard in the court corridor.)
Site of the indoor bluffs is Scarbor- ough's Courtroom 405. April 16 saw the conclusion of the first eight of 19 trial days set aside in Scarborough to try bath-raid found-ins. Over 135 cases were parachuted into Toronto's eastern suburb at a marathon trial-setting ses- sion February 19. Of these, two have already been lobbed back into the city.
So far, all found-ins have pleaded not guilty, leaving the onus on the crown to prove otherwise. Trials can be short or long, but the shortest are those in which the Crown fails to produce evidence, as when arresting officers are unable to appear in court.
Bawdy house status of bar upheld
MONTREAL — The Quebec Court of Appeal on March 9 upheld a 1980 ruling that the owner of the Truxx bar was guilty of keeping a common bawdy- house. The court also maintained the fine of $5,000 levied against owner Giuseppe Salvaggio while reducing his prison term from 10 to three days.
Truxx was originally raided by police in October 1977 and 140 men were arrested as found-ins. These men have not yet been tried, nor have they had even one court appearance, presumably because the Crown was awaiting the outcome of the keeper's appeal.
The raid caused considerable anger in the gay community towards the police, who descended on the club in full riot gear, forced many of the patrons to sub- mit later to VD tests and locked up 20 men in jail overnight. The subsequent trial only increased gay animosity, as the presiding judge, Roland Langlois (now retired), was blatantly partial to the Crown's case and often questioned the accused in an aggressive manner. His
judgment paid no attention to defence testimony and rested entirely on police accounts of activities in the bar.
In the appeal court decision. Judge Montgomery admitted that Langlois's cross-examination of defence witnesses was uncalled for, but maintained he was not in error in giving more credibility to police testimony. The court also found that acts of gross indecency, by which the trial judge specified he meant mutu- al masturbation and anal intercourse, had taken place, and that even though these acts were performed in the toilets, the stall doors were open, allowing anyone to see what was going on.
Montgomery added that he felt even if the majority of the Truxx clientele did not participate in indecent acts them- selves, they went there to watch. Part of his reason for this was the full name of the establishment, "Truxx Cruising Bar," which, he said, was suggestive of "habitually promiscuous" behaviour.
It is not yet known whether the owner intends to appeal the matter further.
RTD
Observers have noted a possible advantage for found-ins brought to trial in Scarborough. They have a long way to travel, but so do Crown witnesses. The latter very often don't make it and charges are then withdrawn.
Fully adjudicated trials have been occurring on average of one trial per trial-day. Identification of the accused has become a crucial issue in these trials. Judges have been allowing counsel to keep their clients concealed in the body of the court until identified and pointed out by a Crown witness, usually the arresting officer.
In order to protect the rights of the found-ins in this regard, Crown witnes- ses have been sent out of the court to prevent them from seeing the accused during the reading of the charges. However, one observer found that by standing in the court hallway it was easy to see a defendant through windows in the courtroom door when he left the body of the court to stand before the judge while the charge was read.
Fears were expressed that the win- dows thus provided excluded Crown witnesses with an unnoticed opportunity to refresh their memories. The Crown vehemently declared such fears were groundless, but the same observer later noticed Crown witnesses had suddenly become quite scrupulous about not appearing near the windows.
Protection of the identity of the defendants has in some cases been car- ried to comic extremes. One court visi- tor, incorrectly identified by an officer as the man he arrested the night of the raid, stood up to deny that he was the person charged. Dismayed, the Crown demanded, "What is your name?" Un- dismayed, the visitor refused to state his name: "I have a driver's licence. I'll show that to you," he offered. "What is your name?" the Crown shouted. The visitor remained silent, looking at the defence counsel. Argument broke out between the contending attorneys. The visitor remained nameless. The over- looked defendant came forward and identified himself. The case was dismissed.
Defendants have also been winning
acquittal on the ground of "lawful excuse." Judges have been accepting a variety of explanations from accused persons: a cheap room for the night; sauna used for therapeutic reasons (arthritis, asthma); poor late-night transit service to home in the suburbs; a visit to check gym facilities; newly- painted apartment unpleasant....
Found-in charges may well be the most boring to prosecute. Until the 1981 raids they had never been extensively fought. By fighting the charges, gay defendants have been igniting a proce- dure that had previously degenerated into rubber stamping.
Dennis Findlay, court monitor for the Right to Privacy Committee, learned of a defendant who had come to court April 6 wanting to plead not guilty. The only drawback was that the accused had no lawyer. Findlay advised the Crown that he would appear for the found-in. The practice was not unheard of, but it was Findlay's first try. At the end of his presentation, the judge gave the defend- ant an acquittal. Two days later, Find- lay argued a second case. He won that too. A rueful Crown remarked after the first win: "He did a good job. A fellow with no legal training at all!" and then added sceptically, " — he says."
Crown Attorneys have a way with words. Two of them say "heeterosex- ual," giving the word a thermal touch.
An undercover officer testifying at the Barracks /Club conspiracy hearings told of seeing a naked male with his legs drawn up "in what is known as the 'military' position." Sexologists in the court concluded that the officer meant to say the "missionary" position, but assumed the Barracks would have a martial word for it.
Found-in Tally
Completed trials as of mid-April: 100. Wins: 79; losses: 18; pending: 2\J
Prominent Canadians sign up for privacy
TORONTO - What do Pierre Berton, John Sewell, the Student Christian Movement of Canada, the Cooperative Housing Federation of Toronto, Robert Fulford, Leo Panitch, June Callwood, and the Qual<er Committee on Jails and Justice all have in common?
They all want to see Canada's ' 'bawdy house" laws repealed, and they've all signed an advocacy ad which the Right to Privacy Committee will run in the Globe and Mail, stating just that.
The full-page ad is scheduled to run at some point during deliberations by the federal government's Justice and Legal Af- fairs Committee on Bill C-53. This omnibus bill will, if passed, bring changes to various parts of the Criminal Code, including sec- tions dealing with age of consent and a host of sexual offences. The legislation does not, however, include repeal of the Code's bawdy house provisions. As of TBP's mid- April press date, the bill was scheduled to be before committee from April 21 through the end of May.
There 's still time to ' 'sign up for privacy. " Send your name, signature and a cheque for $10 (to help pay for the ad) to Privacy Ad Campaign, 730 Bathurst St, Toronto, ON M5S 2R4.
Kevin OrrB
77»0
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tate ofthenation.
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14/THE BODY POLITIC
IN COURT
Teacher faces indecency charges
MONTREAL — A Montreal teacher was charged on two counts each of gross indecency and contributing to juvenile delinquency April 8, when it was discovered he had been having sex with two male students, aged 15 and 16.
Roch Menard, 43, a music teacher at I'ecole polyvalente La Magdeleine in the Montreal suburb of Laprairie, was charged following complaints by the students' mothers. Menard resigned immediately after the charges were made public.
The story received sensational cover- age in the Journal de Montreal and particularly in the scandeil sheet Photo Police which rsm a two-page spread complete with photos. Both papers alleged that prostitution was involved, and hinted that Menard has had rela- tions with at least 10 students over the past few years.
Menard emphatically denied the prostitution allegations, stating the students were willing participants, and that he had given them money for taxi fare and other expenses, but not for sex. In fact, Menard told Photo Police he had been living with the mother of one of the adolescents, and that she had been fully aware of his relationship with her son.
Even school board president RoUand Charlebois was quoted in the Journal as saying he felt that while Menard was primarily responsible, the students had had sex with him of their own accord. "At 15 years of age," he said, "one is no longer a child."
The trial date is set for May 4.
Robert IVowD
DISCRIMINATION
"A delicate matter": School bars speaker
MONTREAL — A high school prin- cipal refused to allow a speaker from Gay and Lesbian Friends of Concordia (University) to address a grade 11 humanities class recently because the topic was "a delicate matter and parents might object."
The speaker was to be part of a pres- entation by a group of Wagar High School students to their classmates on the subject of homosexuality. One of the students in the group, Peggy Donen- feld, said the project had already been approved by parents. However, princip- al Herre de Groot refused to take this into account and vetoed the speaker.
Gay and Lesbian Friends of Concor- dia member Jon Wolfe has sent a letter of complaint to Quebec's human rights commission, since the province's rights code prohibits discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation. Due to the backlog of cases, the complaint will probably not be heard for several months, according to Giselle Cloutier of the commission.
The class presentation went ahead, with the students using an audiotape of an interview with members of the Con- cordia group rather than the live speak- er. According to Peggy Donenfcld, "The class was very interested and 1 think the students learned a lot from it."
The incident received some coverage in local news media, including two artic-
Flghting to clear his name: Gay social worker Rob Joyce at Vancouver's Senator House
les in the Montreal Gazette. "Consider- ing the controversy generated by this issue, I think we raised more awareness than we planned on," said Donenfeld. Philip Fotheringham D
Fired social worker seeks compensation
VANCOUVER — A gay social service worker continues the battle to have his name cleared of allegations that he had sex with a fifteen-year-old hustler. Rob Joyce was fired February 3 from his position as a job counsellor at Senator House, a multi-faceted pro- gramme for street kids in the Granville- Davie Street area (see TBP, March). His employer, the British Columbia Correc- tions Association (BCCA), dismissed Joyce for reasons ranging from using working hours "to attend to matters of a personal nature" to being "un- cooperative, unpleasant, demanding and hostile." The reasons were supplied after Joyce repeatedly demanded writ- ten clearance of the unsubstantiated charges that he had paid a youth $60 for a blow-job.
"I was in a Catch-22 situation," said Joyce. "If I had said nothing the allega- tion would stand; since I complained, I'm punished for complaining."
In a carefully worded letter March 8, William Kelley, chairman of the Man- agement Committee of the BCCA, told Joyce that he was "satisfied" that there was no reason for his employer to dis-
RELIGION
miss, suspend or discipline Joyce as there was no "evidence" to support the allegations. Included with this statement was a letter of reference praising Joyce for his tenacity and his ability to work independently.
Joyce called Kelley' s statements "val- ueless" and vowed he will continue to prepare a case for wrongful dismissal against his employer. "In fact, the letter really has done nothing but aggravate the situation," Joyce told TBP.
Still pending is a report from the provincial ombudsman's office which was initiated in February and is ex- pected to be released shortly. "I think the (ombudsman's) report will clear me beyond a shadow of a doubt," Joyce remarked.
Joyce is determined to receive com- pensation for both his dismissal and the "three months of agony" which have resulted from his pleas for just treat- ment. He feels his credibiUty as a social service worker is jeopardized until all parties concerned denounce the allega- tions in writing.
Joyce continues to plan legal action against the provincial Ministry of Human Resources and the Alternate Shelter Society, the body which oversees the Senator House Project.
Craig Patterson D
Forces fight rights
OTTAWA — The Canadian Armed Forces has asked the federal govern- ment for exemption from certain sec- tions of the new Charter of Rights and
Freedoms barring discrimination on the basis of opinion or belief, criminal record, sex and mental or physical han- dicap. However, government officials indicate that the request will almost certainly be denied, and that the Armed Forces Act might even be tightened up to ensure that the miUtary compHes fully with the new Charter.
A National Defence Department spokesperson told the Globe and Mail March 10 that the exemptions were needed "to ensure the discipline and order that is necessary in the Armed Forces."
Although sexual orientation is includ- ed in neither the Charter nor the Cana- dian Human Rights Act, the Armed Forces have made clear their opposition to extending protection to homosexuals. National Defence deputy judge advo- cate Col Frank Karwandy told the na- tional defence subcommittee of the Sen- ate Committee on Foreign Affairs that homosexuals are open to blackmail even when their sexuality is known, and that "History has shown that homosexual conduct undermines morale and creates conflicts in interpersonal relationships which would have a detrimental effect on the operational efficiency of the Forces." He added that he felt the Can- adian public was not prepared to accept homosexuals in the military.
Karwandy also listed a number of
other factors which he said could under- mine the standards of the Forces, such as certain political beliefs, criminal records, mental handicaps and women in combat roles.
It is uncertain if or when the matter will be dealt with by parliament.
Robert Trow □
A gay United Church moderator?
TORONTO — A prominent local clergy- man has publicly prayed that his church will elect a homosexual to its highest office.
Rev Clifford Elliott, minister of down- town Bloor Street United Church, made the remark April 17 in his column in the Toronto Star. It came at the end of a point-by-point refutation of five argu- ments used recently by the Hamilton Conference of the United Church of Canada to justify its refusal to ordain openly lesbian and gay ministers.
Elliott wrote that the Hamilton body's decision "fills me with great sadness. More than that. Shame.... We are presently celebrating the election of our first woman moderator. 1 pray it will not be long before we elect our first homosexual."
To the argument that it would be difficult to place gay ministers, Elliott replied that his church "has ordained women for over 40 years — long before congregations were open to receiving them."
He countered the fear that lesbian or gay ministers would molest children with a flat denial, stating that "homosexuals are no more likely to be child molesters than are heterosexuals."
While the Hamilton group thought that lack of protection for homosexuals in human rights codes argued for excluding them from the ministry, Elliott wrote, "Surely the church should cam- paign for such protection, not bow to the injustice."
Elliott showed the folly of the fourth argument, thai it vsinild not he reason
able to ask homosexual ministers to be celibate, by stating the simple fact that celibacy is not required of any United Church clergy.
The final reason given by the Hamilton conference was that there is no theological support for a "gay theology." According to Elliot, that is "merely to say that some theologians disagree with others on the matter of homosexuality."
The decision of one conference does not, however, represent the views of the church as a whole. The personnel com- mittee of the Toronto conference, for example, has recently recommended that a person's sexual orientation not be con- sidered when judging candidates for or- dination. And the church's next General Council will consider adopting wide- ranging policy changes on sexual moral- ity, including a recommendation (hat openly gay and lesbian candidates be accepted for ordination.
Roger Spalding"
MAY 1982
THE BODY POLITIC/15
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lerrHE body politic
DO: Indefinite term for non-violent "crimes"
George Milne is a prisoner in the federal penitentiary in Mission, British Colum- bia. He is serving an indeterminate sen- tence for committing acts of indecency with males under the age of 19.
According to the Criminal Code of Canada, gross indecency (section 157) carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. George Milne may be in jail for much longer than that. He has been classified as a "Dangerous Offender" (DO).
Milne was originally arrested in Febru- ary 1979 on five counts each of gross in- decency and indecent assault. He pleaded guilty to the former charges later that year and was awaiting sentence when the Crown announced it was going to apply for DO classification.
Milne had two convictions for inde- cent assault on his record, both more than 10 years previously. However, Milne's current lawyer, Richard Brail, suspects that the DO appUcation would not have been made had Milne been heterosexual.
During Milne's 1980 hearing before Judge G Stephen Denroche, psychiatrists testifying for both the Crown and the de- fence said they felt Milne could not con- trol his sexual desires. Denroche accord- ingly declared Milne a DO and sentenced him to the indeterminate jail term.
In September 1981, as part of an appeal of Milne's DO status, two pro- gressive psychiatrists agreed that Milne's sexuEil preference could not be changed without treatment, but they maintained that he was not a harmful person. They recommended continued treatment rath- er than incarceration.
On March 10 of this year, however, the British Columbia Court of Appeal unan- imously upheld Judge Denroche's deci- sion. If Milne had won this appeal, he would still have faced sentencing on the original gross indecency charges. Now, he will be jailed indefinitely.
• Milne's plight is a graphic demonstration of the inhumane treatment so-called sex offenders receive under Canada's Criminal Code. As a DO he will probably be required to submit to psychiatric rehabilitation in order to demonstrate that he is willing to change his sexual pat- terns. He will also be in constant danger of physical abuse at the hands of other prisoners. In a letter to TBPlast fall, Milne wrote: "Things have gotten so bad I voluntarily signed myself into 'the hole,' a segregated unit in the prison, for my own safety."
But, like many other men classified as DOS (most of whom are gay pedophiles), Milne's history shows that he could hard- ly be considered dangerous. When he was tried for gross indecency in 1979, the Crown dropped the five additional counts of indecent assault because there was no evidence of force, violence or coercion. During the tricil, the youths tes- tified that they had been willing particip- ants. Even the sentencing judge des- cribed Milne as a gentle, non-coercive individual.
Section 689 of the Criminal Code defines a DO as someone who "has shown a failure to control his sexual impulses, and a likelihood of causing injury, pain or other evil to other persons, through failure in the future to control his sexual impulses." Under Sec- tion 689, all that is necessary as evidence is a sex-related conviction and testimony
from at least two psychiatrists.
In 1976 the National Gay Rights Coali- tion (NGRC) presented a brief to the House of Commons Standing Commit- tee on Justice and Legal Affairs calling for the abolition of DO legislation. The brief cited a number of flaws in the Criminal Code which reveal an inherent bias against the DO and deny him the rights guaranteed to persons charged under other sections of the Code.
The strongest criticism made by the NGRC brief arises from the lack of clear definition of what a DO is. The Code gives courts little direction in determin- ing dangerousness. Like other ill-de- fined Criminal Code concepts (such as indecency), dangerousness must be sub- jectively determined by the presiding judge.
A former professor of social work at McMaster University, Cyril Greenland, studied the cases of 17 DOs in Ontario penitentiaries in 1971. He concluded that "only three of the 17 had been dangerous in the sense of seriously threatening the life or safety of others. The other men were apparently guilty of grossly offen- sive or indecent behaviour but were not physically violent. In view of this, the practice of sentencing pedophiles and ex- hibitionists to years of inceu-ceration can hardly be justified."
The DO is somewhat unique among sexual offenders in that his sentence is determined as much on the basis of psy- chiatric evidence as on the so-called crim- inal activities he may have committed. But there is no reason to think psychiat- rists are in any better position to assess dangerousness than the courts are. In a 1976 report in the Globe and Mail, Univ- ersity of Toronto criminologist Richard V Erickson noted that "psychiatrists can- not make reliable or valid judgments about dangerousness, are more likely to be wrong than right in predicting future violent offences and tend to err on the side of caution, causing persons to be in- carcerated for longer periods than they should be."
On February 9 of this year, Russell Fleming, a director of the Penetanguish- ene Mental Health Centre, was quoted in the Globe and Mail as saying that "the courts should stop foisting the question on psychiatrists" and should make the decision based on the offender's previous record. "The courts shouldn't ask us to get involved in this adversarial nonsense where a Crown attorney shops cU"ound for a right-wing psychiatrist to say the man should go (to an institution), while the defence shops around for a left-wing psychiatrist to say he shouldn't," Fleming said.
The law further reveals its anti-sexual bias in allowing the DO classification to be conferred after only one offence. While the Criminal Code states that a pattern of repetitive behaviour must be established before habitual criminal sta- tus can be conferred, no such require- ment exists in the DO provisions. Further injustices arise from the Code's failure to provide for adequate opportunities for defence against a Crown application for DO status. Although indefinite confine- ment is one of the most serious sentences anyone can face, there is no provision for a jury trial or for a hearing at a superior court level.
The Code also guarantees only seven days' notice that a person will be subject to consideration as a DO. Since the per-
son is already in jail, he has virtually no opportunity to consult a lawyer and pre- pare an adequate defence. Once incarcer- ated, the DO is allowed a yearly review by a parole board only, not by a judge. Even when he is finally released, he is still on parole indefinitely.
Protection from the law is one matter. In prison, the DO, like others convicted on sex-related charges, is in continual danger of reprisals from fellow inmates. In his study, Cyril Greenland summed up the prison experience for the sexual of- fender: "While incarceration for an inde- terminate period may provide some de- gree of protection for society, it cannot in any sense be regarded as anything but a brutal, fearful and destructive experi- ence for the inmate."
The attitudes of the courts and the psychiatric profession toward DOs can- not be considered in isolation from cur- rent public opinion. In recent years, pub- licity about violent sex crimes by adults against children has hardened attitudes towards intergenerational sex itself. The most recent example of this occurred last fall when a British Columbia man, Clifford Olson, was convicted of the murder of several BC teenagers of both sexes. Brail feels that Milne's appeal may have suffered from the aftermath of the Olson tried, despite the vaunted objectiv- ity of the courts.
Richard Brail suspects that homo- phobia was a major factor in the BC appeal court's decision to uphold Milne's DO status. The court seemed unmoved by defence arguments that Milne had neither harmed the youths nor coerced them into having sex. "All they seemed interested in was the fact that he had been having sex with teenage boys, and had a continuing interest in doing so. In their minds, this was clearly sufficient evidence of 'evil to other persons' to maintain George's status," Brail told TRP.
The DO question also raises the larger issue of what have been called victimless crimes. DO status can be seen as part of a much larger category of offences, inclu- ding buggery, indecent assault and gross indecency, where no actual harm has been done by the act itself. Most convic- tions in these cases involve consensual sexual acts prosecuted because the acts were performed in so-called public pla- ces, or with underage persons or prostit- utes. Many convictions under these laws result from police entrapment. And the three offences mentioned are used primarily against gay men, just as the DO classification is used for the most part agEiinst homosexual pedophiles.
The Criminal Code must be amended to protect George Milne, and men like him, from a system bent on legislating personal morality. As the NGRC brief put it, "(these) laws are based on moral judgments of sexual acts, rather than on a desire to protect society from injury. Offences involving coercion or violence of a sexual nature should be dealt with by the same laws which deal with any kind of coercion or violence." •
Meanwhile, George Milne is still in jail. Despite the defeat. Brail feels Milne is holding up well. He is now planning to apply for a move to a different institu- tion, where he could have the kind of psychiatric treatment which would, he hopes, allow an earlier parole.
Robert TVowD
MAY 1982
Irish Customs seize Gay News
DUBLIN — As a police witch-hunt continues to spread in the Irish gay community, Britain's largest circulation newspaper for homosexuals. Gay News, has been impounded by Irish Customs officers.
Customs and Excise authorities in Cork impounded subscription copies of Gay News in mid-February, and any issue of the paper entering Ireland is now subject to detention. According to Noel Faughnan, a commissioner at the National Customs Office in Dublin Cas- tle, three recent issues of the paper are being examined by the Censorship of Publications Board. If the board rules the paper is indecent. Gay News might be banned from the Irish Republic completely.
This is the second time that Irish offi- cials have moved against the popular British newspaper. Gay News was im- pounded in 1977, but the publishers won a case challenging the action.
A massive police offensive against the gay community was touched off by the murder of prominent Dublin television designer Charles Self in February. Gay organizations cooperated in the investi- gation until it became clear that the police were using the murder as a pre- text for an investigation of the gay com- munity itself.
To date more than 1,500 lesbians and gay men have been questioned by poHce in the course of the investigation, and several hundred have been fingerprinted and photographed. Police are being sta- tioned outside well-known gay clubs and are demanding people's names and addresses as they leave. Speaker^ at a March 24 meeting described police call- ing at their homes and workplaces and
'mm^!«tmmm»^if^ii^^i9^^
t§m wiym reiiBiPpm to the hiish
GAY NEWS
Impounded: Britain 's largest circulation gay paper responds to the Irish Customs ban
informing parents and employers of their sexual preference. At least one man is losing his job as a result of the harassment.
Gay sex is still completely illegal in Ireland, and there are fears that police are building a master file of the country's gay community.
A meeting in DubUn's Trinity College set up a Gay Defence Committee March 24. The Committee includes members of the National Gay Federation, the Pris- oners' Rights Organization and the Irish Council for Civil Liberties.
The Defence Committee is setting up a special phone line for people to call for legal advice in the face of police interrogation, and a leaflet detailing what to do in case of arrest is being cir- culated. Plans are underway to involve other Irish gay organizations in the Defence Committee, and arguments will be raised in the Irish parliament demanding an end to the wave of harassment. D
Boy-lovers' charges dismissed as "victim" cites Fifth Amendment
BOSTON — Tom Reeves, founder of the North American Man /Boy Love Association (NAMBLA), and Michael Thompson, a photographer for Boston's Gay Community News, have been cleared of charges of "indecent assault and battery on a minor under the age of fourteen."
Judge Darrell Outlaw dismissed the charges after the alleged "victim" invoked the Fifth Amendment and re- fused to testify.
Reeves and Thompson were arrested January 19 after the now 16- year-old boy underwent police interrogation and stated that each of the men had engaged in consensual fellatio with him in 1979. The whole case is widely believed to be part of a police vendetta against NAMBLA and Reeves in particular.
The courtroom was packed by mem- bers of groups that had rallied to Reeves's defence. A support statement deploring the arrests and its sensational coverage by the Boston media was released jointly by Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, the Metro- politan Community Church of Boston, Lesbian and Gay Media Advocates, Gay Hispanic Men, the Committee Against
Racial Violence, the Boston Alliance Against Registration and the Draft, and Gay Community News. When the ver- dict was announced the crowd shouted its approval and the boy's foster mother embraced Reeves in congratulation.
"Boys are very often coerced and threatened as Joey was into making statements about sexual contact with gay men," said Reeves. "In this case there had been no sex between us and Joey, and his statements were lies.
"Judge Outlaw's ruling should indi- cate that any boy who is thus coerced, even when the statements are true, may invoke the Fifth Amendment and thus remain silent in court," Reeves added. "Joey's attorney gave him correct ad- vice, which would keep about 90% of all similar cases from coming to trial." D
Worid News credits
Gay News (London); Gay Community News (Boston); Campaign (Sydney); iVashington Blade (Washington DC); TiVN (Miami); Bay Area Reporter (San Francisco); Ken Lovett (Sydney); Nambia Newsletter (New York).
Indecency trial flops, Whitehouse must pay
LONDON — The Romans in Britain trial, touted as the morality battle of the '80s, fizzled out after two days when the prosecution withdrew its case March 16.
The trial was instigated by anti-gay crusader Mary Whitehouse, who rose to fame after she successfully brought a charge of blasphemy against England's Gay News \n 1976.
Now president of the National View- ers and Listeners Association, White- house charged that a scene in the Na- tional Theatre's production of the Howard Brenton play contravened the 1956 Sexual Offences Act because of a simulated homosexual rape. The play's director, Michael Bogdanov, was charged with "procuring and being par- ty to an act of gross indecency."
The Sexual Offences Act is specifical- ly designed to criminalize male homo- sexual activity in washrooms. Such are the peculiarities of the law that, had the director-of the play been a woman or had the simulated rape been of a woman, there would have been no legal grounds for prosecution. Whitehouse said she felt "the unsuccessful male homosexual rape would be an incite- ment to some men."
Defence costs were awarded out of public funds, but Whitehouse will have to pay her own legal bill, between
Case closed: Director Bogdanov and wife
$25,000 and $50,000, for her unsuc- cessful attempt to "clean up" the theatre. D
Gay cancer foundln straight men, women
NEW YORK — Kaposi's sarcoma, the so-called gay cancer, has been discovered in women and heterosexual men.
US researchers have diagnosed the disease in nine women and at least 23 straight males, according to The Wall Street Journal. It was originally specu- lated that the disease was somehow related to the gay lifestyle because many of its victims were young, previously healthy gay men. However, the new cases do not appear to be correlated with either promiscuity or drug use.
Nearly 100 deaths have resulted from the disease in the past seven months. It emerges either as cancer or pneumonia after the body's immunity system has broken down. Doctors are now consid- ering the possibility that environmental factors may be responsible for the unusual immuno-suppression character- istic which enables the disease to take hold.D
Gay groups oppose Aussie law ref onn bill
SYDNEY — For the fourth time in ten months, the New South Wales govern- ment is debating a bill to reform the state's laws against homosexual activity.
Legislative Council member Barrie Unsworth, a right-wing member of the Labour Party, introduced the bill to the upper house of the state parliament February 18 without consulting gay movement leaders. Unsworth claims his bill is a "compromise" in light of the defeat of another reform attempt, the so-called Petersen Bill, last December. Unsworth's bill passed second reading in the Council March 16.
Critics of the bill, who include 28 gay organizations in Sydney and progressive members of parliament, charge that it is "dangerous and discriminatory." In the proposed legislation buggery and gross indecency between males will continue to be criminal unless the acts occur be- tween two consenting adults over 18 years of age, in private. The age of con- sent for heterosexual sex is 16.
Heterosexual sex in public (there is no "two person" clause) is punishable by a $200 fine only if someone complains. However, gay sex in private between more than two persons is classified as "gross indecency," and can incur a two- year prison term even if there is no complainant.
Five hundred lesbian and gay demon- strators marched on parliament early this March to protest the bill and to demand full equality. Gay rights lobby- ists are now concentrating on killing the bill in the lower house, having given up all hope of being able to significantly amend it.
"The politics of the possible has
MAY 1982
THE BODY POLITIC/17
Peter Maloney
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denied real equality and justice for homosexual men," said Barry Charles, co-convenor of the Gay Rights Lobby and member of the Homosexual Law Reform Commission. "Our chance for genuine reform is being short-circuited by a conservative parliament and its cynical politics," he added.
In the interim, right-wing National Country Party members are rallying behind Reverend Fred Nile to oppose any pro-gay reform. Nile was elected to parliament on a morality platform at the last state elections. He claims the bill "will further promote the moral and spiritual decadence of Western society."
The conservative clergyman suffered a setback in his anti-gay campaign, however, when the Board of Social Responsibility of his own Uniting Church called for the decriminalization of homosexual acts between consenting adults. Nile is also trying to organize a Moral Majority-style boycott of televi- sion advertisers who buy "unwhole- some" programmes, but has achieved little success'. D
NOLAG threatened as coordinators quit
SAN FRANCISCO — The March 14 resignation of 12 members of the coor- dinating committee of the National Organization of Lesbians and Gays (NOLAG) seems to spell the death of the organization only a year after it began.
NOLAG was founded in April 1981 by the organizers of the National March on Washington, which occurred in October 1979. The new organization assumed a $19,000 debt incurred by the march. Amidst accusations of financial mis- management, the debt has been an albatross around the group's neck.
Originally conceived as a national mass-action, grassroots organization with a coordinating committee of 52 people representing 1 1 regions, there are reportedly only five or six coordinating committee members left, and the national headquarters has been moved to Anchorage, Alaska.
Resigning NOLAG members an- nounced plans to form a new National Activists' Union of Gays and Lesbians, and plan to organize a founding confer- ence this summer. D
Gay "Olympic" Games fight to keep name
SAN FRANCISCO — Despite a contin- uing dispute with the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) which may end up in court, the Gay Olympic Games are going ahead in San Fran- cisco, August 28 to September 5.
The USOC objects to the word "Olympic" in the advertising and is threatening organizers with legal action unless the Gay Olympic Games drops the word from the name. The organizers declare they are willing to negotiate with the USOC and suggest inserting a dis- claimer whenever the word is used, but steadfastly refuse to change the name.
On another front the committee is cancelling a fund-raising showing of Leni Riefenstahl's film Olympia. Rief- enstahl, a Nazi sympathizer, made the film of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin as a propaganda piece for Hitler. The show- ing was cancelled after gay Jews and other activists objected.
Organizers hope the Olympics will provide a "unique opportunity for gay sports people to influence social atti-
tudes" and to combat "popular stereo- types about gays on a global scale through mass media coverage of the events." Opening ceremonies will be held in San Francisco's Kezar Stadium.
To date, 16 countries are indicating they will send contingents. A cross- country run will bring the Olympic torch from the east coast early this sum- mer, and the Olympiad will also sponsor a week-long festival of lesbian and gay artists to coincide with the sports. D
Council of Europe slaps Catholic church
STRASBOURG — The Council of Europe issued a strongly worded state- ment criticizing the Roman Catholic Church's attitude toward homosexuality April 14.
The criticism followed the Catholic Diocese of Strasbourg's decision not to allow delegates to a meeting of the In- ternational Gay Association to use its Young Christian Worker Hostel over Easter as planned.
IGA delegates were attending an in- formal Easter conference before the or- ganization's yearly International Con- ference which will be held in Washing- ton from July 12 to 17.
The 120 delegates, representing 27 gay organizations from seven countries, were eventually housed in tents on a dis- used airfield. D
Australians celebrate Mardi Gras, Gay Day
SYDNEY — This year's annual gay Mardi Gras exceeded all expectations and outdid Sydney's official Mardi Gras as 10,000 lesbians and gay men paraded with 25 floats through the city's enter- tainment area on the night of Saturday, February 27.
The city's first gay "Mardi Gras" was held in 1978 at the end of Gay Pride activities in June, and resulted in hun- dreds of arrests after a series of violent confrontations with city poUce.
This year's event took place without trouble in an atmosphere of mutual cooperation between organizers, gay businesses, city council and police. Syd- ney now takes its place as the third lar- gest "gay city" in the world.
A smaller but significant gay festival took place two weeks later, on March 14 in Melbourne. More than 3,000 gay people assembled in the grandstand of the city's Olympic Park for an after- noon of song, theatre, and revelry.
Gay Day '82 was the second for the Melbourne community. According to Campaign, Australia's largest circula- tion gay newspaper, the event achieved what it set out to do — to "find some common ground between the commer- cial and political interests within the community and to Celebrate the change of law regarding homosexuality which inspired the first Gay Day last year. "HI
Austin groups win protection in housing
AUSTIN — The city's gay community scored its second major victory of the year February 18 as city council ap- proved an amendment to its anti-dis- crimination by-law designed to protect lesbians and gay men against discrimin- ation in housing.
Last autumn a group calling itself
lerrHE body politic
MAY 1982
Austin Citizens for Decency (ACD) went on the offensive and organized a peti- tion drive calling for the adoption of an ordinance reading, "It shall not be unlawful to deny housing on the basis of sexual orientation." AUhough ACD succeeded in getting the question on a January 16 ballot, the anti-gay measure was soundly defeated by a 63% margin as a result of the work of Citizens for a United Austin (CUA), which was organ- ized to oppose the ordinance.
The February 18 decision to protect lesbians and gay men cannot be re- pealed by a referendum, and another initiative cannot be held on the identical question for at least two years.
Despite the double defeat, ACD's Steven Hotze said the unsuccessful ini- tiative still let gay people know that "Austin is not going to let them come and take over the city like they have in other parts of the country." He added that his organization will concentrate on the city council elections next year.
Gay activists see little threat of a homophobic election victory. "If (the homophobes) have the same sophistica- tion in working on the City Council campaigns that they showed in their own campaign, it would be very good news for us," said CUA's Steve Thomas. "They were really awful." D
Mother church fires long-time employees
BOSTON — A long-time reporter for The Christian Science Monitor and an executive for the church's world head- quarters have been fired because of their sexual orientation.
Thirty-year-old Christine Madson was called "evil and immoral" and "an adulterer" by the manager of the Chris- tian Science Publishing Society before her dismissal January 4. She had been employed by the paper for seven years, and has the unanimous support of her co-workers.
Jim Ogan, a 36-year-old business and cost analysis supervisor for the Build- ings and Grounds Division of the church, was dismissed March 11 after nine years of employment when an anonymous letter was received by the personnel department denouncing him as a homosexual. Neither Madson nor Ogan were "out" at work, but Madson would not deny her lesbianism when accused.
Christian Science teaches that all non- procreative sex requires "healing," and affihated churches generally exclude men and women who come out.
"Anybody who is proud of being gay, who brings a lover to church and says, 'This is my spouse,' is thrown out," says Bob McCullough of Gay People in Christian Science. "Frankly, the church is filled with gay men. But most of them are very closeted and beaten down; they are working for a 'healing'."
McCullough says women and gay men are often attracted to Christian Science "because the teachings are filled with androgyny — descriptions of God as female as well as male. In Christian Science each person must bring out the male and female within them."
Madson remains a church member and has not decided whether she will sue her former employer for wrongful dis- missal. Courts have previously ruled that religious institutions have the right to hire and fire employees in accordance with their moral dogmas, and discrimin- ation on the basis of sexual preference is not illegal in Massachusetts. Ogan has, however, launched a suit against the
church for damages amounting to one year's salary.
Madson claims she didn't recognize the church's homophobia until she started working at the centre. "I've spent years thinking about the two and can't find any way that the two can't go together," she says.D
Black and white men charge ghetto racism
NEW YORK /SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco branch of Black and White Men Together (BWMT) has released a survey on racism in 99 of the city's gay bars. The group's New York branch has suspended its weekend pick- et of the Ice Palace after intervention by the state of New York's Division of Human Rights convinced the disco's owners to negotiate.
According to the survey, "Gay bars in San Francisco are highly segregated in terms of employment and patronage." The clientele of 78% of the bars surveyed was at least 88% white and 29% of the 99 bars were exclusively white. Ethnic minorities are employed mostly in bars not patronized by whites. Of 300 employees visibly on duty on the night of the survey, only 27 were non-white.
Only two of the 99 bars are exclusive- ly non-white. Both are small Latin bars. Only 14 can be described as integrated, with a racial mix of which whites consti- tuted between 40% and 80%.
BWMT spokesperson Jim Ivory said he hoped the survey would lead to dis- cussions with bar owners resulting in the hiring of more members of ethnic minorities.
The picketing of the Ice Palace began last December after owners refused to commit themselves to a nondiscrimin- atory door policy and to apologize in writing to two black members of BWMT who were denied entry. BWMT took the case to the Human Rights Division, which organized a meeting between the two parties February 4. Although the representatives of the disco did not show up, the disco's owner subsequent- ly agreed to negotiate with the group.
Ice Palace manager Kevin Cahill denied the disco discriminated. "We hire everything {sic) here: black people, Chinese people, lesbians, straight people... the only thing we screen for at the door is age."
John Klauder of BWMT testified that he and another black man were turned away from the disco on November 15 when they could not produce three pic- ture IDs. At the same time whites and non-whites accompanied by whites were admitted without being "carded." D
Lesbian Sex Mafia promotes "PI" sex
NEW YORK — Lesbians who "prac- tice, advocate or have fantasies which involve 'politically incorrect sex"* have formed a new group, the Lesbian Sex Mafia (LSM).
According to the group's press release, the LSM's bi-monthly pro- gramme for members only includes such wide-ranging subjects as "Therapeutic S/M," "Role Playing from Butch /Fem to Mommy/ Daughter," "Recreational Drugs and Sex" and "Pornography: How it Changed My Life."
The group is planning a "Speak Out on Politically Incorrect Sex" to coincide with the Scholar and Feminist Confer- ence at Barnard College this April. D
Womynly Way Productions Presents:
May 1, 9:00 p.m., Harbourfront, the Brigantine Room, 235 Queen 's Quay West
Tickets $6.00 at Toronto Women's Bookstore (.40 service charge), 85 Harbord, SCM Books, 333 Bloor West, DEC, 427 Bloor West, Parliament Gold Records, Parlia- ment St. and the Harbourfront Box Office and all BASS outlets. Interpreted for the Hearing Impaired, Wheelchair Access, Free Childcare (961-1768 to reserve).
Articles from recent and forthcoming issues. Socialist-Feminism in the Eighties
Barbara Epstein Sexuality and Feminism
English. Hollibaugh, Rubin Race in the U.S.
Michael Omi & Howard Winant Ei Salvador John Womack
Nuclear Disarmament E. P. Thompson
Writers, Communities, and Poiitia
Kate Ellis et al. Labor LasN Karl Klare
Gay History and the Future of the Gay Movement
Jeff Escoffier
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MAY 1982
THE BODY POLITIC/19
LESBIAN AND GAY TORONTO THIS MONTH
TV/RddiO Stephen Stuckey
CThe World of Women — Opposing Views on Women and Pornography. Second of two CBC Stereo Ideas programmes. Includes dis- cussion on free speech, censorship. Partici- pants include Susan Griffin, author of Por- nography and Silence. Fri, April 30, 8 pm. D And .Now For Something Completely Dif- ferent. A selection of the best bits from the landmark TV series Manly Python 's Flying Circus. Features Graham Chapman, Basil the Killer Sheep and the Pantomime Princess Margaret. CITY-TV, Fri, April 30, 8 pm. DThe Shulman File. "Take a Shot at Morty." Outraged viewers get to tell off Mort Shulman, the offensive muckraking Toronto Sun columnist and TV celebrity. Gay activists participate. CITY-TV, Sat, May 1, 8 pm.
DFran Leibowitz. In a special one-hour in- terview with City Lights' irrepressible Brian Linehan, the author of humour books Met- ropolitan Life and Social Studies speaks frankly on her admiration for cigarettes and George Bernard Shaw. CITY-TV. Sun, May 2, 7 pm and again Sat, May 8 at 7 pm. D Legal Sex. Lome and Fay Rozofsky, authors of Legal Sex, including gay sex, chat to talk-show hostess Mikki Moore, You're Beautiful, CITY-TV, Wed, May 5, 3 pm.
Music Andrew Zealley
DThe Human League. The most popular group in Britain at the moment. Their last album Dare! has reached number one in most countries of the Western world. Proba- bly the best electro-pop today. Massey Hall, Shuter St. Fri, y\pril 30. Tickets at BASS 698-2277.
C Alive! The San Francisco-based women's jazz quintet makes its Toronto debut in the Brigantine Room at Harbourfront, 235 Queen's Quay W. In the last several years the group has received a sheaf of very good re- views and built a devoted following. Their lyrics express a feminist consciousness in terms of concrete experience while avoiding abstract rhetoric. Sat, May 1 at 9 pm. $6 at BASS, Toronto Women's Bookstore, SCM Bookroom and Parliament Gold Records. Interpreted for the hearing-impaired; wheel- chair-accessible. Free childcare. [Z Rough Trade. Carole Pope and Kevin Staples fry the stage of Hamilton Place and still have sizzle to spare. Worth a drive to Steel City. Call 1-800-263-6972 toll-free. Fri, May 7 at 9:30 pm.
CDepeche Mode. Finely polished British electro-pop. First North American tour. The cleanest looking group of youngsters to play synthesizers. "Hey, you're such a pretty boy — what's your name?" Sun, May 9. Concert Hall. Tickets at BASS 698-2277. [J Baroque Women Composers. The final presentation in the Lost Women Composers series. The featured speaker is Jean Lamon, the musical director of Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra. A vocal and string ensemble will also perform. Tues, May 18, 5-7:30 pm. Trinity United Church, 427 Bloor St W. Info: 920-9797.
DCTand April. Classical guitarist April Kassirer and violist Carol T Rowe play together publicly for the first time in four years in this reunion performance at Innis College Town Hall, 2 Sussex Ave (at St George). They perform a blend of classically oriented original material, folk and blues, en- hanced by April's high, easy vocals. Part of Womynly Way Productions "Reaching Out on the Environment" series. Advance tickets $5.50 at Toronto Women's Bookstore, SCM
Joe Brainard meets Marilyn Monroe: Sky Gilbert's latest play running April 29th-May 16th
Bookroom and Parliament Gold Records; $6.50 at the door. Interpreted for the hearing- impaired; free childcare. Fri, May 21, 8 pm. DMartha Reeves. Original Motown, "Heat- wave." Ei Mocambo Tavern, 464 Spadina Ave. 8 pm. Fri-Sat May 21-22. Tickets at BASS 698-2277.
DThe Jam. Post-punk pop trio whose style has been changing rapidly over the past few years. Their present album and tour deals with white funk music. Politically active in Britain in human rights and Rock Against Racism. CNE Coliseum. Mon, May 24. Tickets at BASS 698-2277. DMama Quilla IL Toronto's hot women's band have just recorded their first album and are looking for money to pay for the pressing. Check them out at the Cameron House, 408 Queen St W. Thurs-Sat, May 27-29.364-0811.
DPAN AM at (he RivolL Dance music with live DJ, Andrew Zealley of the pop quartet TBA. Modern mixed crowd. Cover charge. Tbes nights at the Rivoli, 334 Queen St W. 596-1908.
Stage JonKaplan
D Marilyn Monroe Is Alive and Well and Living in Joe's Brain. A production by Bud- dies in Bad Times Theatre, directed by Sky Gilbert. A theatrical fantasy based on the work of New York poet Joe Brainard, con- cerned with gay love, art and movies in the Sixties. Explores "queer bars," masturba- tion in the shower, with an intimate glimpse of Marilyn Monroe on her way to that big close-up. Thurs, April 29 to Sun, May 16. Thurs-Sat, 8:30 pm; Sun, 2:30 pm. The Theatre Centre, 666 King St W, 862-0659. DThe Club. Another production of Eve Merriam's play. Sends up male views of women by having women take the parts of men in an exclusive turn-of-the-century male club. Through May 1, 8:30 pm. Alumnae Theatre, 70 Berkeley St, 364-4170. DBIoolips. This crazed group of drag queens, proprietors of the Nuclear Launder- ama, get sent by the Queen on a cultural ex- change programme to the moon. Lunacy,
sexual satire, lust in space, conformity com- puters, tap dancing, a paean to androgyny — expect it all from Bloolips. Co-produced by Stage! and CFNY-FM. T\jes-Sun. Through May 2 at 8 pm. Special Sat late show 1 1 pm and Sun show 3 pm. Bathurst St Theatre, 736 Bathurst St. Tickets at Box Office (595-5088) or BASS (698-2277). DTom Kneebone. A cabaret performance by one of Toronto's established cabaret per- formers. The Mainstage, 251 Sherbourne St. 365-9972. T\ies-Sun, through May 16. T\vo shows nightly at 8:30 and 11 pm. Sunday showbrunch from 12 noon. CUThe Desert Song. A "pocket version" of the Harbach/Hammerstein/ Romberg oper- etta, in the style of last year's version of Rose Marie. Romance in the desert, where the bandit Riffs strikes terror in the hearts of the locals. Previews begin May 19; opening May 27. At the Royal George Theatre as part of the Shaw Festival, Niagara-on-the-Lake. 361-1544 (Toronto direct line). D Arlene Meadows and David Walden. Toronto comedy and singing revue team. The Mainstage, 251 Sherbourne St. 365-9972. TXies-Sun, May 19- June 6. Preview May 18.
DCamllie. A revival of Robert David Mac- Donald's three-focus version of the Camille story — history, theatre and opera. Last year's production was superbly theatrical, and this year's once again features Goldie Semple in the title role. The play also has several gay characters. Previews May 21 , 22, 26; opens May 28. In repertory with other productions at the Shaw Festival, Niagara- on-the-Lake, through August 1. 361-1544 (Toronto direct line).
D Funeral Games and The Good and Faith- ful Servant. TNvo short plays by Joe Orton, originally written as television plays for the BBC. One play deals with the problems of aging and working; the other is about a TV evangelist who tries to kill his wife. The pro- ductions are by a new theatre company, SchrOdinger's Cat. May 25-30, 8 pm. The Theatre Centre, 666 King St W. 862-0659. DLet My People Come. A musical about sex, including some lesbian and gay material. Basin St Cabaret, 180 Queen St W. Mon- Thurs, 8 pm; Fri-Sat, 8 and 1 1 pm. 598-3013. Unlimited run.
Call It Jazz: The quintet Alive! brings an exciting blend of piano, bass, percussion and vocals to TO from SF. At Harbourfront, May 1st
20/THE BODY POLITIC
Dance ColmMcEnery
n Toronto Dance Theatre. Recent works by two of the company's founding directors: Tango; so! and Enter the Dawn by Peter Randazzo, and Exit, Nightfall by David Earle. Also, premiere of new work by resident choreographer Christopher House. Toronto Dance Theatre, 80 Winchester St. TUes-Sat, May 4-8 at 8 pm. 967-1365. Open House for TDT, featuring performances, open classes, photo and costume displays. Sat, May 1 in the afternoon. D National Ballet of Canada. Canada's dow- ager of classical ballet presents Bournon- ville's 1843 romp, Napoli, May 5-9, Les Syl- phides and Washington Square May 13-16, and Cranko's glorious Romeo and Juliet May 19-23. Special Gala performance May 12 featuring Paolo Bortoluzzi, Jennifer Pen- ney and Wayne Eagling of the Royal Ballet with members of the National Ballet School in an evening of divertissements. Wed-Sat 8 pm. Sat matinee 2 pm. Sun matinee 3 pm. O'Keefe Centre. 698-2626. DDanceworks. Spring Workshop for stu- dents and experienced choreographers to show experimental work. Discussion to fol- low; the audience is invited to participate. Sat, May 9 at 8 pm. Workman Auditorium, Queen Street Mental Health Centre, 1001 Queen St W.
DTheatre Ballet of Canada. The fusion of Entre Six and Ballet Ys and the artistic direc- tion of Lawrence Gradus has produced Theatre Ballet of Canada, the country's new- est chamber ballet company. Among the works performed will be the Toronto pre- miere of Gradus's new piece. Corridors. Tues-Sat May 18-22. Ryerson Theatre, 43 Gerrard St E. Tickets at Ticketron or Ryer- son Box Office 595-5088.
Cinema
Current
Michael \Na6e
! Partners. Dir: James Burrows. With Ryan O'Neal, John Hurt. Two cops are duty- bound to "impersonate homosexuals" in order to inTiUrate a gay community and solve a murder. The vulgar premise is that hot topics like "gay murders" and lisping lavender make for frolicsome comedy. Famous Players Theatre to be announced. n Personal Best. Dir: Robert Towne. With Mariel Hemingway. A precision piece in which a lesbian pentathlon athlete struggles to prove herself as both a lover and com- petitor. Presented with sober grace and fine strength, although the David Hamilloncsque
photography borders on titillation. Uptown Three, Yonge at Bloor. 922-31 13. D Making Love. Dir: Arthur Hiller. With Michael Ontkean, Kate Jackson. This teary rendition of a married man's coming out has become this year's richest resource of cock- tail chatter. As attractive and respectable as a Lacoste shirt — and about as bland. Uptown Backstage One, Yonge at Bloor. 922-3113.
DBoys in the Band. Dir: William Freidkin. This filmed staging of a gathering of New York queens at a calamitous birthday party was widely condemned by gay activists when it first appeared in 1970. A cultural artifact that deserves to be unearthed to see how we understand ourselves — and the film —now. Eaton Centre Cineplex. One Dundas St W. 396-3456. \ D Richard's Things. Dir: Anthony Harvey. With Liv UUman, Amanda Redman. Lesbianism as meta- phor. A man's death brings together his wife and his mis- tress for the first time. They soon find themselves in love, adrift in a deluge of affected symbolism and tidy paradoxical dialogue. But their love is only a surrogate for their long- ing for the dead man. Carlton Cineplex, Carlton St. 396-3456. lD Victor/ Victoria. Dir: Blake Edwards. A fizzy, elaborate farce with Julie Andrews as a chanteuse posing as a Polish count cum drag queen, James Garner as a tough guy gangster who falls uncomfortably in love with him/her and Robert Preston as her gut- sy gay guardian angel. Didactic without being ponderous, it's worth ten Making Love's. Sheraton Centre One, Queen St W opposite City Hall. 864-1412. D Deathtrap. Dir: Sidney Lumet. With Christopher Reeve, Michael Caine. A slap- happy thriller whose complications have just begun when two gay lovers bump off the un- necessary wife who comes between them. Uptown One, Yonge at Bloor. 922-31 13. DThe Devil's Playground. Dir: Fred Schepisi. With Simon Burke, John Diedrich. "Your body is your worst enemy," a priest warns in this rambling diatribe about sexual repression in a recklessly Catholic boys' school. Although the pubescent students tit- ter on and on about things sexual, the extent to which the film wants their desires fulfilled is left unclear. Carlton Cinemas, 20 Carlton St. 269-3456.
n Visiting Hours. Dir: Jean-Claude Lord. With Lee Grant. A Canadian-made shocker. After a female newscaster editorializes some liberal-feminist sentiments on air, she re- ceives eerie death threats from a woman- hating psychopath who wishes to film her being murdered. Opens May 21, Theatre TBA.
Repertory
I I United Arlisis Showcase. With MGM hav- ing bought United Artists from Trans- amcrica, they have now assembled a two- month series of films from the UA archives that will run until the end of May. The result is an eclectic mixture of movies which in- cludes: Fellini's hysterically erotic Satyricon (May 7 at 9:25 pm). Some Like It Hot (May 8, 9:30 pm) featuring Jack Lcmmon in joy- ous drag; R W Fassbinder's parody of Nazi
excess, Lili Marleen May 9, 6:30 pm and 9 pm); the rowdy eroticism of Pasolini's Decameron (May 19, 7:15 pm); some New York homo-greasiness from Midnight Cow- boy (May 20, 7 pm); and an inventive double bill of sexual and emotional entrapment, Sunday Bloody Sunday (May 29, 7:25 pm) and Women in Love (May 29, 9:30 pm). $3.50. The Revue Cinema, 400 Roncesvalles.
Play it again, sliam
Yes, the costumes are marvellous — a parade of the detritus of western culture sewn, glued and safety-pinned together with not a hint of good taste. Garbage a la glitz. Bracelets that need ironing. Hats you can hear at 78 rpm. Skirts that shine with Windex. Hose with more holes than Swiss cheese.
Cheese? But of course. This is a show in which the costumes are definitely food for thought. Precious Pearl as f\/liss Gouda. Bossy Bette as l^iss Gorgonzola. Diva Dan as Miss Cottage Cheese. Lavinia Co-op as n/liss Brie (too runny to appear). Grettle Feather as Jane Fondue, stealing the limelight but not the show. That's left to the audience who. if they're smart, will hoard a line, a laugh or one of Bloolips ' indelible images for that inevitable rainy day when a sunny memory is just what 's needed.
Lust in Space is the bright side of being gay. It's Toto and Tinkerbelle and trash
without a tear or trauma in sight. This show doesn't explain the pink triangle, it wears it — in yards and yards of fluorescent borg.
Clothes, it is said, make the man. Well, Bloolips costumes make much more — an- drogynous clowns whose tacky pantomime throws into high relief the fakeries of con- sumer culture. Bloolips are the bag ladies of glamour, rummaging through the garbage of our entertainment industry to display its lies and truths. They reduce the politics of costume to new lows while they lly us to the moon and back.
Bravo Bloolips! Play it agam. sham
Robert Wallacen Vancouver is next! Bloolips play the Van- couver East Cultural Centre May 12 through May 29.
Roderick Johnson: Taking off in a new chamber ballet group. Threatre Ballet of Canada, May 18-22
mrf^iumffim&aAit^
Bars
DThe Albany Tavern. 1 58 King St E. 861-1 155. Large lounge, beverage room, dance floor, patio, now dining lounge. Open Sunday. DThe Barn. 83 Granby St. 977-4702. Leather and western, casual stand-up bar and disco. DBoots at the Selby. 592 Sherbourne St. 921-3142. Beverage room (Ttie Saloon), large lounge (The Long Bar) and upstairs piano bar. DBuddy's Backroom Bar. 370 Church St. 977-9955. Casual stand-up bar. DCatneo Club. 95 Trinity St. 368-2824. Licensed private dance club for women. FrI and Sat only. DDudes. 10 Breadalbane St (laneway behind Parkside Tavern). 923-6136. Small stand-up and after-hours bar and restaurant. DIB East. 18 Eastern Ave. 368-4040. Leather and denim tavern. Home of the leather clubs. DHotel California featuring The Outpost. 319 Jarvis St (soutti of Gerrard, side entrance). 925-6215. Lounge with stand-up bar. Dining room, pool room. DKatrina's. 5 St Joseph St. 961-4740. Stand-up bar with dance floor. Open Fri and Sat to 4 am Cover charge on weekends. Dining lounge. Dies Cavaliers. 418 Church St. 977-4702. Piano bar popular with older men. DThe Mainstage. 251 King St E (at Sherbourne). 365-9972. Nightclub and bar featuring musi- cal/comedy acts. Tues-Sat, two shows nightly at 8:30 and 1 1 :00 pm; Sunday showbrunches. Ham- burger menu plus pre-show dinner. D Parkside Tavern. 530 Yonge St. 922-3844. Bar, dining room and men's beverage room. DThe Quest. 665 Yonge St. 964-8641 . Bar, dining room and upstairs disco. DSt Charles Tavern. 488 Yonge St. 925-5517. City's landmark straight-owned gay bar. DTogether. 457 Church St. 923-3469. Bar, dining room. Comfortable space for women.
Baths
DThe Backdoor Gym and Sauna. 12 1/2 Elm St (laneway west of Yonge St. 2 blocks south of Ger- rard St). 977-5997. Open 24 hours. DThe Barracks. 56 Widmer St. 593-0499. Leather and denim. Open 6 pm to 10 am during week and 24 hours on weekend.
DThe Club. 231 Mutual St. 977-4629 Open 24 hours.
DRoman's Health and Recreation Spa. 742 Bay St 598-2110. Open 24 hours.
Discos
DCharly's. 488 Yonge St, 925-5517. Men only. Fri
and Sat 10 pm to 3:30 am.
nManatee. IIASt Joseph St. 922-1898 Men
only Fri. Sat and Sun
; Stages. 530 Yonge St. 928-0492. Mixed. Sat
12-5 am. Sun 10:30 pm-4 am.
Restaurants/cafes
Gay management/gay-positive ambience
The Chuck Wagon. 592 Sherbourne St 921-3142 Inexpensive steak and chicken restaurant Salad bar
Crispins. 64 Gerrard St E 977-1919 Medium- priced restaurant
Empire OIner. 678 Yonge St 967-331 1 . Restaurant and after-hours caf6
MAY 1982
THE BODY POLITIC/21
DFare Exchange. 4 Irwin Ave. 923-5924. Small neighbourhood caf6.
DThe Fat Squirrel Catering Company. 18 Eastern Ave, 368-4040. Informal, reasonably priced home- cooked meals. 158 King St E, 861-1 155. Burger, delicatessen and outdoor barbeque menu. HJennie's, 360 Queen St E (at Parliament). 861-1461 Casual restaurant with light snacks, fixed-price menu. Fully licensed. □Lipstick. 580 Parliament St. 922-6655. Caf6-bar with informal dining.
DMajor Roberts Upstairs and Downstairs. 124 Mar- bord St. 968-7000. Neighbourhood bar upstairs, dining room downstairs. Inexpensive lunches. Fixed-price Sunday brunch. IZMushrooms. 49 Front St E. 368-1898. Casual
LASTMONTH
Both sides now
An Evening by Sky Gilbert. Factory Theatre Lab, April 3-4.
"How do you turn an evening into a work of art... a play...?" the fretful Lover asks in the opening moments of Sky Gilbert's An Evening, presented in a series of "Brave New Works" by Bud- dies in Bad Times Productions.
Mixing doses of Pirandello and Brecht, Gilbert's new theatre piece (with lively musical insertions created by Micah Barnes) examines, from a num- ber of conflicting points of view, the romantic implications of a single even- ing's encounter between two gay men. The older Lover (he's 26!) can't resist turning a "beautiful and feathery" 22-year-oId info his fantasy of a perfect Lovee, dreaming that their single (and rather dull) date marks the inception of an ecstatic affair. Naturally, the prosaic resistance of the young man undermines this rapture.
Gilbert constantly plays with our sympathies, turning them towards and against each character, refusing to vil- lainize either the possessive Lover or the elusive Lovee. The latter reveals that he too has anxieties, in such amusing num- bers as "I'm Perfect" and the torchy "Tall Boys."
Gilbert neatly sidesteps the usual excesses of preachiness or cuteness to explore ways in which gays often fall victim to their own fantasies. Mono- gamous possession, infatuation and sex- ual objectification are all thoughtfully dissected by Gilbert's sharp wit. He combines the romantic conventions of The Music Man with the harder-edged self-revelation of A Chorus Line to question the dubious values and plati- tudes which gays have absorbed from such popular entertainments.
With the help of James Plaxton's fit- ting module designs and the assured performances of two talented actors, Andrew MacBean and Greg Campbell, playwright Gilbert forces us to confront the strangely funny and often painful gap between our romantic yearnings and harsher truths. Paul BakerD
Black success
Rude Noises (for a blank generation)
Theatre Passe Muraille, April.
The faded singing of fey blonde Petula Clark ("Downtown") deceivingly opens this bitter play about sexually confused men running wild in TO. The characters have no money, no hope. They die young.
A virgin hustler wears a T-shirt glamourizing that other blonde, Marilyn Monroe. A pair of Scarborough runa- ways hit the Yonge Street strip in search of sex, fun, drugs and Brenda, the miss- ing sister of one of the boys, who is a naive romantic stud in a ripped black T-shirt. The handsome ingenue Eddy (Lawrence King Phillips) learns about
basement restaurant. Business/suburban clier^ele changes to show- biz and gay crowd in late eve. □Neighbours, 562 Church St. 924-1972. Medium- priced restaurant.
□Pimblett's. 249 Gerrard St E. 929-9525. English bistro with dinner menu. □The Queen Mother Caf6, 206 Queen St W 598-4719. Cosy, informal eating place with reasonably priced soups, salads, sandwiches and desserts. Licensed.
Evening: Andrew McBean, Greg Campbell
Real Life from the suicidal anorexic Beehive (Karen Woolridge). His friend is coached into the lucrative-but- degrading world of gay hustling by an obnoxious creep in a dog collar. The poor kid from Scarberia is so disgusted by the seamier side of himself that he
□The VS Restaurant. 251 King St E (at Sher- bourne), upstairs. 365-9972. Comfortably elegant, ' continental menu. Dinner for two with wine: $40. Pre-show dinner downstairs in The l^ainstage.
Accommodation
□Catnaps Guesthouse. 246 Sherbourne St. 968-2323. Eight rooms, TV lounge, laundry and kitchen facilities, sundeck. One person: $15: two people: $18. Also weekly rates. □18 East Hotel. 18 Eastern Ave. 368-4040. Recently renovated older hotel with bar and dining room. 22 rooms, TV lounge. One or two people: $20.
slits his wrists while high-priestess of depression Marianne Faithfull croaks, "Why'd you do what you did? Why'd you let her suck your cock?"
A black, black success for Theatre Passe Muraille. Stephen StuckeyD
IVIood fusion
TIDE. Harbourfront, April 8-11.
Members of Toronto Independent Dance Enterprises (TIDE) and the New Music Co-op recently presented a vir- tuoso performance evening entitled "Colliding" at Harbourfront. Using sound sources as diverse as the spoken word, electronic tapes, manipulation of conventional instruments and the sounds of the human body in motion, the eight dancers /musicians interacted, collided and supported each other in a multi-mood fusion of two usually separ- ate arts. Portions of the evening drew heavily on contact improvisation be- tween random couples. The resulting pairings, regardless of gender or size disparity, were adept and intriguing — truly non-sexist partnering. This calm celebration of potential and relation- ships, set under painted, jointed lathes and intimately lit, contrasted sharply with much of the brittle "conventional" dance in the city and created — briefly — a warm centre to'an inhospitable Spring. Colin McEneryD
Danny Grossman 's new piece of choreography, Portrait, at the Young People 's Theatre April 13-18, is often as angular as the off-centre furniture that makes up the set. A study of the influence that a man 's family has on his growing- up. sexual and otherwise. Portrait shows the central figure (Grossman, in the stranglehold above) trying out both a female lover and a male lover. Grossman 's emphasis is not specifically on coming out, but rather on the domes- tic forces surrounding the young man. "We were born to be certain things," Grossman said, ' 'but different energies set us off in other directions. ' '
There are enough hostilities in this family scene to fill several psychoanalytic case books. The central figure often hangs childlike onto other characters, and sex is performed to the sound of fire crackling. Mother and father (Susan tJlacPherson and Greg Parks) both accept and then reject the man, and he constantly returns to wrap himself in a security blanket which resembles a large red tongue. His relationship with the male lover (Randy Glynn) is sometimes as violent as his own parents ' relationship — which is the point of the work, apparently, since the four characters change partners for a while to waltz around the stage — and he ultimately rejects that lover for a trick.
Long and unfocussed, the work has the potential to make a strong statement about how one family 's interactions can affect a person 's sexual orientation . Jon Kaplan D
□The Selby Hotel. 592 Sherbourne St. 921-3142. Victorian-style hotel with bar and din- ing room. 72 rooms with private bath. No house- keeping. One person: $23.50; two people' $29 50.
'Nl
□Toronto Gay Community Council. 730 Bathurst St, IVI5S 2R4. Umbrella organization of Toronto les- bian and gay groups. Forum for sharing informa- tion and discussing political strategies.
Social/political action
□After You're Out. Weekly groups for gay men meeting for 10 weeks to discuss personal goals, problems, topics of interest. Organized by TAG. Info: 964-6600.
□Black and White Men Together. Drawer C446, c/o The Body Politic, Box 7289, Stn A, M5W 1X9. An interracial support group for men. □Coalition for Gay Rights in Ontario (CGRO). Box 822, Stn A. IVI5W 1G3. 533-6824. Toronto office: 730 Bathurst St, M5S 2R4. □Committee to Defend John Damien. Box 608, Stn K,tVI4P2H1. 925-6729. □Doing It! Lesbians and Gay Liberation in the '80s: Conference Organizing Committee. 730 Bathurst St. I^5S 2R4. Info: Philip at 461-9188. Committee planning Canada-wide conference scheduled for Toronto June 26-July 5, 1982. □Fat Lesbians. 730 Bathurst St. IVI5S 2R4. Info: Christine Donald at 533-6824. Consciousness- raising group.
□Foundation for the Advancement of Canadian Transsexuals (FACT) — Toronto. Box 281 , Stn A, Rexdale, ON M9W5L3. 741-7223. □Gay Academic Union (GAU). 275 Broadview Ave, No 47, M4I^ 3H5. 469-4244. □Gay Alliance at York. c/oCYSF, 105 Central Sq, York University, 4700 KeeleSt, Downsview, ON M3J 1P3. 667-2515. Sept-April. □Gay Asians of Toronto. Drawer R999, c/o The Body Politic, Box 7289, Stn A, IVI5W 1X9. □Gay Community Appeal of Toronto. Box 2212, Stn P, M5S 2T2. 869-3036. Fund-raising organi- zation for gay and lesbian community projects. □Gay Community Dance Committee (GCDC), 730 Bathurst St, M5S 2R4. Organizes community fund- raising dances.
□Gay Fathers Support Group. Box 187, Stn F, M4Y 2L5. 532-2333 or 967-0430. □Gay Liberation Against the Right Everywhere (GLARE). Box 793, Stn Q,M4T2N7. □Gay SIG. Drawer C622, c/o The Body Politic, Box 7289, Stn A, M5W 1X9. Group of gay members of MENSA in Canada.
□Gay Self-Defence Group, Box 793, Stn 0, M4T 2N7. 960-5579. Organizes courses in self- defence in and outside of Toronto. □Gays and Lesbians at University of Toronto (GLAUT). c/o SAC Office, 1 2 Hart House Circle, University of Toronto, MbS 1A1, 978-4911. Sept- April.
□GEM Gay Community Outreach. Box 62, Bramp- ton, ON L6V 2K7. Peel Region (Brampton- Mississauga) group for gays and lesbians. Gayline West: 453-GGCO.
□ Lesbian and Gay History Group of Toronto. Box 639, Stn A, M5W 1G2. 961-7338. □Lesbian and Gay Pride Day Committee. Box 793, Stn Q, M4T 2N7. Organizes June 27 celebration. □Lesbian and Gay Youth Toronto. 730 Bathurst St, M5S 2R4. 533-2867. Phone counselling; Mon, Fri, Sat7 pm-10:30 pm.
□Lesbian Mothers' Defence Fund. Box 38, Stn E, tVI6H4E1. 465-6822.
□ Lesbian Speakers Bureau. Box 6597, Stn A, (VI5W 1X4. Info: IVIichelle at 789-4541 or Debbie at 964-7477. Speakers for myth-shattering seminars and workshops about lesbians.
□Lesbians Against the Right (LAR). Box 6579, Stn
A, IVI5W 1X4. Lesbian-feminist political action
group.
□New Democratic Party Gay Caucus. Box 792,
Stn F, M4Y 2N7. 964-1049.
□NOVA. Box5794,StnA,M5W1P2, 921-1938. A
collective concerned with theory and practice of
non-violent direct action.
□Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. 100
IVIaitland St, No 506, IVI4Y 1E2. Info: June Tattle at
961-3415.
□ Potluck Suppers. Box 6771, Stn A, M5W 1X5. Lesbian social group. 977-7670.
□Right to Privacy Committee (RTPC). 730 Bathurst St, M5S 2R4. Defence committee for gays arrested under bawdyhouse laws. Cheques or charges payable to: Harriet Sachs in trust for RTPC. Info: 368-4392.
continued on page 26
22/THE BODY POLITIC
MAY 1982
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Wed/April 28
CToronJo Gay Community Council. Com- munity forum for sharing information and debating important issues. 519 Church St, 7:30 pm. Info: 923-GAYS.
Thurs/April 29
n Marilyn Monroe is Alive and Well and Living in Joe's Brain. See Stage. DGays in Health Care. Presentation on suicide. 519 Church St, 8:30 pm.
Fri/April 30
D Partners. Toronto opening. See Cinema. DTAG Friday Night Group. Evening of dis- cussion for lesbians and gay men. 519 Church St, 8 pm. Coming out group, open discussion group, women's only group and special topic group meet simultaneously. Info: 964-6600. Discussion topic: the Gay Community Council. Speakers Philip Fotheringham and Chris Bearchell. D Lesbian Phoneline Collective. Monthly meeting. 348 College St, 3rd floor, 7 pm. Business and general meeting. Interested women and prospective members welcome. DThe Human League. See Music.
Sat/May 1
n Alive! See Music.
D Fighting the Right Festival. Harbord Col- legiate, 286 Harbord St, 12 noon-5:30 pm. Cultural events: Arlene Mantle, David Welch, Gayap Rh^hm Drummers, Marcia Cannon, Latin American Cultural Work- shop, Red Berets, dances by Gay Asians of Toronto. Workshops: "Fighting the Right South of the Border," "Old Bigots, New Politics: You Can't Fight the Right Without Feminism and Gay Liberation," "Police Harassment and People's Rights," "Les- bians Fighting the Right." And much more. Daycare: pre-register with Robert (661-9375) or Ken (922-8780 or 964-6560).
DGay Self-Defence Group. Reunion of all former students at 519 Church St, 9 pm. Cash bar.
Sun/ May 2
nOut and Out Hike. A ramble through Kortright Conservation Area, sponsored by the Out and Out club ($2 fee for non-mem- bers). Call Rick (445-5787) for details and to arrange transportation, before Fri, March 30.
D Lesbian Mothers' Defence Fund. Potluck brunch, 1-4 pm. Share food, friendship and thoughts on raising children. Info on location: 465-6822.
' ~York Rainbow Society of the Deaf. 730 Bathurst St, 1 pm.
MONDAYS
LlThe Women's Group. Collectively run support and consciousness-raising group for lesbians. 519 Church St, 8-10 pm. Contact Raechel (690-9410) or Diane (483-4490, 10 am-3 pm). uLesbian/Lesbienne: the National Lesbian Newsletter. Meetings at 7:30 pm. Contact Kerry for more info: 367-0589. All lesbians welcome. riFat Lesbians. Consciousness-raising group in a private home. Contact Christine Donald at 533-6824 (days).
CT and April: reuniting for May ^ > ^u.i^ert
Partners: Ryan O'Neal, John Hurt on duty
M on/May 3
DJudy Garland Memorial Bowling League Playoffs. Somewhere over the rainbow — or, at least, on the subway line — the battle to the death for the coveted Ruby Slippers Trophy. This may be right down your alley. Ask any bartender in the usual watering holes for location. Spectators welcome. DRyerson Lesbians and Gay Men. Meeting at Scott's at 7 pm to organize a student conference and to plan a dance for May. Info: Danny at 463-5625.
Tues/May4
n Together THal Continues. 7 people charged with assaulting a police officer: The trial resumes after March 4 police testimony on an incident outside lesbian bar Together in January. Old City Hall, Ctrm 31, II am before Judge RD Osborne. DGay Anglicans (integrity). Informal con- temporary Eucharist; coffee house follow- ing. Chancel and vestry meeting place. Holy Trinity Church, Eaton Centre, 8 pm. All welcome.
DGay Equality Mississauga. General meeting, 8 pm; John Damien invited as speaker. Unitarian Hall, 84 South Service Rd, Port Credit. Info: Gayline West 453-GGCO.
Wed/May 5
DGay Self-Defence Group. 8- week course begins. Cost: $45 ($25 for former students). Info on location: 960-5579.
Thurs/May 6
DGay Fathers of Toronto. Discussion at 8 pm. Further info: 532-2333 or 967-0430. DSpearhead. Bar night at 18 East.
Fri/ May 7
D Carole Pope and Rough TVade. See Music, mmmmmmmmmmmmmi^mmmmmmmm
I Trouble with the Police? |
I Phone 960-6318. 24-hour hotline. Confidential- t $ ity guaranteed. Citizens' Independent Review I i of Police Artlvities (CIRPA). Call us first!
i
TUESDAYS
D Lesbian and Gay Youth Toronto.
7:30 pm, 519 Church St.
D Lesbians Against the Right. 730
Bathurst St, 7:30 pm. May 4 and 18. Info: Gay Bell at 466-3801.
Sat/May 8
DMen Making Contact. One of a series of ,, consciousness-raising events for ', gay, straight and bisexual men
interested in working toward a non-sexist society. Workshops 9:30 am to 5 pm. 761 Queen St, west of Bathurst. Info: Spencer Brennan 691-4175. DPoint Pelee Gay Migration. Birds who missed the gay migration to Long Point on April 4 will have another chance this week- end, when members of Toronto's Out and Out Club make their annual appearance on this otherwise unremarkable peninsula for a camp-over. For reservations and details call Tony (967-3399) by May 1. DGay Equality Mississauga. Bowling night at Dixie Bowlarama. Info: Gayline West 453-GGCO.
DU of T Women's Newsmagazine Benefit Dance. University College Refectory, 15 King's College Circle, 8:30 pm. Licensed; tickets $3, available in advance at SAC, 12 Hart House Circle, or at the door. All women welcome.
DJudy Garland Memorial Bowling League. Annual banquet with reputation for being a "crazy, wonderful party," Costumes to bowl you over. Ever see six husky Evita's? Rain- bow High was the team that managed to clone the Argentinian lady at last year's extravaganza. Costumes by Stephen Searle, awards for days! Info at the bars. DCabbagetown Softball Pennant Dance. CGSL fundraiser at the Albany Tavern, with contest to decide the best team pennant in the league. 9 pm.
DConference Benefit Dance. Homo Hop sponsored by Gays and Lesbians at U of T on behalf of "Doing It!" (see Sundays). The Buttery, Gerald Larkin Building, Devonshire Place, U of T, 9 pm.
Sun/May 9
DMetropolitan Community Church.
Parents' Sunday. 7:30 pm, 730 Bathurst St. DDepeche Mode. See Music.
Mon/May 10
D Anti-Cruise Missile Demo THal. 34 people, including lesbian Kari Reynolds, were charged with trespassing during non-violent
Deathtrap: Christopher Reeve unveils a clue
WEDNESDAYS
DMetropolitan Community Church.
Midweek services. 730 Bathurst St. D Lutherans Concerned/Toronto. 8 pm in a member's home. Call James or David at 463-7354 for info on location. May 5 and 19.
D No-Name Cafi. For people who want an alternative to the bar scene. A place to relax with coffee, tea and con- versation on the menu. 519 Church St, 8-10 pm.
D International Women's Day Commit- tee. Meetings at 7:30 pm. Info: 789-4541.
Fri/May21
The Human League: ' 'Probably the best electro-pop today, ' ' at Massey Hall. Friday, April 30
demonstration at Litton Systems plant in Rexdale April 8 (Litton manufactures guid- ance system for Cruise nuclear missiles). Trial begins at Etobicoke Courthouse, Rm 210, 80 The East Mall. Toronto contingent of Cruise Missile Conversion Project leave city April 24 to participate in World Peace March, walking to New York to arrive at United Nations in time for Session on Dis- armament June 7. Info: 532-6720. D Right to Privacy Committee. Annual meeting and election of officers. Members should come and vote. 519 Church St, 8 pm.
Tues/May 11
D Integrity (Gay Anglicans). Sung Eucharist (traditional prayer book rite). Guest preacher, discussion programme TBA. Chan- cel and vestry meeting place. Holy Trinity Church, Eaton Centre, 8 pm.
Thurs/May 13
DWard 6 NDP. Nomination meeting to choose aldermanic candidates for Nov muni- cipal elections. Toronto City Hall, council chamber, 7:30 pm. Candidates: Jack Layton, teacher of urban politics at Ryerson; Arnold Bruner, law student and author of report on police/gay community relations; Morris Soldov, housing activist. D Toronto Organization of United Church Homosexuals. 7:30 pm. Info on location: 466-1713.
Fri/May 14
D Foundation for the Advancement of Canadian Transsexuals. 519 Church St, 7:30 pm.
Sat/May 15
DOut and Out Hike. Devil's Glen area.
Phone Ian (921-6947) well ahead of time for
details.
D Astrology of Gay Male Relationships.
3-hour seminar at OISE, 252 Bloor St W, 2 pm. Sponsored by Toronto Guild of Astrologers. With Gregory Heitz-Mann, pro- fessional astrologer from Vancouver Island. Discussion of freedom-closeness dilemma of gay m^''- '■elationships, with case histories. Participants are invited to bring sample charts for discussion. $6 entrance fee. DTAG Bazaar. Proceeds to Toronto Area Gays, a phone-line counselling service. 519 Church St Community Centre. II am-4 pm.
Sun/May 16
DGay Naturalists. Out and Out stalks the elusive gay varieties of Ontario's provincial symbol at Trillium Woods Provincial Nature Reserve. Call Martin (533-0970) by Saturday morning to arrange transportation.
M on/ May 17
LlGay Equality Mississauga. Married men's group, 7:30 pm. Unitarian Hall, 84 South Service Rd. Port Credit.
Phone counselling lines
DLesblan Phonellne: 960-3249. Tues
7:30-1030 pm.
[1 Lesbian and Gay Youth Toronto: 533-2867.
Mon, Fri. Sat. 7-10 30 pm
nSpouses ol Gays: 967-0597. Wed and
Thurs6 30-8 30 pm
DToronto Area Gays (TAG): 964-6600. Mon-
Sat 7-10:30 pm. Counselling and inlo.
D Lambda Business Council. General meeting, 8 pm. Wine-tasting at Raclette Restaurant, 361 Queen St W. $15 /person. Limited space: reserve in advance with Isobel Smyth (960-1291) or John Higgins (968-9054).
Tues/May 18
n Integrity (Gay Anglicans). Informal con- temporary Eucharist; coffee hour, literature table. Downstairs community room. No. II, the Parish House, Holy Trinity Church, Eaton Centre, 8 pm. D Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. Regular meeting. 519 Church St, 8 pm. Info: 961-3415. D Baroque Women Composers. See Music.
Wed/May 19
DThe Desert Song. At the Shaw Festival.
See Stage.
DArlene Meadows and David Walden. See
Stage.
Thurs/May 20
D Lanyard Bar Night at 18 East.
Great screen kisses: Boys in the Band (top) and Sunday Bloody Sunday At the Revue
D Backpacking T^ip. The Out and Out Club returns to its favourite provincial park, Killarney, where SG met PM but a year ago. An annual event! Reservations and full deposit ($35-$40) due by May 14 to Stuart (921-6033). Limited to 16. DGay Fathers of Toronto. Potluck supper and discussion, 6:30 pm. Further info: 532-2333 or 967-0430. DCamille. At the Shaw Festival. See Stage. DCTand April Concert. See Music. D Martha Reeves. See Music.
Sat/May 22
fm"
THURSDAYS
Canadian (iay Archives. Open for research and tours, 7-10 pm. 24 Duncan St, fifth noor. Info: 977-6320. nCSGL Baseball Bar Nights. Fund- raisers at the Albany Tavern. n Lesbian and Gay Pride Day Committee. Planning for June 27 celebration. 519 Church St, 8 pm. Apr 29, May 13 & 27. IITAG Coming Out Group. Weekly meeting in a private home. Supportive atmosphere for people coming to terms with their sexuality. 8 pm. Info: 964-6600.
I 1 Women Against Violence Against Women (WAV AW). 519 Church St, 7:30 pm. May 6 and 20.
DCoalition for Gay Rights in Ontario. An- nual meeting, II am-7 pm, 730 Bathurst St. CGRO hopes to see representatives from all 31 member groups across the province. Workshops on how to make money and choosing priorities. Potluck supper 5-7 pm. DGay Self-Defence Group. Self-defence coiirse begins, I pm. Info on location: 960-5579.
DComic Co-op Benefit. An evening of en- tertainment, featuring guest artists, magi-
Can you spot ttie gay trillium? May 16 outing
cians, clowns, mime artists and other com- edy acts. Music by the pop quartet TBA. To raise money for the production of an original play called The Rise and Fait of Tony Trouble by a new group called Comic Co-op and featuring rising-star comic Bruce Bell. "Alternative New Wave comedy." Ad- mission $7.50 (includes buffet and bar). Tickets available from Tallulah Bankroll at 920-1483. 519 Church St Community Centre. D Spring Prom. Drag that gown you never had a chance to wear out of storage, and un- freeze that corsage! Last March's "Star Gays" was the Gay Community Dance Com- mittee's biggest hit yet, with almost 2,000 at- tending. Eight hours of uninterrupted music, and dressing to the theme is highly encour- aged. Two dance floors, a laser show, and lots of fun. Tickets at usual outlets; proceeds go to 18 lesbian and gay groups. The Concert Hall (Yonge and Davenport), 9 pm to 5 am.
Sun/May 23
DCoalition for Gay Rights in Ontario. An- nual meeting continues, 11 am-4 pm. See May 22.
Mon/May24
DThe Jam. See Music.
WEEKENDS
Saturdays
DGay Asians of Toronto. 519 Church St, 2 pm. March 27, May 8 and 22. nCabbagetown Group Softball League. Games weekly except for long weekends, II am-6 pm, Riverdale Park.
Sundays
1 1 Dignity/Toronto. Worship followed by discussion meeting. Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Sherbourne St, 4 pm. Info: 960-3997.
nCabbagetown Group Softball League. Games weekly except for long weekends, II am-6 pm, Riverdale Park. riMelropolitan Community Church. Regular Sunday services. Singspiration at 7:10, worship at 7:30 and fellowship following. 730 Bathurst St. I I Conference Organizing Committee. Commiiice lo plan "Doing It! Lesbian and Gay I ibcration in the Eighties," to be held June 26-July 4. More info: Christine at 533-6824 daytime. May 2, 16 and .^0.
Tues/May 25
D Funeral Games and The Good and Faith- ful Servant. See Stage.
D Integrity (Gay Anglicans). Sung evensong. Programme TBA. Downstairs community room at No. 11, The Parish House, Church of the Holy Trinity, Eaton Centre, 8 pm.
Wed/ May 26
DToronto Gay Community Council. Com- munity forum for sharing information and debating important issues. 519 Church St, 7:30 pm. Info: 923-GAYS.
Thurs/May 27
DGay Equality Mississauga. Newcomer's coffee night. Unitarian Hall, 84 South Ser- vice Rd, Port Credit, 8 pm. DMama Quilla II. See Music.
Fri/May 28
DTAG Friday Night Group. 519 Church St,
8 pm. Info: 964-6600. See April 30. Discus- sion topic: parents of gays — coming out from their point of view.
DGay Equality Mississauga. Licensed dance, 8:30 pm-1 am. Unitarian Hall, 84 South Service Rd, Port Credit. Buffet. DGays in Health Care. Social meeting,
9 pm. Info on location: 920-1882.
Sat/May 29
DWalkathon for El Salvadorean refugees.
20 km walk begins 10 am at St James Cathe- dral Park. Organized by COSPES Christian Action Committee. All welcome to parti- cipate. Info: 485-5972 or 656-0455.
I
Mon/May31
DTBP fVial. Pink Triangle Press and its 3 officers go on trial, for the second time, on the charge of sending immoral indecent and scurrilous material through the mails. Defence lawyer Clayton Ruby; crown attor- ney and judge unknown. Spectators are encouraged to show up and lend support. College Park, Ctrm 503, 10 am. Continues June I and 2.
Summer softball: At bat in Riverdale Park
Want to get your event listed? Want to update info on your group? Send all information to: Out in the City, The Body Politic, Box 7289, StnA, Toronto M5W 1X9
Deadline for the June issue: Wednesday, May 12.
For more up-to-date info, call 923-GAYS weekly.
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Social/political action
continued from page 22
DRyerson Lesbians and Gay Men. c/o SURPI, Ryerson Polytechnical Institute, Jorgensen Hall, 380 Victoria St, MSB 1W7. Office: Rm A374, Jorgensen Hall. Hrs: Mon 1-6 pm. Ryerson Gayline: 593-4030 Uon 1-6 pm, Thurs6-9 pm. DSpouses of Gays, c/o Caryn Miller, 260 Carlton St, MSA 2L3. Pfioneline: 967-0S97 Wed and Tfiurs 6:30-8:30 pm.
DToronto Gay Community Clioir. 158 Brunswick Ave, M5S 2M2. Pfi: Kathy Anthony-May, 534-8710. Practice: Wed 8 pm at 519 Cfiurcfi St Community Centre.
DToronto Gay Patrol. 730 Batfiurst St, M5S 2R4. Self-governing group of lesbians and gay men patrolling downtown core of city. New members needed for final series of training classes (first aid, legal aid, self-defence awareness) beginning mid- May. Info: Owen 698-3869 or Rob 488-2578. DThe Women's Group. 519 Church St Community Centre. Info: Raechel 690-9410 or Diane 483-4490 (10 am-3 pm). Collectively run support and consciousness-raising group for lesbians. DYork Rainbow Society of the Deaf. Box 671 , Stn F, M4Y 2N6.
New this issue:
DYoung Lesbians. Support group in process of for- ming. Info: Lesbian and Gay Youth Toronto Phoneline 533-2867.
Health/social services
DA Way Gut. 530-GAYS. 24-hour recorded messages for young lesbians and gays. Four to five minutes of supportive info on dealing with parent, friends, fears and coming out problems. Drawer C614, c/oTBP, Box 7289, Stn A, M5W 1X9. DAIcoholics Anonymous. Lesbian/gay fellowships. 964-3962.
DGaycare Toronto. Info: 923-2778. Free face-to- face drop-in counselling service in the downtown area. Thurs 7-10 pm. 519 Church St Community Centre. Group sessions planned. DGay Counselling Centre of Toronto. 730 Bathurst St, M5S 2R4. 534-8207. Open Tues and Thurs 6:30-9:30 pm. Soon on Wed. Professional counselling clinic for lesbians and gay men. Call for appt or drop in. Volunteers needed. DHassle-Free Clinic — Men. 556 Church St, second floor. 922-0603. VD info, testing and treat- ment. Hours: Mon, Wed, 4-9 pm; Tues, Thurs, 10 am-3 pm; Fri, 4-7 pm; Sat, 11 am-4 pm. Call ahead. VD testing at baths: Roman's, Fri from 9 pm; The Backdoor, every second Tues from 9 pm; The Club, every second V\fed from 9 pm. DLesbian Phoneline. Box 70, Stn F, M4Y 2L4. 960-3249. Tues 7:30-10:30 pm. Recorded message other times. Speakers available. DSex Ed Centre. Devonshire and Bloor Sts, behind Admissions BIdg. 978-3977. Sex counselling for U of T campus.
DToronto Area Gays (TAG). Box 6706. Stn A, M5W 1X5. 964-6600. Free peer counselling and info for lesbians and gay men. Discussion groups, women's groups and coming out groups. Call Mon- Sat: 7pm-10:30pm.
DTri-Aid Charitable Foundation. 8 Irwin Ave, M4Y 1 K9. Gay youth counselling and street work.
Sports
Professional
D Association of Gay Social Workers. Box 182, 0, M4A 2N3. Social work students welcome. DGays in Health Care. Box 5712, Stn A, M5W 1N8. 920-1882. Includes nurses, physi- cians, medical students and psychologists. DToronto Lambda Business Council. Box 513, Adelaide St Stn, M5C 2J6.
Stn
Religious
D Dignity/Toronto. Box 249, Stn E, M6H 4E2. 960-3997. Group for gay and lesbian Catholics and friends.
DIntegrity/Toronto. Box 873, Stn F, M4Y 2N9. 961 -1 707 or 487-7406. Pastoral ministry for gay and lesbian Anglicans and friends. DLutherans Concerned, c/o Edward Schlauch, 980 Broadview Ave, Apt 2309, M4K 3Y1 . Support and fellowship for gay and lesbian Lutherans and their friends.
DMetropolitan Community Church. 730 Bathurst St, M5S 2R4. 532-2333. Christian church with special ministry to gay community DSalvatlon Army Gay Association (SAGA). 730 Bathurst St, M5S 2R4. 743-8948. Support group for gay and lesbian Salvationists and friends. DThe Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Drawer OPl, c/oTBP Box 7289, Stn A, M5W 1X9. DToronto Organization of United Church Homo- sexuals (TOUCH). Box 626, Stn Q, M4T 1 LO.
DCabbagetown Group Softball League (CGSL). Box
42, Stn L, M6E4Y4. Games Sat and Sun 11 am-6:30 pm at Riverdale Park, north diamond. Watch for league dances and bar nights at Albany Tavern.
DJudy Garland Memorial Bowling League. Info: bulletin boards in Buddy's, 18 East, Dudes, The Barn or Boots. Sept-May season. Tenth annual ban- quet May 8.
DOut and Out Club, c/o Drawer C322, The Body Politic, Box 7289, Stn A, M5W 1X9. 466-2709. Outdoor activities for gay people. Include phone number with enquiry.
DRiverdale Volleyball League. Sept-April season. Info at Dudes, Buddy's, Albany Tavern and 18 East.
Publications/information
DAction! Irregular publication of Right to Privacy Committee, 730 Bathurst St, M5S 2R4. 924-4523. DThe Body Politic. Box 7289, Stn A, M5W 1X9. 977-6320. Monthly.
DCanadian Gay Archives. Box 639, Stn A, M5W 1G2. 977-6320.
DGay Community Calendar. Call 923-GAYS. Box 8, Adelaide St Stn, M5C 2H8. Twenty-four-hour recorded message of weekly events in Toronto's gay community. To get information listed call 656-0372 between 7-10 pm Mondays. DGayline West. 453-GGCO. Community info for Mississauga and parts west of Metro. DGIad Day Bookshop. 648A Yonge St, 2nd floor, M5Y 2A6. 961-4161. Hours: Mon 10-8; Tue-Wed 10-6; Thurs-Fri 10-9; Sat 10-6. DIntegrity/Toronto Newsletter. Box 873, Stn F, M4Y 2N9. 487-7406. Bimonthly publication of gay Anglican movement.
Worven's resources
The following is a select list of women's services in Toronto of particular interest to lesbians. DBroadside. Box 494, Stn P, M5S 2T1. 598-3513. Monthly feminist newspaper. Substan- tial contributions by lesbians. DFIreweed. Box 279, Stn B, M5T 2W2. 922-3455. Feminist quarterly of politics and the arts. Special lesbian theme issue to be published in June. DHassle-Free Clinic — Women. 556 Church St, second floor, M4Y 2E3. 922-0566. Free medical clinic. Birth control and gynecological info. VD and pregnancy testing, abortion counselling and refer- rals. Hours: Mon, Wed, Fri, 10 am-3 pm; Tues, Thur, 4 pm-9 pm. Call ahead. D International Women's Day Committee. Box 70, Stn F, M4Y 2L4. 789-4541 . Independent socialist feminist organization with many lesbian members. DJessie's Centre for Teenage Women. 154 Bathurst St, M5V 2R3. 365-1888. Multi-service agency for teenage women. Lesbian-positive. DMacphail House. 389 Church St, M5B 2A1 . 977-1037. Long-term YWCA residence for women 16-25. Shared co-op apartments. DNellie's Hostel for Women. 275A Broadview Ave, M4M 2G8. 461-1084. Temporary hostel for women 16 and over, including mothers with children. DRape Crisis Centre. Box 6597, Stn A, M5W 1X4. Crisis line: 964-8080. Business line: 964-7477. Counselling and info. Self-defence courses. DStop86. 86 Madison Ave, M5R 2S4. 922-3271. Crisis housing and social service centre for women under 25.
DTImes Change Women's Employment Centre. 932 Bathurst St, M5R 3G5. 534-1161. Employ- ment counselling, job search and career planning workshops.
DToronto Women's Bookstore. 85 Harbord St, M5S 1G4. 922-8744. Hours: Mon-Sat, 10:30 am- 6 pm.
DWomen Against Violence Against Women (WAVAW). Box 174, Stn D, M6P 3J8. 536-5666. Committed to action from a feminist perspective against various aspects of violence against women. DWomen for Survival. 427 Bloor St W, M5S 1 X7. Group concerned about nuclear proliferation and ecology.
DWomen in Trades, c/o Times Change, 932 Bathurst St, M5R 3G5. 534-1161. DWomen s Counselling, Referral and Education Centre (WCREC). 348 College St, M5T 1S4. 924-0766. Therapy, counselling, referrals and info. DWomen's Resource Centre, OISE. 252 Bloor St W, M5S 1V6. 923-6641, Ext 244. Books, periodi- cals, audio & video tapes for feminist research. DWomynly Way Productions. 427 Bloor St W, M5S 1X7. 925-6568. Company bringing concerts, dance and theatrical performances to city.
New this issue:
DU of T Women's Newsmagazine. 6 issues yearly Feminist journal for women on and off campus. 44 St George St, 2nd fir, M5S 2E4. Info: Susan Prentice 978-4903.
26/THE BODY POLITIC
MAY 1982
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I ontreal, 1916: How is a smart, sensitive seventeen-year-old beginning to discover her lesbianism, to find kindred spirits? With lots oj imagination and not a little courage, one woman found a way.
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"/ believe that part of the lesbian temper- ament is that we are — those of us who are conscious of it, at any rate — more creative in our souls than in our bodies. I never wanted to have children, never wanted to be a mother. But from the earliest time that I can remember, 1 wanted to write poetry. That was my creative expression. That was what meant most to me in life. "
Elsa Gidlow, now 83 years old, spoke these words in 1978 while being filmed for the Mariposa Film Group's documentary. Word is Out. They are clearly words she has lived by; throughout her long life she has given ample rein to her creativity. Without benefit of formal education, she has produced hundreds of poems, numer- ous short stories and several poetry- dramas and novels. Some of these works have remained unpublished; others she, in the same independent spirit that in- forms her writing, has published herself. Naiad Press is to distribute her latest work, Sapphic Songs: Eighteen to Eighty, an enlarged edition of her collection of lesbian love poetry written over a period of sixty years, originally published in 1976.
She lives on a stretch of land in the hills of California's Marin County, just north of the Golden Gate. Acquired more than
MAY 1982
The dreariness of typing shipping advices eight hours a day, six and a half days a week had become barely en- durable. In my despondency I was so withdrawn even from the respite of pranks and lim- erick-making that my work associates teased me about be- ing in love. "Who is he?" they kept asking. And I, scornfully: "There is no he." The as- sumption, for them, was the obvious one. Into the mono- tony of the days they injected what relief they were able with flirting. Between the half-dozen women and the greater number of men, including those who came through with errands or requests from the yards or machine shops, there was a perpetual atmosphere of sensual potential. The two women with desks next to mine whose husbands were overseas exuded amorous need.
Blonde, blousy MoUie Simms and Nellie Pritchard, who had a plain. Cockney earthiness, in undertones while they typed bewailed having to go to bed alone. "Dribble, dribble, drib- ble, what do you do when there is nothing to put in there — stick something in yourself?" And Mrs Simms, lugubriously: "What fun is that, no one behind it. My feet get cold, too, without him." The machine shop workers who came by with their lists of
I Casting
A NET
needed parts sensed the sexual aura like tomcats, but in the wives, ingrained virtue of sorts and patriotic loyalty to their "fighting men" kept it all on a level of tension that was ex- pressed mainly in ribald verbal exchanges that introduced me to new sorts of language. French-Canadian Davilla Benoit, whom I liked best, had a different approach to life's basics. Slight, dark, sinewy, widowed or divorced, she talked with unself-conscious gaiety of her lover. Jack. Lightheartedly, she told of their nights together, whether their lovemaking had been good or not-so-good, told of their spats and making up, always with a humorous tenderness, however frank, and with no coarseness. We heard how he brought her gifts or took her out to a special dinner and theatre to win her back when he had behaved in a way to annoy her. "I just let that happen sometimes, it keeps it interesting. He always apologizes, he wants me so much. A man will do anything if he has a hard-on." She would laugh gaily, never breaking the rhythm of her expert typing: "He knows 1 can't do without him either." It sounded to me so very different from mar- riage. In that working-class environment no one appeared disturbed by the liaison.
The specific and physical confidences of these middle-aged women were for me another sort of education, but, like so
THE BODY POLITIC/27
forty years ago, complete with a "decrep- it summer cottage" which, after learning amateur carpentry, she fixed up herself, this has become Druid Heights, her home. Here she has raised goats, still grows her own vegetables and, with a group of younger women, makes plans for a retreat therefor "beleaguered, lov- ing and creative women. "
Here as well, she writes. The last few years have been spent on her memoirs. "I'd rather be working on a novel I have also started, "she says, "but everyone seems to want the autobiography. "
Understandably. Only in the last dozen years has it become relatively easy for us as gay people to reach out to each other, beyond our own small circles of acquain- tances, to find out who we are and how we live. We know more (though, really, not much) of each other than any other generation of lesbians and gay men in history. But how many of us yet know that history? How many know what life might have been like for a sensitive six- teen-year-old discovering her lesbianism and reaching out for others like herself in the east end of Montreal during the First World War?
"To my younger sisters who continu- ally ask, What was it like when you were young so long ago, I can only reply: It was like jumping naked into an ocean knowing only imperfectly how to swim. "
Born in England in 1898, Elsa Gidlow came to Canada with her parents at the age of six. They first settled in a small village, moving to Montreal when she was fifteen. She took her first job a year later in the offices of the Canadian Pacific Railroad 's A ngus Machine Shops. ' 'I had to find ways to relate to my fellow workers at Angus, and one way was to write verses on their worst grumbles or on office happenings, lampooning the rules and requirements governing our employ- ment. "She gained a reputation for prac- tical jokes; once, finding a mouse trapped in a carton, she impertinently stuck it in a drawer of the chief clerk 's desk and waited for him to open it. Later she was to recall the mouse's frantic efforts to escape — and to devise a few of her own.
In Montreal she also fell in love with her "best friend, " Frances. Elsa wrote poems "about her eyes like bits of smiling sky on a sunny day, her red-gold hair and graceful body" — but lost Frances to the jingoism of an Empire at war (which Elsa detested) and to the "romance" of a young man in uniform.
In 1920, she left Montreal for Manhat- tan, "to seek fame' and friends, but with no hope of fortune. '"It was an early step along the road that would lead her through the rich and independent life she still lives.
An early step — but not the first. That had come in 1917. That story Elsa Gidlow tells here.
— Rick B4bout
Right: Roswell George Mills, photographed in New York in 1926.
much already, I could not relate it to myself. Over Celine Droualt, also French-Canadian, the talk flowed as over snow without warming it. The pale, soft-voiced girl, maybe a year older than myself, reiterating her felt vocation of becoming a nun, definitely was not interested in the beau they also teased her with until they ceased in the face of her unaltered tran- quillity. Towards me, it was a different matter. I plainly was not convent material. ("Not with your bedroom eyes," Davilla tried laughingly to draw out confession, "I bet he loves your devilment.... Oh, come on, you can't hide it.")
My truthful, "I am not interested in men," made them laugh and tease the more. They did not believe me but could not make me out. They could see that I more or less ignored the men in the office beyond the necessary interchanges. I would not have rejected male companionship, but soon I decided there was not a man there with whom I could hold a conversation about anything except what was described in the shipping advices, certainly none who thought poetry or poets were important.
There was one other woman in the office, Rebecca Stuart, who aroused my curiosity. She was muscular, handsome, with a strong voice and hearty laugh. Above us in office status, she sat on a high stool at a sloping desk and did bookkeeping. She joked more with the men than with the women, but like one of them, not flirtatiously. Each day at the lunch hour she would be on the telephone for a long time, speaking low, tender-sounding, in a voice quite different from her jovial office tone and manner. When she hung up, there was a soft look in her eyes. One evening a remarkably lovely young woman with red-gold hair and a gorgeous figure (as the men's eyes attested) came to call for Rebecca. They walked out with closely linked arms pressed against one another's sides.
The following morning I could not forebear saying to Rebecca: "What glorious hair your friend has" (thinking, with pain, "like Frances").
Rebecca glowed as if I had complimented her: "Ah she's a winner."
The visitor, like a ray of glory in the drab office, had aroused envious attention from the men. It surprised me to overhear disparaging remarks about Rebecca, with whom all of them previously had seemed to be on such comradely terms. There were peculiar snickers, whispers. From one, a Scot: "Sure, and ye know, don't ye, she's a mofredite."
That was how I heard it. With all my attention to dictionar- ies, my widening reading and study of the encyclopedia, never had I come across such a word. I hunted now and could find nothing resembling it, although I tried various spellings. It was not until a year later, looking through a volume of photo- graphs of ancient Greek statuary, that the word "hermaphro- dite" leapt to my eyes. I realized it was of that that I must have heard an ignorant pronunciation. Putting it together with the personality of Rebecca and the leer with which the man had mouthed the word, I guessed it must have been used as a slur on the woman's supposed masculinity. Something to puzzle over the more — until nearly a year later I took a step
that catapulted me into a more sophisticated human environment.
Before then there were months of dejected aching, in body and heart and with fury of mind at what appeared to me as sordid grown-up life. I felt myself at some extremity, like the mouse dropped by what malevolence or chance into the car- ton, in darkness and frustration, struggling to climb the sides. At that point, two resolutions were born, written and under- lined in the journal I kept spasmodically: / am going to get a room of my own. I am going to find my kind of people.
The resolve was made, like casting a net blind into unknown waters. How bait Fate's hook? The seventy-five dollars a month had looked large. When I calculated paying the rent and sup- porting myself entirely, it shrank to nothing, especially as I was sharing it at home to help Mother. I wished to continue doing that. The impossibility of going to college, lacking both money and the preliminary schooling, had to be accepted. It must be added that I lacked also the bodily robustness that can make obstacles and hardships no more than incentive to overcome them. Since none of us went to doctors or had physical examinations when I was young, I did not learn until years later that my heart was not strong. The colds, bronchitis, influenza that plagued me were treated with home remedies or ignored and taken for granted. Survival had always required a stoicism of which Mother was a prime example. There was no model or encouragement for self-pity. What happened was the human condition.
But let us bless books, poets, artists, music-makers of all sorts. As I found greater access to them, they taught me that drabness, tedium, injustice were not the whole of life, that there were worlds of high-hearted realities, of spiritual transcendence. No angels with flaming swords were guarding entrance to those worlds against those who dared the adven- ture of claiming citizenship.
The young, and maybe their elders as well, tend to believe that what they seek is somewhere else. It was my faith then that if I could travel I should begin to discover the wider life, the more challenging and rewarding experiences, the people informed by wisdom and love of beauty that reading con- vinced me existed. Today, the imagination of the young bounds out into space for realization of a science-fiction sort of fantasy. Earlier, in the United States, it was continental exploration and down-to-earth pioneering that fed imagina- tion. I am of the sea-going English and of an earlier genera- tion when oceans were the perilous, little known routes to ports of glamour. Ships and seas were always the content of my dreams.
The fall of the year was and is my most restless time, as if I have in me some urge to seasonal migration. One autumn day of special desperation and aloneness, I said to Davilla Benoit as we ate our sandwich lunch, "I am going to run away to sea." Of course that was very funny for a girl. She simply smiled. I knew that this expedient for exploring the great beckoning world, open to moneyless young men, was denied to me because of my sex. Yet so persistently did it haunt my imagination that I thought of cutting off my hair, wearing male garb and "signing on" as cabin boy on a ship bound for any port of Orient or Antipodes. Simply to be sailing the unknown seas was lure enough, they were so much in my night dreams. Jeer at my romantic, ignorant projecting and tell me I should first explore my own inner ocean. I was doing that too, though holding the feeling that Life with a capital L was "out there."
Hallowe'en came. My sisters, brother Stanley and I always had devised masks and costumes to go masquerading with our pumpkin lanterns on All Hallows' Eve. This year I let them go alone. Stanley, though younger, had caught up with me in height. His clothes would just about fit me. I borrowed some old ones, wound and pinned my abundant hair up tightly, stuffed it into a cap of Father's and went bare-faced to call on Davilla. It thrilled me that a black-eyed French girl on the streetcar kept looking at me as if flirting. I was too shy to do more than smile.
Davilla laughed heartily when she realized I was seriously considering the adventure I had threatened. "Whether the captain thinks he sees a girl or a pretty boy, he will quickly discover for himself a delightful adventure. You will not very long be a virgin."
That possibility — rape — had not occurred to me. With discouragement I listened as Davilla took me to her tall mir- ror. "Look — your delicate figure — hands — lady's hands, so pretty — eyes — you think a young man would have such a mischievous smile? — and your voice! Ma petite, you may not be born to make babies — I am not, either, but you are all woman. You cannot deceive." n^
I had to admit that, although I might appear a bit boyish.
28rrHE BODY POLITIC
MAY 1982
there was nothing masculine about me. I never had wanted to be male, only to be free to do things men could do. Now I know there have been not a few women who dared the male masquerade to achieve the freedom they were denied, many succeeding lifelong, but they may have been more convincing- ly male-featured. I was forced to admit the impossibility of getting on a ship to discover wider, more shining horizons — for the present at least, until I could buy a ticket. But I would not be defeated. I devised a bait and cast my net into nearer unknown waters to bring to me what I might not yet go in search of.
In the late autumn of 1917, a letter appeared in the people's column of the Montreal Daily Star. It inquired if any group or organization of writers and artists existed in the city which a person seriously interested in such pursuits might join. There was no reply, but a little more than a week later a second let- ter appeared responding to the first. It stated that a group of writers was being formed, and suggested that the inquirer and any others interested should "communicate with the under- signed at the address given."
Both letters were written by that lonely young woman groping towards her kind, the first under a pseudonym. Over the course of a week I received nearly a dozen replies from individuals of both sexes asking for information about the proposed group. I invited them all to a meeting at my parents' on an evening when Father would be away, telling Mother what I was doing. With the help of my sister Thea, who was also interested, I made the little parlour as tidy and attractive as I could, bought fiowers, asked Mother if she would bake some sweet buns and added a bottle of port wine.
An odd assortment of people came, all declaring interest in writing except one gentle-mannered Jew who said he was a painter. A large, blonde, lame woman was helped up the two flights of steps to our fiat by her husband, who left saying he would return for her at ten. She was crippled with arthritis, passed her time writing and trying to sell short stories to women's magazines. There was a pretty, freckled, red-haired girl, Edith Strachan, not much older than myself, who had won prizes for writing at school. A man in a lieutenant's
J^'-f uniform from some other part of
■^ k Canada diffidently confided he thought
W I his experiences in the war might be ex-
citing to write about when he returned from fighting to save democracy. Doris Reid also came with her husband, who left her there and departed; originally from England, she had lived in India. A number of middle-aged men came pri- marily hoping to find amorous compan- ionship, attracted by the female name signed to the second letter. The one ex- ception was Alfred Gordon; he arrived with a fat sheaf of typewritten verse which he said would come out as a book when he had collected the retail price of its publication from two hundred spon- sors. He was ready with sign-up sheets and promised to honour us with a reading later in the evening.
The most astonishing of all was a being of elegance and beauty, a willowy blond: "God made him for a man so let him pass as such," Gordon quoted in sibilant sotto voce to the lieutenant. The anomalous being ("Roswell George Mills," he announced himself, "of the Montreal Star") overheard Gordon's quotation from Shakespeare and gave him a supercilious stare. The remark was spiteful and uncalled-for. I could not blame its target for as spiteful a re- taliation when the opportunity arose. At the point in the evening when Gordon proposed starting his reading, Mills vetoed it and won support from the rest. "Let's get to know one another first. We are not, I assume, gathered here to begin by boring one another to death."
R G Mills of the Star, the shy Scottish girl, Edith, the Jewish artist whose name was Gershon Benjamin, Mrs Reid from India and possibly the poet, Gor- don, were the only members of the group who appeared promising. All the middle-aged men left early, put off by the indifference to their advances of the two young women and bored by talk of writing techniques. The lieutenant, who obviously could bare- ly contain his horror and distaste for Mills, failed to show up at the next meeting, scheduled for Mills's home (he lived with his parents).
The arthritic woman, Maisie McBane, arrived faithfully at all of the weekly gatherings, escorted by her husband until he rebelled. Then she appealed to Edith or me to pick her up at her home in an outlying part of the city and help her on and off the streetcars. All of us found her tiresome, her sentimen- tal stories boring, her conventional attitudes a restraint on conversation. For a time I acquiesced, without enthusiasm, to the demand for escort service. It meant I had to rush home from work and bolt dinner without a moment's pause. The McBane's house was more than half an hour by streetcar, for- ty minutes from there to the Mills's where we most often gathered. One night I rebelled and told a lie. "I am not feel- ing very well," I told her on the telephone. "I don't think I'll be going."
When I arrived at the meeting, Roswell said, "Thank God she's not coming. I was getting ready to shock the wits out of her by announcing I should like to make love to her son. Did you know she has a quite good-looking boy of seventeen or so? I met them on the street one Saturday. Now if she would have him bring her...."
The doorbell rang. It was Mrs McBane. She stared at me and turned chilly. "I thought you weren't coming."
Feeling badly that she would guess now we did not want her, I tried to salve the situation. "I was tired after a hard day's work, but took a rest and felt better, so I came anyway."
Maisie, looking aggrieved, eased herself into the most com- fortable armchair, reposing her cane at her feet, muttering that young people no longer cared to help a poor crippled woman. Roswell, fioating past her to the kitchen, sweetly asked, "Did your son bring you? He is such a pretty boy. I'd like to know him."
Maisie turned red. "There is a vicious young man. I am coming to the conclusion 1 do not belong here." She left early, refusing tea which Edith passed around with the cake
t
was forced to admit the impossi- bility of getting on a ship to discover wider, more shining horizons, for the present at least, until I could buy a ticket. But I would not be defeated. I devised a bait and cast my net into nearer unknown waters,,..
Left: Elsa Gidlow at 17 in Montreal. Below: Elsa in her garden at Druid Heights, California, around I960.
"/ y I
"R^
MAY 1982
THE BODY POLITIC/29
1
Instead of accepting society's rejection, we two iconoclasts rejected our rejectors, proud to be the spiritual and passional kin of Sappho, the Shakespeare of the Sonnets, Jesus, Michelangelo and hundreds more whose secret lives we ferreted out from forbidden chronicles.
Etsa Cidlow's autobiography, tentatively titled Elsa: A Life from Oblique Angles, is still in progress. Book One, which covers her life up to the time she moved to New York, and from which this piece is excerpted, is complete; Ms Gidlow is now working on the next volume.
Elsa endow 's work has appeared in many magazines, among them Soujourner, Fron- tiers, and Feminist .Studies. Inquiries con- cerning Elsa Gidlow can be addressed to The Body Politic, Box 7289, Station A. Toronto, Ontario M5W 1X9. Attention: Rick Bibout.
30rrHE BODY POLITIC
Roswell had made. To our suprise, she managed nicely alone, limping out and down the stairs with the aid of her cane. Roswell turned from watching her through the living-room curtains. "Do you reeilize she came here without help and is leaving the same way? It a-Maisies me she has the gall to expect you to go all the way out to Westmount to fetch her and take her back." There was laughter and a couple of groans at his pun. But I still feh badly, both about the lie and having hurt the woman's feelings, although I was convinced I had been justified. With fiercely youthful intolerance I burst out, "People should not be boring and ugly and pitiable, making others feel like beasts for not catering to them." It was the last we saw of her.
Gradually a wide variety of individuals joined us: musi- cians, medical students, painters, amateur actors and some out-of-work professional, but interesting, men. At last I had found people I could enjoy, converse with, learn from and perhaps love. The most interesting to me was Roswell. He was only nineteen, but older in his mind and in experience. Con- scious also of being an "outsider" and of the need to com- pensate for it, he worked hard despite his languid manner. His main interest was music; he took piano lessons and prac- tised tirelessly to a ticking metronome. His job on the Star was assisting the editor of the financial page. On the side he conducted a lovelorn column where, cynical tongue in cheek, he gave very proper counsel under a female name. And he found time to write music and drama criticism, which brought him free passes to the city's cultural events. To some of these he took me when there was no likely young man to court or impress. I thus enjoyed my first concerts, operas, theatrical productions, to which I could rarely have afforded tickets. A marvellous new world opened.
Besides these events and people, Roswell also introduced me to a whole new range of literature I might not so quickly have discovered, along with the lives of its makers: Oscar Wilde and Alfred Douglas, Baudelaire, Verlaine, Mallarme, Swinburne, MaeterHnck, Max Beerbohm, Joris Karl Huysmans. All were bourgeois-scorning, "decadent" rebels of the Nineties and early Twenties with their glamorous sin- fulness or metaphysical retreat from unendurable middle-class hving. Haunting libraries, I made discoveries of my own: Nietzche, whose Thus Spake Zarathustra transported me to delirious heights of recognition; de Quincy's Confessions of an English Opium Eater which roused in me a desire to make like experiments. When I found small brown tablets of opium among Father's first-aid supplies, I stole some and hid them away for later experimentation. I studied French by myself on streetcars so as to be able to read in the original Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mai, excited to find him writing of love, pas- sionate love, between women.
Roswell confided to me his personal crusade. He wanted people to understand that it was beautiful, not evil, to love others of one's o\in sex and make love with them. Roswell had divined my lesbian temperment and was happy to prose- lytize; the veil of self-ignorance began to hft. Together we read Havelock Ellis's Psychology of Sex, and other such volumes (available mainly to the medical profession) as we were able to get our hands on. We read Edward Carpenter's The Intermediate Sex and his Towards Democracy. I still have a copy of that thin India paper volume, much marked.
A new member of our group, Louis Gross, a graduate med- ical student from McGill University, helped us to get access to some of the forbidden books. He introduced us to Krafft- Ebing, Guy Lombroso, who argued that "genius" was deca- dent, to Freud and Albert Einstein. Try to grasp how explo- sive all of this was to a young mind in 1916. I began to look for books on psychology to seek deeper understanding of why I had always felt myself an "outsider" in ordinary Hfe.
Rosswell developed an unrequited love for the young medical student who did not walk the lavender path, and lamented to me at length of his sufferings. He relieved them writing plays celebrating erotic love between men, in the mood of Maeterlinck. He wrote of the tragedy inherent in the scorn and persecution with which this love was met by a crass society. The trial and jailing of Oscar Wilde were not far in our past and very real. We read his Ballad of Reading Gaol. Tragedies of Sex by Frank Wedekind was another of the books that instructed us in the cruelties of society to those who did not walk in its prescribed paths.
In response to Roswell's confidences about his unhappy love life, I in turn told him of the feelings I had had for Frances. I spoke of her "betrayal," now recognizing that I had been "in love." At this point Roswell told me of Sappho. I went searching for all I could find of her translated fragments, not much, and anything written about her, also scarce at the time. Instead of accepting society's rejection, we two iconoclasts rejected our rejectors, proud to be the spiritual and passional kin of Sappho, the Shakespeare of the
Sonnets, Jesus, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Carpenter, Walt Whitman, and hundreds more of the world's admired individuals whose secret lives we ferreted out from forbidden chronicles. We delved into the mores of Ancient Greece, read Plato's dialogues, dreamed of an ideal society as we studied his Republic. In all of this and more we found reasons for loving ourselves and each other.
I thought Roswell was the most ambiguously beautiful being I knew, with his metallic blond hair and pale, perfect features, his languidly intelligent grey eyes and soft, slim body; his was a hothouse beauty, like a Uving flower that appeared artificial. He went scrubbed in tweeds to his work on the newspaper, but at home among friends, at the theatre and concerts, he was delicately made-up and elegantly dressed, wearing exotic jewelry and as colourful clothes as he dared. Receiving at home, he donned a bronze green robe of heavy silk. He gently maintained that it was necessary to star- tle the bourgeoisie, not for the sake of shocking but to shake them out of their smugness, make them realize they were half alive and doing their best to destroy all who did not fit into their mould. "Greasy domesticity" was not godly but a blight. In one way or another, every generation repeats such revolt. Older men had been Roswell's mentors when he was younger. I also was grateful to them for helping to open up the worlds of thought and art.
I inquired one day how Roswell had escaped being drawn into the maw of war. "Oh, I'm Four-F — physically, mental- ly, emotionally and morally incompetent for the glory of kill- ing," he explained. Mabel, his mother, was most relieved not to have borne a soldier. "My father can't stand the sight of me; it's mutual. He's in the last stages of alcoholism: sclerosis of the liver, poor idiot. No wonder Mabel couldn't endure it any longer and took a lover."
I had seen the man who was Mabel's lover and imagined him to be a relative of some sort. Mabel was as beautiful as her son, with the same colouring but voluptuous and healthy Hke one of Titian's women. She dressed smartly; her son helped design her clothes. They were more like elder sister and brother than mother and son and went out a lot together. They shared cosmetics. She accepted him as he was.
^^ ^F" "yr 1^ ishing to add sophistication to my I I ^r ^r unassuming appearance, Roswell designed I B^^r for me a draped, goddess-like, close-fitting
■^•^r evening dress, which I sewed. He suggested
P^ P^ I carry a calla lily with it when we went to
concerts or receptions of friends together. I balked at that Wildean extravagance. He also tried to persuade me to use make-up, but I could not be bothered. It was fun occasionally to "dress up" for a dramatic appearance, but generally I was too preoccupied with writing. I preferred to be admired for my mind and what.it could accompUsh. "One can also be beautiful," he argued. "You didn't even know you had beautiful hands, the most beautiful I have seen." He wrote poetry to them and other supposed charms.
Some of the other young men also were flattering. Ger- shon, the painter, said I was beautiful and he wished to paint me. Louis, a sculptor, told me, "You have a Burne- Jones body and a Rosetti neck," reciting Dante Gabriel Rosetti's lines: "The blessed damozel leaned out/From the gold bar of heaven...."
Roswell gave me the pet name of Sappho ("You are strong and independent Hke her and a true poet"). The others picked it up and it was my name among them for years until I left Montreal. All heady emd romantic — but I knew I was not pretty; there was nothing remailcable about my apperarance. "No, you are not pretty, thank God," Roswell said, "but you are an individual. Make the most of it. Learn how to dress. I'll help you." The situation at least was pleasant and added to my self-confidence.
Roswell and I became inseparable, feeling, if not altogether knowing why, that we complemented one another, loving with a pure, Platonic love. His gender ambiguity both attract- ed me and left me feeling safe. I was constantly defending him to people, mainly men, who regarded him as corrupt. He could have a viper's tongue against those he disliked, against smugness and persons who went out to their way to insult him, as was not infrequent, but I knew him for a loyal, gentle and generous friend, one to whom I already owed a great deal and was to owe more. Our friendship was to be lifelong.
Fascinating fish my homemade net had caught. Whatever contributed to my devising remains unanalyzable. But from that action in a desperate moment I learned never to tolerate stagnation. Even in the most deprived circumstances it is possible to proclaim: "I am here, world: where are you? What do you want of me?"
The rest of my life depended on the threads of that innocently cast net.D
MAY 1982
Upsetting convention witli Mai7 Poppins
Victor/Victoria. Directed by Blake Edwards. MGM/United Artists, 1982
The direct social effect of a film (in so far as it can be guessed) has no neces- sary correlation with its interest as a work of art. For example, we think Cruising, whose social effect was prob- ably entirely negative, a far more inter- esting film than Making Love, whose social effect must be predominantly positive. The former draws on a rich legacy from the horror movie and film noir and can be read as a radical cri- tique of authority patterns in contem- porary culture, while the latter has little more complexity or resonance than a made-for-TV "social problem" drama. What, then, are the criteria of value?
Happily, such quandaries of evalua- tion are largely resolved by Victor/ Vic- toria, at once the most pleasurable, the most widely accessible, the most com- plex, the most intelligent, the most fun- damentally serious and the most radical of the recent outcrop of Hollywood movies on gay themes. (Which is not to say it's perfect — we'll return later to its quite important limitations.)
As for discernible social effect, the film consistently reverses the general conditioning of audiences to laugh at or despise homosexuals from the secure vantage point of identification with "straight" male characters, and the huge audiences currently flocking to the film seem, for the most part, trium- phantly won over by it. Consider the following: early in the film Richard (Malcolm Jamieson), who has been sex- ually exploiting Toddy (Robert Preston) and is now walking out on him, calls him an "old queer"; in spontaneous response Victoria (Julie Andrews) erupts from a closet to punch him in the face and literally boot him out of the apartment. On the two occasions we saw the film, the audience laughed de- lightedly and applauded. The reponse was similar when Norma (Lesley Ann Warren), the stereotypical "dumb blonde," tells Toddy that she thinks a good woman could reform him, and he retorts that he thinks a good woman could reform her. By the later stages of the film anything becomes possible, and the audience can take in its stride the magnificent moment when James Gar- ner's bodyguard (Alex Karras, a won- derfully delicate performance), thinking he has found his macho boss in bed with another man, promptly "comes out" and, tears in his eyes, kisses him.
What is most remarkable about the film is its completely successful fusion of delight and didacticism; it manages to be at once a continuously inventive and captivating musical farce and a veritable sermon on sexuality, gayness and gender-identity, without either facet undermining the other. Seldom has "entertainment" been so effectively used as a means of educating the audi- ence. It is especially important that the most explicit radical statements are given to Julie Andrews (they might be regarded as following from her splendid feminist lecture to Dudley Moore in bed in 10). Her attempts to transcend or negate her star image (in Star, for exam- ple, or the extremely underrated Darling Lilt) have hitherto not been commercial- ly successful; for most people, she remains the star of The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins, a screen persona
which might well have gained the unqualified approval of Anita Bryant in her heyday. It is startling enough to be informed by a Hollywood movie that the only people who regard homosexu- ality as sick or sinful are "pure clergy- men and terrified heterosexuals"; for such a speech to emerge from the lips of Mary Poppins is nothing short of electrifying.
Perhaps the film's most deeply satis- fying achievement, however, is its crea- tion, without fuss, pretension or self- consciousness, of a positive, happy, lov- ing and mutually supportive relation- ship between a gay man and a hetero- sexual woman. The gains here arguably offset what initially struck us as one of the film's Hmitations: although Andrews (as a woman pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman) is cen- tral to its play on gender-roles and the chief spokesperson for its discussion of sexual ambiguity and defence of free- dom of orientation, the character's own sexual identity is never called into ques- tion. Victoria is allowed to look and fight like a man, defending gays with words and fists, but she is never allowed to acknowledge that she might feel attracted to women. Yet the gay/ femin- ist alliance embodied in the Andrews/ Preston relationship remains one of the
film's major delights. They sing and dance together, face problems together, hug, kiss, love each other, share the same bed, are regarded by the world as (male) lovers, while fully accepting each other's different sexual needs and without ever trespassing on each other's freedom of choice. In this, the film ac- curately reflects one of the most positive side-effects of the coalition of the gay and women's movements.
In the best tradition of the American musical, the "numbers" are consistently used, not as decorative appendages, but to crystallize themes and narrative developments. Hence, the Preston /An- drews alliance is summed up in their public duet in the club Chez Lui, a number that also extends the film's complex play on gender-identity by being posited on a double vision: the audience within the movie thinks it is watching two men, the cinema audience knows it is watching a gay man and a woman. The song asserts not only the togetherness of the couple but the idea that everyone envies such people and would like to be like them. One can take it either way.
It is fitting that a film so dedicated to educating the "straight" audience should centre its narrative on the educa- tion of a "straight" male (Garner), the
recipient of Victoria's lectures. One of the movie's unquestionable weaknesses is that Garner learns the truth about Andrews identity too early (and in a manner that is more distasteful than the film seems ready to acknowledge). The logic of the thematic progress is surely that he should admit to being in love with Victoria while still believing that she's a man: when he tells her he wants to kiss her and doesn't care if she's male, the potential of the moment is severely undercut by the fact that he knows she isn't. Nonetheless, the character's development (in order to continue a relationship with Victoria, he has to learn to accept that people will think he's gay) provides some of the movie's strongest moments. One of its most notable reversals of conventional assumptions is the implication that Garner finally demonstrates his strength and integrity by refusing to reveal that he isn't gay, even under extreme pressure.
As to the film's other shortcomings (though, when it goes so far and does so much, it seems ungrateful to insist on them): we are bothered somewhat by the treatment of Lesley Ann Warren (hilarious as she mostly is), or, more specifically, by the film's strategy of making a woman its ultimate butt or "fall guy." The corollary of this is the capitulation of Victoria herself to the male order against which she has previ- ously held out.
More serious is its failure, in the last resort, to take gay relationships as seriously as heterosexual ones. It seems to us the one edge that Making Love has over Victor/Victoria — the only one, but crucially important in terms of gay politics and contemporary society — is that it confronts general audiences with the possibility that gays are capable of the same commitment, and the same pain, as heterosexuals. Edwards's film falls finally into the pattern long estab- lished in, for example, Shakespearian comedy and Mozartian opera, as well as in Hollywood movies such as the Astaire/ Rogers films, whereby a "seri- ous romantic couple is counterpoint- ed with a comic one; here, the serious couple (Andrews and Garner) happen to be heterosexual, the comic couple (Preston and Karras) gay. Though enor- mously superior to it in every way, the film is not quite as far removed from La Cage Aux Folks as we would wish.
Robin Wood and Richard LippeH
Garner (right) with bodyguard Karras: a sur
prise come-out — and surprising integrity Andrews/Victor/Victoria (rigtit): abandon- ing an image Anita Bryant migtit have loved Dumb blonde? Lesley Ann Warren (below): tiilarious, but the film's ultimate "fall guy"
MAY 1982
THE BODY POLITIC/31
Coming to Power: Writings and Graphics on Lesbian S/M (S/M: A Form of Eroticism Based on Consensual Exchange of Power). Edited by samois (a lesbian/feminist organization), Box 11798, San Francisco, CA 94101. 1981. $6.95.
Some whisper about it. Some accuse with it. Some are truly repulsed by the very thought of it. A few are genuinely curious. Of those asking, most have predetermined it to be Dangerous to Your Health, and if not yours, then at least to the General Public's (maybe naive but not-so-innocent) Morality. If you happen to be a lesbian and you happen to engage in it, you might easily be considered Anti-Feminist, a Pervert, a Menace, a Sickie, a Reactionary or even a Fascist. And not necessarily in that order. Not surprisingly, you will enrage the poUce, the right wing's fanatic Moral Majority, and even a few of our own all-too-holy and politically correct lefties. But to youF shock and horror, you may also enrage many, many of your own Lesbian-Feminist Sisters — and if you do, you will be condemned by them as a Sexist Male in Female Genitalia Drag. Be prepared. Brace yourself. Allow yourself the hard- won right to experience Our Bodies! Ourselves! For as the Ministry of Truth correctly proclaims. Coming To Power "is an outrageous book." It is also a profound book. And it's the best thing that's been published on feminist theory /practice in a long, long time.
If you can actually find a copy — dif- ficult, since the very bookstores normal- ly carrying feminist writing waver be- tween fear and anger about its contents or, when they don't, order such a lim- ited amount that it sells out immediately upon arrival — you will discover or affirm many general things about sex- ual/erotic relations and fantasies. But you will have to come to terms with three basic lesbian things in particular: (1) that what we "do in bed" involves more than endless discussions on wom- en's oppression, non-monogamy and guih; (2) that what we "do in bed" involves consensual erotic sexual fanta- sies/activities that may or may not involve the use of leather straps, silk ropes, vibrators, orgasms, and more than one other person, and (3) that the understanding of sex as consensual, ero- tic, powerful and political constitutes not only the basis of S/M sexual play, but the very foundation of feminism itself.
Now sit down, catch your breath and read on.
Let's start with SAMOIS's rather ap- propriate title: Coming to Power. As we all know from listening to old Lenny Bruce albums, "coming" is a fun little word imbued with a variety of meanings that can include mundane things like "in the pursuit of or "reaching toward" something. But it also carries another meaning, an erotic meaning, having to do explicitly with orgasm(s). Statements like "Are you coming?" "Did you come?" "I'm coming!" or "I came three times!" — in the right con- text — mean something other than can you /did you /will you meet me for lunch on Tuesday. SAMOIS is certainly not innocent of this (or any other) point. By choosing the word "coming," these les- bian-feminists underline the fact that, on the one hand, women are continuing
their pursuit of power in this society, that that pursuit is solidified by getting {ie coming) together, and that that com- ing together (ie sisterhood) is, in itself, a serious political statement about power. Perhaps this might seem vaguely remin- iscent, if we carefully blow away the layers of dust, of the old and important slogan: Sisterhood is powerful.
On the other hand, by employing "coming" they also succeed in re-estab- lishing a key point about feminist poli- tics often forgotten in today's struggle for women's liberation: It has some- thing to do with Sex, a "something" that is politically liberating, exciting, strengthening and erotic. But it also re- establishes a key point about (lesbian) sexual relations and fantasies: Sex in general and lesbian sex in particular, has something definite and positive to do with power, where power is understood as erotic, sensual and socially/ historic- ally created (that is, political), rather than something to be reduced (as is often done) to the crude equation Power = Patriarchy = Male, or in short, as something anti-woman.
But although it is important to be clear about the multiplicity of meanings behind the word power, we should be equally clear that SAMOIS is not just talking about any old sisterly coming together, nor any old erotic form of power. They are talking about lesbian sado-masochistic sexual encounters. They are talking about consensual dominant / subordinate, tension / release, costume /reality, sexual relations /fan- tasies by, for and among women. In the full and total sense of the phrase (and in no less than thirty articles, stories and fantasies), SAMOIS debates, writes about and otherwise explores coming to power.
So let's go for that long-awaited walk on the wild side. Let's explore and debate with SAMOIS what constitutes lesbian S/M sexual play.
If you fiip through articles such as
"How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Dildo" (Sophie Schmuckler), "Dangerous Shoes or What's a Nice Dyke Like Me Doing in a Get-up Like This?" (Virginia Barker), "Silk and Leather Dream" (Anonymous), "Act II Scene I" (Janet Schrim), "Giri Gang" (Gappy Kotz), or "Handkerchief Codes: Interlude 11" one thing stands out: lesbian sado-masochism means all things to all lesbians.
Some claim, for example, that it's just a matter of tension and its release via bodily orgasms:
Slowly she takes the long red silk scarf from her pocket and lovingly wraps it around my wrists, drawing my arms up and over my head to the headboard of the bed. I lie there spread-eagled, arms out of my con- trol, as her breasts, covered in the cool self-contained silk rub over my body... The leather against me, pushing between my legs, hard, hot, impossible to avoid, even as the silk tells me how cool and distanced she could be at any time.
Raising her knee, she grinds into my clit... On and on until the leather glistens with my juice. Another piece of silk appears and she rubs it over my breasts in ever larger circles until my sides and thighs and every part of me is drawn, electric... Her hand descends, and my legs spread wider than should be possible, as first one finger, then another and another join and pierce, pushing hard and fast, forcing bone against clit. Another finger enters my asshole — rubbing, massaging, ignoring the tightness of muscles fighting inva- sion. The silk keeps rubbing. Breasts, ribs, ass, never stopping un- til I come, and keep coming... The smell of leather filling the air, the creaking of her leather coming in time to my own cries of joy. ("Silk and Leather Dream") Some claim, on the other hand, that
S/M sex has to do with- a discovery of the body, a searching for and finding the very boundary between agony and ecstacy:
"No." More a moan than a word.
The heavy strands of black braid- ed leather bit into my ass and shoulder blades once more. And again. And again.
And my cries continued, breath- less, reverberating in my throat, barely making it into the air. My body, bound and helpless, jerked at the blows, writhing without my will.
"No. Ohh." A moan trailing off into a shuddering sob...
Suddenly the whipping stopped. I felt as if I were awakening in a strange place with no recollection of how I had gotten there. A sudden stab of pain in each nipple, followed by relief, brought me back as she removed the clamps. She undid the wrist cuffs from the chains and half carried me to bed.
"We need a break," she said to me urgently. I murmured wordless agreement. Holding her holding me I felt renewed energy surging through us. I knew we weren't finished yet tonight. Curtain. ("Act II Scene I")
Then again, some claim S/M to mean more than tension and release, more than simple limitation and discovery. They claim it to mean discipline and punishment:
I'm wearing army fatigues and a form-fitting military shirt. I apply a gash of cruel red lipstick to remind her that I am all woman within my command outfit.
I put her through her paces, watching her tits jiggle, her ass sweat, her cunt drip.
Yet she's not quite sexy enough for me. Nor, really-, for her own plea- sure. So I put her in the cage and allow her to lick my big black boots through the bars.
When we are both thoroughly aroused I return to my bed and we ^ listen to each other masturbate.
Later I punish her for experiencing pleasure unsuitable for a prisoner and for spying on an officer.
When I take her across my lap for her punishment she follows instruc- tions to keep her fist in my cunt as I paddle her. She comes just seconds before I do and she is pun- ished for preceding an officer. ("Handkerchief Codes: Interiude")
Well. You've no doubt noticed that these scenes include silk (as in ropes, scarves and shirts), paddles and nipple clamps. No doubt you also noticed they include Tops and Bottoms, Dominants and Submissives, fist-fucking, anal sex, pain, sweat, orgasms. But what you might not have grasped in its entirety is the reality /fantasy level of each scene. It's up to you to decide, to know which is which. For the question is never simp- ly what is real or not about these sexual encounters, but what do you hope/de- sire to be real? This, too, is central to S/M play, the interweaving of fantasy with real-life played-out scenes.
There is one other point that may have escaped your analytic eye: the fact of mutual consent and trust necessary for each sexual encounter. For lesbian sexual S/M is not (and this should be stressed) performed against a woman's will. Moreover, it is not emotional S/M blackmail — the typical "mind-fuck" game-playing often present in lesbian relationships. Lesbian sexual "S/M is not abusive, rape, beatings, violence, cruelty, power-over, force, coercion, non-consensual, unimportant, a choice
32/THE BODY POLITIC
MAY 1982
made lightly (or) growth blocking...". And, as Martha Equinox quietly adds, it's certainly not boring. People agree to do it together, consensually, and they agree to stop immediately when either partner wishes to do so.
How do you know when to stop, or if you're the Bottom, how do you let your lover /partner know you've had enough? By using code words, like "pink" for "ease it up" or "red" for "stop." How do you know whether a sex toy is safe or unsafe to use? You check it out before engaging in an S/M sex scene. After all, not every potential- ly erotic object is necessarily safe — this goes particularly for glass bottles (which form a vacuum in the vagina or anus and have to be surgically removed) or hard plastic dildoes and vibrators that may spHnter under pressure. These and other safety tips can be found in Janet Bellwether's important lesbian S/M safety guide: "Love Means Never Hav- ing to Say Oops." It is up to both (or more) partners to know exactly what they're getting into and the limits of the play. But it's particularly important for the Top to understand the complexity of each scene, since she will usually be the one with the most freedom of move- ment and, therefore, the one exercising continual judgment of the situation.
Lastly, how do you know if you might be into S/M if you've never tried it before? Will you want to be a Top or a Bottom, a Dominant or Submissive? Will you want to be Versatile? Are you going to want to try whipping someone or wanting yourself to be whipped? Or will you want it to be just tension/ release without the use of toys or ropes? These questions do not have self-evident answers. And it is precisely because there are no pat answers that SAMOIS provides many varied personal state- ments about lesbian S/M. These state- ments often include comments about feeling nervous, curious, even scared. But even if Curiosity Killed the Cat, we all know that Satisfaction Brought Her Back. "Proper Orgy Behaviour" (by "J") testifies to this dual fear/satis- faction:
Orgyl Thoughts I keep to myself: Oh jeez, look at those women over there. One is whipping the other. Uh oh and I promised myself I'd be cool and nonjudgemental... but... but... how can they do that? Why would she want to be whippedl
Oh it's just too weird. Why did I come to this orgy anyway? Me, monogamous me, who's never done a three way with friends....
Orgy 2
...there are those two women again. All that leather she's wearing. I wonder if she gets hot in it? ...I wonder what it feels like? Why is it such a turn on? Oh, it's just too weird.
Orgy 3
Listen, I know this might sound unusual coming from me, but well... I'd like to see what it feels like to be whipped!
My friends are delighted, and we find a swing board for me to lie down on. I tell them I am feeling very vulnerable and do not want any sexual play at this time, only whip- ping. "Only whipping" I gulp. 1 then tell them that my safe word for stopping the action is "red," and "pink" for lightening up.
One by one they take turns. They ask my permission first, and are lov- mg and gentle in their manner... I am anxious. Will it hurt? Can I take
it? What am I doing? I wait nervous- ly, then... SMACK! The first hit... "Ayyy, that hurts," I protest. I am surprised at how much it stings. They laugh and I relax. So, it really does hurt.
(After several smacks with variations on the Scene:)
She says, "I think that's enough for your first time." "Oh," I say disappointedly. I want to go on.... "No, enough for now. You think you can take more but you really can't." And then she reassures me. "You can always do it again." Yes, I smile, feeling very peaceful and self- satisfied.
We are left, in the end, with a burning (shall I say stinging?) indictment, an in- dictment that brings us full circle to the beginning of our walk on the wild side: if lesbian S/M sex is so powerful, so in-
teresting and so much fun, why is it not more openly talked about, let alone " practised? The answer has to do, in part, with a two-pronged development within lesbian /feminist poUtics. On the one hand, S/M sex is seen to be scary, often thought to be a Heterosex- ual Aberration of the Scars of Patriar- chy, and therefore seen as something to be contained, sealed off, in a word, cen- sored by some of the major elements within the feminist community. On the other hand, to admit to yourself and to your once cosy lesbian-feminist world that you're an S/M dyke means to come out once again, but this time in an ever more vicious atmosphere where you will definitely be discredited by the very sisters whose support you once held in high esteem. It is a maddening emo- tional drain. And our SAMOIS sisters are keen on presenting exactly how disturbing and how tortuous it has been
for them in their uncomfortable role as the new cutting edge of the lesbian sex- ual liberation movement. (See in par- ticular Gayle Rubin's excellent analysis, "The Leather Menace: Comments on Politics and S/M" reprinted in the April issue of TBP.)
But Coming to Power is more than an attempt to put sex back into lesbian politics. It is an attempt to show, through stories, graphics and analysis, just how political (ie, socially construct- ed) lesbian sex really is. It is an attempt to remind all of us that we must contin- ue our fight to define sexual relations on our own terms as something valid and important. It is an attempt to remind us that the personal is political.
Only one small question remains: are you going to be part of the problem or part of the solution in the fight for the sexual liberation of women?
SueGoldingD
>««**•»
He's about your age, well-educated, likes life in the city. Like you, he sees that the world needs some changes, wants to make those changes happen. Like you, he gives some of his time or money to a gay organization.
Unlike you, he doesn't read The Body Politic. He may have seen the magazine at your place, but he hasn't really looked us over.
We want to reach him — and you can help us. At no cost to you.
We'd like you to help us give your friend a gift: a six- issue trial subscription to The Body Politic. It won't cost
you — or him — a cent. We'll send it free.
We can make this offer because we're sure that, after a few issues, he'll decide TBP is worth paying for, and he'll renew his subscription. And keep on doing it.
Just fill in the form below. If you need room for more friends, use a separate sheet of paper. Clip it and mail it to us at Box 7289, Station A, Toronto M5W 1X9. We'll send him the next six issues of The Body Politic (in a neat, brown envelope) along with a note saying it's from you. We'll do the work — you just take the credit.
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MAY 1982
THE BODY POLITIC/33
MORE FILM
Dramatic tricks and dubious intentions
Deathtrap directed by Sidney Lumet. Released through Warner Brothers, 1982
A close-up of a nervous young man peering around a corner; he is afraid he is being watched. Cut to: two eyes look- ing out from behind a drape: he is being watched. The young man emerges from behind the wall, cradling in his arms a woman's corpse.
The camera pulls back, showing the murderer, the wall, a door... and in the foreground, a restless audience. The acting in this thriller, they mutter, is horrible — and the script worse. The voyeur behind the drapes is sweating: he is the play's author and standing at the back of the theatre he senses this pro- duction is going to bomb.
This intriguing unfolding of layers of theatrical artifice and theatrical reality is endemic in Deathtrap. Being a thriller, its success should depend on how well it creates suspense, how long it enticingly withholds the actual outcome of events, how effectively it teases us into believing in its inevitability. Yet Jay Presson Allen's screenplay isn't content to do only that: its trickery is not just a matter of concealing outcomes, but of hiding whole events.
The sweating playwright, Sidney Bruhl (Michael Caine) is devastated. Once the Neil Simon of thrillers, he is now observing the fourth in a numbing series of flops. And when he returns home to his wife Myra (Dyan Cannon), he confides to her his worst fear: he has received a script in the mail from a fan of his, an aspiring playwright, one Clif- ford Anderson (Christopher Reeve). It's a thriller and it's very good — perfect, in fact, so perfect that Anderson may usurp Bruhl's title of Thriller King. He must be stopped — eliminated, as it
were. He is invited to Bruhl's East Hampton home so they can iron out some of the script's "small problems."
By this time, the scenario seems familiar enough as these things go: hus- band and wife team up to wipe out what they consider a threat to their security. But soon the machinery appears to backfire, when, through a series of shocking events, Myra is bumped off in- stead. Anderson is terribly pleased with this development. And Bruhl? Couldn't be happier!
The reason for their elation is nebulous at first, but when the two embrace and kiss triumphantly, the clouds quickly dissipate: after all, what a burden this woman was! That kiss dis- closes for us, at last, the premise that we all have been watching. The gay coup- ling is used as a dramatic trick, the assumption being that this is the last thing we should expect. Like the camera shots which pretend to know all the action but purposely omit important information, this deception and provo- cation are all part of the film's playfulness.
And Deathtrap gets up to more mischief. The two lovers soon become rival playwrights, each setting out to write the ultimate whodunit — even if one's cunning necessitates the other's demise. They threaten each other with plots, effects, props, performances — with their own scripts' outlandishly morbid clever pranks. What forges the tension and dramatic gravity here is the rivals' relationship. It is the spectre of betrayal between lovers, through profes- sional competition and suggestions of murder, that anchors the suspense.
Not that these two have any mono- poly on duplicity; every character in this film has dubious intentions. Even the
screenplay is not without its chicanery. It may be that Allen is using this male- male relationship to set the complexities in bizarre, alien territory. Few things could complete this film's vertiginous atmosphere better than the sight of two men kissing and calling each other "dariing" and "sweetie." Yet it is to the advantage of cheery twaddle like this to keep its cameras aimed only at what appears to be pertinent.
Michael WadeD
MUSIC
Alternative merits
Popular Songs. Written and performed by Clive Robertson. Available through The Record Peddler, 115 Queen St E, Toronto M5C 1S1.
This collection of nine songs by Tor- onto-based artist and writer Clive Robertson addresses a number of sub- jects more common than popular. Patri- archal dominance, media manipulation, police harassment, unemployment, inflation — Robertson's concerns are hardly the material of a hit record. But they are the stuff of our lives. That the album has been reviewed more than it has been played is an irony its title anticipates. Produced on a shoestring budget outside the corporate record industry. Popular Songs acknowledges its sub-cultural position by flaunting its anti-commercial attitudes in a no-frills package. It is marginal music, written for and about people who experience the anger and enervation of oppression. Robertson's use of the song format to explore the reasons and manifestations of powerlessness in our society make
him an easy target for musical and polit- ical purists. Complicated issues rarely make for easy listening; when they do, they invariably suffer from oversimplifi- cation. Popular Songs is vulnerable on both counts. Robertson's attempt to reduce the concept of hegemony to two- and-a-half minutes, for example, is inevitably problematic. How do you turn political theory into a catchy tune? Some will say you shouldn't even try, that the result will demean the idea, deaden the song, or both. And do we really want to dance to a ditty about the
Robertson: cofnmon, if not popular, concerns
Toronto bath raids, entitled "No More Shit"? Are we not defusing our anger and diluting our politics no matter what the musical quality?
I think not. The co-opting of minori- ty and sub-cultural groups by mass cul- ture is a process as old as slavery. As we watch our lovemaking fill the nation's cinemas, this process appears all too benign. In such a climate, art that asserts its oppositional status by remain- ing a deliberate alternative to the struc- tures of mainstream culture serves a val- uable political purpose. Popular Songs, if only because of its problems, reminds us of the merits of being different and "difficuh."
Listen for it. In a culture where famil- iarity breeds content, what you don't hear matters.
Robert Wallace D
U.S. Dream
TWo sixth-graders
finally bought
eleven dollars' worth
of chocolate bars and
left town
at the end of the winter
walking toward
the headwaters of the Amazon
and the blessed
jungle tree where
they would build a home
in the strong limbs
and be loved
by the birds and monkeys
until the turn of the century.
Jed FifeD
This issue's writers
Jed File was born in Moscow, Idaho, but now lives In Pullman, Washington. . All of Sue Gelding's friends are anxiously awaiting her return fronrEngland. . George K Sax Is a film critic and social scientist in Buffalo. New York . . Michael Wade has given up go-fering for a job as a busboy. , Teacher and playwright Robert Wallace will be reviewing Bloolips in the June issue, , . Tom Waugh teaches film at Montreal's Concordia University . , Robin Wood and Richard LIppe. who have been together for three years, both teach film in Toronto.
34/THE BODY POLITIC
MAY 1982
DRAMA
Confusing life, art, liistoiy and Oscar Wilde
Lord Alfred's Lover.a play by Eric Bentley. Personal Library (439-17 Queen St E, Tor- onto, M5C1P9), 1981. $6.95.
Oscar Wilde should have a special sig- nificance for gay men and women, one linking his name to the development of liberation struggles and gay conscious- ness. Yet, until the pubHcation of this play (with the dubious exception of Lord Alfred Douglas's viciously self- serving autobiography), there has been no important examination of Wilde's life and times informed by a gay sensibility.
Bentley brings undeniably impressive credentials to his task, as a scholar, playwright and democratic socialist (he pays tribute to Wilde's essay "The Soul of Man Under Socialism" in the preface to this work). Like many of us, he seems to feel an affinity with Wilde as both artist and as the eventual martyr in a struggle Wilde himself predicted would be "long and red with monstrous martyrdoms." But it is a pity that so lit- tle has resulted from Bentley's efforts. Lord Alfred's Lover does little to illu- minate or explain its subject's success or the forces which carried him to an early and ignoble end.
It would be inappropriate to com- ment here on the performance potential of the play (to be performed in New York later this year, with Quentin Crisp in the cast), but read as either a work of biography or imagination it is a disap- pointment.
Designed as a reminiscence and con- fession by Douglas at the end of his life in 1945, the play telescopes the last nine years of Wilde's life, from his meeting with Lord Alfred in 1891 to his exile in Paris after serving a two-year sentence for committing acts of "gross indecen- cy." Much of the dialogue is taken from the writings of Wilde and others, which may lend an impression of auth- enticity but which does not, unfortun- ately, produce a work of historical accuracy: the play is rife with errors, most of them, it must be assumed, intentional. ^
For example, Douglas's confession of his affair with Wilde can scarcely have been revelatory in 1945, since by that time he had been gradually revealing the truth and correcting his lies for about twenty years. And unlike the play's ver- sion of events, Douglas was not in Lon- don when his father left the famous call- ing card at Wilde's club accusing him of posing as a sodomite, and so Wilde's in- itial anger and decision to bring suit was made without his lover's encouragement. Such inaccuracies would matter less if they were committed in the service of a greater truth, an euiist's insight into a complex man's character. But Bentley covers much while revealing little.
He hurries the action along with a series of brief scenes until he arrives at the denouement, the one big scene which seems to be the raison d'etre for the work. Set in Reading Gaol, it depicts a visit by the Prime Minister, Lord Rosebery (a fictitious event, of course). Rosebery comes to announce the government's decision not to rescind the remainder of Wilde's .sentence, des- pite his repentance. He also wants to explain to Wilde why he is suffering humiliation and imprisonment. Rose- bery is in the play to speak the author's message: Bentley apparently believes
that Wilde's crime was not sodomy but his challenge to bourgeois morality and therefore the bourgeois state, and that this challenge had to be met by the state's impersonal, overwhelming power, marshalled by official defenders of a faith who do not practice this morality themselves. Rosebery was, Bentley contends, a closet homosexual.
There is a modicum of truth in all this, but not enough to support the polemical energy of this work or to war- rant such manipulation of historical ma- terials. Rather than clamping down on Wilde like a trap, Her Majesty's govern- ment acted only after Wilde declined to
avail himself of a delay sufficient to allow a retreat to France before the war- rant for his arrest was issued.
More importantly, Wilde was the chief engineer of his own destruction, as when, with self-dramatizing recklessness, he sued Queensberry for libel. Long before, Wilde had carefully exhibited a cavalier indifference to public opinion about his morals. He was not punished for the relationship that Lord Alfred's father found so objectionable, but for consorting with working class youths, thus violating the Victorian rules and openly flouting class divisions. A man who sat in cafes with telegraph boys and
unemployed valets drinking champagne should have known better than to ask society to validate his honour. But on the eve of his lawsuit, Wilde told a friend not to worry because "the work- ing classes are with me — to a boy." Was this insouciance knowing or blind?
It has been suggested more than once that his excesses were related to his aesthetic creed, which stressed the value of intense experiences, the worship of beautiful forms and "creative decep- tions." Did he confuse his life and his art, or simply refuse to acknowledge a distinction? He once wrote: "What the paradox was to me in the sphere of thought, perversity became to me in the sphere of passion."
This Wilde doesn't seem to interest Bentley. His Wilde is too much the tool of the author's argument. Oscar Wilde remains to be captured by a gay writer.
George K SaxD
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MAY 1982
THE BODY POLITIC/35
TOM WA UGH: IMAGE ALERT
Uncovering a forgotten Canadian gay f ilm-f rom 1965
The first gay movie from English Canada is not an obscure museum piece, but a fine dramatic feature that played to festival acclaim around the world in 1965. It is now forgotten.
Winter Kept Us Warm was made on a shoestring at the University of Toronto by David Secter, a 22-year-old English major from Winnipeg. It wasn't easy. After student council money launched the filming of Secter' s script of an "ambiguous" (as they used to say in the Sixties) male friendship in a campus residence, finishing grants were predict- ably refused by the Canada Council, the Ontario Arts Council and the National Film Board.
But Secter persisted and went on to prove the bureaucrats wrong. The critics loved it, despite its black-and-white "Canadian" aura and its forbidden theme (which some even acknowledged in print). After Winter's splash at the 1965 Cannes Festival, a French critic wondered whether Secter, this "jeune chien fou" from Toronto, would soon outpace his Quebec conterparts, who were at that time the toasts of Paris.
It was not to be. After a modest release in the art houses and campuses across North America, Winter Kept Us Warm disappeared from the screens and the history books. Secter's hopes seemed permanently dashed the follow- ing year with the failure of a second feature, an intercultural heterosexual love story.
Three years later it is 1969: Stonewall erupts, the University of Toronto sees its first homophile association and the Canadian Film Development Corpora- tion has begun its mission of ushering Canadian movies into the world of economic survival. But David Secter doesn't wait; he moves to New York for a second career as a theatrical producer.
Winter still looks good today. It is sad but strong, rough-edged but mov- ingly tender and honest. To see it is to rediscover not only an unjustly negelect- ed Canadian film, but also a poignant moment in gay history — an image from those winters in Toronto that we must never forget. D
Winter: The finest sequence of the film shows Peter and Doug romping in shirtsleeves across the new-fallen snow of the residence quadrangle, chasing squirrels and exulting in the innocence of quickie hugs and caresses. As the film progresses, the physicality of their friendship grows, from jock-style handshakes and back-slapping to the half-drunk arm-over- the-shoulder routine and even, at one point, a furtive peck on the cheek. But when Peter finally gets laid (as they used to say on campus in 1965), it's with Sandra, not Doug, and Doug angrily and confusedly realizes that it's all over. The springtime brings distrust and rejection, with Doug awakening to something he will not be able to suppress anymore.
Pink triangles: Doug (centre, in photo at right) sizes up Sandra, his rival for Peter's affection who wins out in the end. For some years, the triangle has been a basic formula of the gay feature, two loving men and the heterosexual woman who either comes between them or gets left out.
Do the " three 's-a-crowd" stories express a misogynist myth about our alleged misogyny, or simply part of our reality as gay men. many with heterosexual pasts and strong friendships with straight women? Or are they just an index of the overwhelm- ingly straight market at which big-budget films aim? Whatever the case, among Winter's many virtues are the relative integrity of the two women characters and the clarity with which the film exposes the degrading and sexist courtship games that were (and still are?) part of male undergraduate culture.
The Great Canadian one-shot queer flick
There is a whole Canadian film genre, as Canadian Forum's Peter Harcourt recent- ly commented, of feature films about young people, by young people. The directors have been promising neophytes who have been given a chance to direct because of the erratic conditions of film production in this country, but who have either not been permitted or able to build on their one-shot achievement with any consistency or integrity.
While many of these quintessentiaily Canadian youth movies are about alien- ated straight men in a state of prolonged adolescence, what Harcourt did not notice is that a surprisingly high propor- tion of them are about gays, by gays, or express a gay sensibility. (There are even a few about lesbians.)
This sub-list is impressive, but sad because so few of these often widely praised works have been widely seen or substantially followed up: alongside
Winter Kept Us Warm, think of Outra- geous! (Richard Benner, 1977), Fortune and Men 's Eyes (Harvey Hart, 197 1 ), Montreal Main (Frank Vitale, 1974), The Rubber Gun (Allan Moyle, 1977); about lesbians there are August and July (Mur- ray Markowitz, 1972), By Design (Claude Jutra, 1981) and P4W: Prison for Women (Holly Dale and Janis Cole, 1981); from Quebec, there are // etail unefois dans I 'Est (Andre Brassard /Michel Tremblay, 1974) and A tout prendre (Claude Jutra, 1963).
If we can surmise why such films were never followed up, the question remains how they ever got made in the first place. Are there so many simply because a highly subsidized film industry, colonized and marginalized by Famous Players and the other arms of the Hollywood mono- polies, doesn't have enough energy or coherence to be systematically homophobic?n
Overturning expectations: As Sight and Sound 's Richard Poud noticed, ' 'it is the womanising older boy who falls desperately — and unrequitedly — in love with the younger one, " providing a "(stunning) moment when all of a sudden one realises that one has got it all wrong, that something quite different is happening up there on the screen, but that that something is neverthe- less completely convincing and right. " To please the Finnish-Canadian Peter (above, at the window), Doug learns a Fin- nish folksong, "Far Away is My Love, " on his guitar and sings it staring intently into Peter's eyes. Doug's "steady girlfriend" Bev, who is present, squirms with embar- rassment: the audience squirms with admiration.
Fantasies from the closet: Not one but two steamy bathing scenes of male intimacy and sensuality — the first (top) in a Finnish sauna when Peter is sharing his ethnic heritage with his new friend; the second in a campus locker room where a towel-snapping scene with the whole residence gang leads to Doug helping Peter wash those hard-to- reach areas of his back. The classic setting for closet gay eroticism. Think of all the filmmakers who have been attracted to, terrified by — or otherwise engaged with — inter-male sexuality and who have resorted to the old rub-a-dub-dub formula to exorcise or covertly celebrate desires for which the script has no room. The basic bath list: Visconti (The Damned; Death in Venice; Ludwig; The Innocent), Pasolini (Accatone; Canterbury Tales; Arabian Nights), Lindsay Anderson (This Sporting Life; If), Hector Babenco (Pixote), Fred Schepisi (The Devil's Playground), R W Fassbinder (Fox and his Friends; AH: Fear Eats the Soul), and an interesting current Hollywood representative, James Bridges (The Paper Chase; Urban Cowboy).
John Labow, the student actor who played Doug, now a TV Ontario producer, remem- bers no discussion whatsoever of the gay theme of the film; for him and the rest of the overwhelmingly straight cast and crew. Winter was about heterosexual male friend- ship. Director-writer Secter remembers otherwise. Regardless of who was kidding whom, Secter himself knew exactly what was going on. For him. Winter was deeply personal, autobiographical even, the probing of a reality that was still unspoken at the U of Tin the mid-Sixties. It was so unspoken, in fact, that the gay element had to be soft- pedalled to ensure campus support. Even so, some administrators saw through the discretion of a script that never stated the obvious (even today, Personal Best says "fuck" and "pussy," but never "lesbian"), and denied permission to use locations under their jurisdiction. But, look- ing back from a post-Stonewall vantage point seventeen years later. Winter's tactical coyness is overwhelmed by its more funda- mental honesty.
Winter Kept Us Warm is available from the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre, 144 Front Street W, Toronto, ON M5J 2L7. Thanks for assistance with the article to David Secter, John Labow, the Audio-Visual Department of Concordia University and David Poole.
36/THE BODY POLITIC
MAY 1982
AESTHETERA
• Independent filmmaker Donna Deitch, who won awards for her docu- mentary Woman To Woman is gathering $1 million to film Jane Rule's Desert of the Heart. The rights to the novel, about two women among the divorce courts and casinos of Reno who decide to take a gamble themselves and make a
Filmmaker Deitch: bringing Rule to screen
commitment to each other, had been sought by a major studio, but Rule was afraid the theme would be exploited by them. Desert Heart Productions can be contacted at 1524 Cloverfield Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90404.
• Miss Fit? Dept: After receiving objec- tions from tennis star Billie Jean King about the title of her autobiography (to be released in June), Viking Press has changed it from Misfit to Billie Jean. King had been out of the country and was not consulted when the promotion for the book, co-written with Frank Deford, was launched. The book does touch upon the nonconformist role King had to play when growing up and when trying to get ahead in the male- dominated tennis world, but King felt the title would be seen as applying to her entire life. A double page ad in Pub- lishers Weekly January 8 also had King describing herself as "that pushy, loud- mouthed, paranoid bull-dyke, with fat legs and bad eyes..." and King has asked that that sentence, which was edited from final manuscript of the book, be dropped as well.
• Good Fairy Productions, "Songs of Changing Men," is announcing two ex- tensive projects. The Seattle-based col- lective has organized a local concert se- ries throughout May and June, which will draw upon such talents as Charlie Murphy, David Sereda and Chris Tanner. They have also formed a mjiil order service with, at present, a dozen records of "alternative men's music" available. Good Fairy can be contacted at Box 12188, Seattle, WA 98102.
• Vancouverites will experience Bloolips, the out-of-this-world gender- fuck theatre group, at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre, May 12-29.
• The Marquis de Sade, one of the most talked about but least read writers of all time, is being represented in three new editions of his work by Bookthrift, 45 W 36th St, New York, NY 10018. At $7.95 each, the volumes include Justine, The 120 Days of Sodom, Juliette and Philosophy in the Bedroom.
New books:
Gravedigger by Joseph Hansen. Holt, Rinehart & Winston, $11 .95. The sixth and best Brandstetter mystery. A Private Life by Cynthia Propper Seton. Norton, $10.95. A woman is sent to France to report on her Aunt Carrie, rumoured to live a life of lesbian debauchery.
A History of Shadows by Robert C Reinhart. Avon, $2.95. "To love as men they had to hide." Four friends survive four decades of closetry together. The Black Queen Stories by Barry Callaghan. Lester & Orpen Dennys. The
title story is about two aging "boys in the band" and their stamp collection. Hometown by Peter Davis. Simon & Schuster, $13.95. Documentary about a small town in Ohio, including the scan- dal of a popular high-school teacher charged with openly masturbating in a public washroom.
E M Forster: Centenary Revelations by Judith Scherer Herz and Robert K Mar- tin. University of Toronto Press, $25. Flaws in the Glass: A Self -Port rait by Patrick White. Viking, $20.95. Auto- biography of the Nobel winning writer, and how being gay gives him insights in- to human nature denied those who are "unequivocally male or female." Who Killed Sal Mineo? by Susan Braudy. Wyndham. $15.95. A novel inspired by the actual murder.
May releases:
Green Island by Michael Schmidt. Vanguard, $10.95. A white child's intense friendship with a poor Mexican boy is eventually destroyed by their dif- ferences in class.
A Coin in Nine Hands by Marguerite Yourcenar. Farrar. $12.95. Sex Without Shame: Encouraging the Child's Healthy Sexual Development by Alayne Yates, MD. Quill, $7.00. The Christopher Street Reader. Cow- ard, McCann & Geoghegan, $15.95. Nice Jewish Girls: A Lesbian Anthol- ogy, edited by Evelyn Torton Beck. Per- sephone Press (PO Box 7222, Water- town, MA, 02172), $8.95. Sons of Harvard: Gay Men from the Class of 1967 by Toby Marotta. Mor- row, $13. The first person accounts of 10 men portray the progress of gay lib.
Cartoon from Real Men Don't Eat Quiche
Real Men Don 't Eat Quiche: A Guide- book to All That Is Truly Masculine by
Bruce Feirstein. Pocket Books, $3.95. Or fioss, or meditate, or cry during "The Mary TVler Moore Show." In case you were wondering.
Top 12 fiction sellers:
(at Glad Day Bookstore, Toronto)
1 . A History of Shadows by Robert C Reinhart
2. A Brother's Touch by Owen Levy
3 . The Boy Who Picked the Bullets Up by Charles Nelson
4. Making Love by Lenore Fleischer
5. Song of the Loon by Richard Amory
6. /4n /45/an M/Vjor by Felice Picano
7. Creation by Gore Vidal
8. Tomcat by Thorn Racina
9. Couplings by Richard Hall
10. Outlander by Jane Rule
1 1 . Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess
12. The Door Into Fire by Diane Duanc
i THE PEOPI-E WHO BROUCHT YOU
HARVEY L. HAMBURG. B.A. M.B.A. LL.B. and PAUL W. TROLLOPE. D.C.S.. B.BA (Hons.). LLB.
are pleased to announce the formation of their partnership under the firm name
HAMBURG/TROLLOPE
Barristers • Solicitors Notaries Public
and the opening of their office effective Wednesday, April 7, 1982 for the general practice of law
at
400 Dundas Street East, Toronto. Ontario MSA 2A5 Telephone (416) 967-5259
Day and evening appointnnents available
HARVEY HAMBURG PAUL TROLLOPE
Residence (416) 365-1855 Residence (416) 656-0047
providing legal services to and for the community
MAY 1982
THE BODY POLITIC/37
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Second waves and self-publishing
Shared Ground is only three months old and already the volume of mail I receive from publishers and magazine collec- tives is unbelievable. Thank you to all the women who have shown an interest in Shared Ground and have sent in periodicals and books to be reviewed.
I received a very encouraging letter from Laurie Knight and the Second Wave Collective in Cambridge, Massa- chusetts, along with a copy of the tenth anniversary issue of Second Wave (Vol 6, No 1). Since it first appeared, the magazine has gained quite a reputation. Its pages have reflected battles over les- bian rights, abortion, daycare, racism and the patriarchal system. However, with economics the way they are. Sec- ond Wave needs help. The anniversary issue contains fine examples of the good work offered in Second Wave. In "Notes From Just Over the Edge: A New Lesbian Speaks Out," a woman (who must remain anonymous due to custody considerations) writes about first coming out, about her love for women and her painful glimpses into the oppression many lesbians have had to carry all the years of their lives. Almost every lesbian has, at some time, experienced what the author describes: the newness of the feelings, the power of being honest with one's own sexual- ity, the energy a woman feels the first time she finds herself in a room full of other lesbians. In "Triptych," three short fiction pieces, Judith Treewoman describes the trauma felt by a woman who loves women but can't express her love and the experience of wanting women but fucking men to work one's self through the maze of one's sexuality. Treewoman also details the problems of political correctness and describes the pain we inflict on ourselves by being dishonest with one another. Second Wave also contains poetry, book reviews and political features as well as photography and graphics.
I also received word from Broad- sheet, New Zealand's feminist maga- zine. Reading through Broadsheet proves that our problems are interna- tional: an article on pornography by Andrea Dworkin, advice on how to dis- cuss your lesbianism with your children, notices for the local rape-crisis centre. One item that drew my attention was a feminist fairy tale called "Once there was a beautiful, strong, gentle, wild young woman," by eleven-year-old Rachel Sutton, complete with a princess who loves archery, running and her kit- chen maid. The women win their free- dom from the mean old King, who locks them up, by beating all the men in the kingdom with their archery skills. They run away to other kingdoms to gather together all the amazing women they can find. Broadsheet should appeal to readers who want a look at women's lives from an international perspective.
Many women who try unsuccessfully to get their work published are turning to self-publication. Despite financial constraints, many of these self-pub- lished books are well designed. But not all of them are well written. You've Got to Ride the Subway, by Madge Rein- hard appears to have been pushed into print too quickly; the story seems un- directed and is difficult to follow.
The subtitle reads, "a sort of femin- ism," and the story continues in this in- decisive manner. It is about a multi- talented but fanatically religious house- wife who leaves home and falls in love with a woman, cruises bars and tries to be a lesbian — but isn't; she attempts to rid herself of her husband's oppression — but doesn't; and she ends up prefer- ring silence to the struggle necessary to become a whole person. This book was "sort of banned in Boston," according to the publisher, but I'm still looking for something in it that would warrant censorship. The design of the book is reminiscent of bound printer's galley proofs and the hand-doodled front cover is also second-rate. You've Got to Ride the Subway is an example of the unpolished work that vanity presses sometimes produce.
A Wild Patience Has Taken Me This Far is a new collection of poetry by Adrienne Rich. Rich continutes to search for a "common language" and writes poetry that conjures up the spirit
Rich: strength ttirougti a common language
of women of the past, writers and artists and the poet's own grandmothers. She attempts to find ways to link these women to us so that we can gather strength from the vast matriarchal his- tory behind us. "For Julia in Nebras- ka," a poem written in tribute to Willa Gather, demonstrates Rich's search for connections:
In the Midwest of Willa Gather the railroad looks like a braid of hair grandmother's strong hands plaited down a grand-daughter's back.
A Wild Patience is not a small-press publication, but it provides an excellent showing of the craft of Adrienne Rich.D
The Second Wave, Box 344, Cambridge A, Cambridge, MA 02139. Four issues, $12.00 US.
Broadsheet, Box 5799, Wellesley Street, Auckland, New Zealand. Monthly, $15.00. You 've Got to Ride the Subway, by Madge Reinhardt. Back Row Press, 1803 Venus Ave, St Paul, MN 551 12. Paperback $5.50. ISBN 0-917162-02-1.
A Wild Patience Has Taken Me This Far, by Adrienne Rich. W W Norton, 500 Fifth Ave, New York, NY, 101 10, paperback $4.95. ISBN 0-393-00072-9.
38rrHE BODY POLITIC
MAY 1982
Who was Chariotte Bach?
Some readers may remember my previous mentions of the work of British theorist Charlotte Bach and her col- leagues Bob Mellors and Don Smith. Mellors and Smith are both gay activists, and Mellors vk'as one of the founders of Britain's Gay Liberation Front in the early '70s. Bach was a Hungarian-born psychologist who, in a series of lectures
Bach/Karoly: Compendium pic of a double life
and bulky privately-printed tracts, devel- oped a meamdering set of questions, speculations and theories about human character types, sexual variations (she called them "deviations") and the nature of human evolution. Her work dealt ex- tensively with homosexuality: an impor- tant question for her was "Why has homosexuality survived? Why hasn't evolution eliminated it thousands of years ago?" She gave her theories the label "Human Ethology," and her small movement was beginning to attract at- tention when she died suddenly last year.
At the time of her death, Bach's own theoretical book and two other books about her and her ideas were moving towards publication. The well-known novelist and writer on psychology and philosophy Colin Wilson was also about to publish a major article on Bach's theories. Bach's unexpected death might, in the ordinary way, have stimulated in- terest in her ideas. As it happened, it h£is resulted in a good deal of embarrass- ment. For on her death, it was revealed that Charlotte Bach was a man.
Born in Hungary shortly after the First World War, Carl Bach, alias Michael Karoly, Jilias Michael Hadju, apparently graduated in philosophy and psychology before joining the SS during the Second War. Bob Mellors, in a recent article in the British magazine Forum, writes, "Although Charlotte wrote about seeing people tortured and watching executions, what part he played in all this is obscure. Certainly, after the war... Carl was im- prisoned for several months. Eventually
he got away to England As a man
Carl had married and gained a stepson. For over ten years the family prospered in London. Then, suddenly, the wife died in an emergency operation and two weeks later the son, then aged 19, was killed in a car crash." It was after this double tragedy that Carl's previous transvestite tendencies "returned with a vengeance.... Friends who visited him or her were never quite sure who was going to open the door," Mellors writes. "After a while, Charlotte simply never changed back."
While Bach was experimenting with dress reform, Michael Karoly worked as a consulting psychologist in Mayfair and
wrote articles for the popular press. Soon, Charlotte /Michael began to adver- tise — for people involved in transves- tism, fetishism, S/M and other sexual experiences. Employing the name and personaHty of "Mrs Daphne Lyell- Manson," she became sexually involved with some of these people, who paid her for the privilege. Sometimes, according to Mellors, she asked her clients for samples of their pornography — "an in- valuable research tool." Before long, Charlotte had set herself up as a "spank- ing madam" (one of many in London), and it was in that capacity that she began to gather the "research notes" from which her later writings grew.
While she was alive, even her close col- leagues such as Mellors and Smith apparently did not suspect she was a man (though she was six feet tall, with broad shoulders and a deep voice); they were as surprised as anyone when the truth came out. The revelations have been taken in stride by Bach's gay followers, but not by the publishers about to solemnly issue their respective tomes on Human Ethology and its august founder. They are not quite sure how to proceed in the light of the latest news.
Bob Mellors concludes his fascinating article on Bach, "No Sin Unsinned," with even more scandal. "It has to be said," he writes, "that there is a dark side to Charlotte's life.... As I've said, he was probably in the SS. In 1956 he was accused of embezzling funds collect- ed for freedom fighters in Hungary. She was a shoplifter and petty thief. He was imprisoned twice for debt. Her dealings with her clients as a spanking madam were sometimes less than scrupulous. In later life, she had a boyfriend who took her to the pictures once a week — then she got a colour telly and ditched him! The catalogue could go on.
"All in all," he concludes," she beat the devil at his own game."
Anyone interested in Charlotte's life or work or obtaining pamphlets on Human Ethology or a reprint of Mellors' article should write to Another Orbit Press, 5 Caledonian Road, London Nl, England. Please enclose enough to cover postage and photocopying costs.
• Larry Townsend is a prolific author of gay erotic novels, many of them with S/M content. The best of these, pub- lished in 1971, was The Long Leather Cord, a hot and heavy mystery story about a pair of young gay brothers whose kinky dad may or may not be a murderer. The book's original publisher, who shall be nameless — Greenleaf Classics — issued it in a somewhat trun- cated version. Now Townsend has pub- lished the complete text as a magazine- size paperback about 18 pages of photos sure to please readers who like cute & hunky young guys, or bondage, or both. A worthwhile collector's item, it's $10.95 from Box 302, B-verly Hills, CA 90213. And those who enjoyed Townscnd's The Leatherman 's Handbook will be happy to know that a sequel is in the works! •
The answer to the last contest ques- tion was Chris Robison. Copies of David Sereda's Chivalry Lives album go to Dave Hingsburger of Toronto and Waller Phillips of New York.G
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BETTE MIDLERISH LOOK, 29, female. Wants friends possibly leading to relationship. Likes jour- nalism, music, movies, children. Professional busi- nesswoman. Romantic. Monogamous. Non-smoker. Send photo and letter to Drawer C849.
Friends/male
International
WHITE AMERICAN seeks correspondence with youth. I'm 25, 6' 145 lbs, lonely. You throwaway, run- away, needing home, relationship. I'll answer. Draw-
er C6%.
SENSITIVE, SENSUOUS, science-professional, late 40s seeks smooth, muscular younger brother rela- tionship. Interests include; gardens, walking, run- ning, cycling, alternative energy, home building, reading, cooking, metaphysics, bodybuilding, mas- sage.... Appreciate warmth, cuddhng, honesty, love life. Please avoid this opportunity if you use: tobacco, alcohol, drugs, "gay social scene"; are not actively athletic or can't come to Rochester, NY. Recent photo helpful — returned. Drawer C805.
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FRENCH GUY, 26, tall, dark hair, seeks pen friends. Frank, detailed letters, photos appreciated. Write Francois Tavernier, 16 all6e du chateau, 62700 Labuissidre, France.
National
IF YOU'RE A GAY or bisexual truck driver with a rig, you can help me with my fetish if you do not ob- ject to a paying passenger on one of your trips. Details on request. Discretion assured and expected. Drawer
C807. ■_
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA; 33-year-old male wishes to establish acquaintances in various Canadian areas. Write; Jack Miles, 334 No. Oakhurst Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210, USA.
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GWM, 22, seeks GWM, farmer or rancher (or hobbi- est) lasting one-to-one companionship. Unlimited in- terests. Enjoys a hard day's work (masculine). Draw- er C830.
Northwest Territories
YELLOWKNIFE, NWT — GWM, 29, 5'11" I601bs. Good-looking and athletic, wishes to meet other gays and straight-appearing. Dominant, yet versatile and easygoing. Understanding and quiet. Enjoys jogging, movies and get-togethers. Write with phone number and address. Discretion assured. Drawer C69I.
Alberta
MODELS REQUIRED in Calgary. Prefer straight- looking guys with form, to 30. I'm 27, 6'2" eyes of blue, 155 lbs, blond. Send photo if possible. Sorry,
unable to remunerate. Drawer C683.
GWM LOVERS seeking couples, singles, M / W, close down to earth friendship. Honesty, sincerity expect- ed. Replies from anywhere, also penpals. Write True Friends, Box 1192, Mayerthorpe. AB TOE INO. EDMONTON, QUIET 22-year-oId, tired of game players and insincerity, seeks sensible guy for compa-
nionship. Drawer C808.
OPPOSITES ATTRACT? Bi-guy, 30, masculine, 5'H" 180 lbs, hairy, curly, likes to love young guys with slender hairless bodies. I'm a sucker for a pretty face. My face shows intelligence, warmth, and strength. I like people who are growing and happy. If you too are sexually frustrated, write; Box 715, Sta-
tion M, Calgary AB T2P 2J3.
MARRIED WITH KIDS but gay, 30, 6' 175 lbs, suc- cessful businessman looking for man in similar situa- tion for relationship. Consider others who can handle frustrations of relationship with married man. Dis- cretion required. Photo and telephone number please. Drawer C8I3.
BI WHITE MALE, 50, 5'7" tall, 164 lbs, in good heahh, seeks friend 40 to 55. Must be discreet and honest and in good health and living in Peace River country if possible. Will answer all ads. Drawer C837. FRIENDLY AND ATTRACTIVE gay male, 28, finding it lonely in Banff Would like to meet other guys under 35 for friendship, possible relationship. Discretion appreciated. Photo and phone if possible. Drawer C840.
Manitoba
BODYBUILDER, WELL-ENDOWED, 30, blue- eyed, good-looking (what more can you ask?) wants to meet other bodybuilders. Discretion essential. Drawer C657.
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Southern Ontario
38, MOUSTACHE, 150 lbs, average guy, 5'9" seeks all-around together guy to touch, hold and be held. A friend masculine, reliable for a solid, lasting friend-
ship. Drawer C761.
RECENTLY MOVED TO SARNIA. Would like companionship of intelligent person(s) and — possib- ly — a broader relationship given the correct varia- bles. 25, 5'6" 170 lbs. Looking for similar age and outlook. P.S. I love moustaches. Joseph, Apt 503, 483 North Christina, Sarnia, ON N7T 5W3. OSHAWA-COBURG AREA; eager, horny 34-year- old GWM seeks similar for friendship and possible re- lationship. You name it. I'm discreet but self-assured. Photo appreciated. Include phone number. Drawer C827.
PROFESSIONAL, 27, S'll" 180 lbs, seeking attrac- tive, younger male to share a secure relationship with comfortable home and future in London. (519) 453-5634.
l-lamilton
HOT, HUNG, HUNGRY, handsome, slim, stud wants attractive bottom man who can service and please me. Please be specific as to services provided. Photo a must. Box 3673, Station C, Hamihon, ON
L8H 7N1.
HAMILTON; MALE, 40, 5'8" 140 lbs. Attractive, bright and active. Enjoys swimming, cycling, travel- ling, photography, music, reading and films. Seeks warm, heavy-set gentleman to share sensual encoun- ters. Photo, phone and letter please. Drawer C815. GAY EAST INDIAN MALE, 43, 5'9" 140 lbs, mas- culine, would love to meet a masculine friend for a possible relationship. I'm professional, quiet, easy-
going and sincere. Drawer C812.
GAY WHITE MALE, 24, 5'7" 135 lbs, wishes to meet same, 25-35. Interests include jogging, dining, politics, conversation and camping. Conservative in nature. Considered to be a well-adjusted person. En- joys the finer things in life. Box 144, Station A, Ham-
ilton, ON L8N 3A2.
HUMPY GWM, 22, looks 25, athletic build, into hairy muscular men, 25-40. Basically bottom, will top in right situation. Into leather, levis, roles, toys, kinky times; try anything once, usually twice. No piggery or filth. Photo and letter get same. London, Niagara, Toronto areas only. Drawer C843.
Toronto
GAY MALE, 22, SINCERE, seeks same, 22 to 30 for honest friendship, possible relationship. Photo ap-
preciated. Drawer C764.
AFFECTIONATE, CARING, CUDDLY, discreet, easy-going, sensual, sincere, artistic, intelligent male 27, 6'2", average-looking, would like to meet same 25-35 for friendship and mutual pleasure; phone number and photo really appreciated, but not neces-
sary. Will answer all. Drawer C806.
WELI^ENDOWED DUDE not into bars, baths, seeks loving sensuous enduring relationship rather than quick sex. Will answer all anywhere. Drawer
C800.
MASCULINE GUY, 35, 5'9" 150 lbs, with cropped beard and hair, good-looking, casual, open, educat- ed, very athletic, sexually aggressive but often socially retiring, thoughtful, romantic, attentive, stable.
MAY 1982
seeks a good and lasting friendship/relationship. En- joy art and collectibles, exercise (running, light weightlifting, cycling), travel, movies, the outdoors, sunning, homelife, quiet evenings. Have much to of- fer but my good life is hollow without a special com- mitment. Love to hear from guys of similar physique, outlook, interests. Drawer C801.
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GWM, 30, GOOD-LOOKING, wheelchair-bound with cerebral palsy, seeks sexual relief. Private apart- ment downtown. Experience with disabled unneces- sary, will teach. A/P french, JO. Not keen on greek. Revealing letter, phone number, photo if possible.
Scott. Drawer C802.
AFFECTIONATE GWM, 28, 5'6" 130 lbs, honest, intelligent and romantic. Moving to Toronto and seeking friends who are under 30, slim and sincere.
Photo and phone appreciated. Drawer C717.
ARE YOU LIKE ME? Alone and fed up cruising and one-night stands. I am a 45-year-old GWM, average- looking who seeks a strictly one-to-one relationship with a big /husky hirsute butch type male with a view to living together. T\vo can live cheaper than one. I am honest, sincere and reliable. Out-of-town replies in-
vited. Drawer C804.
I HAVE A DREAM that everybody lives happily. Will my dream come true? Handsome, masculine, sincere, honest guys please answer. I am 26, oriental, educat- ed, mature and monogamist. Box 5796, Station A, Toronto, ON M5W 1P2.
"GOOD-LOOKING GUY, 41, active, healthy, physic- ally fit, loves the outdoors, outdoor activities and sports: swimming, canoeing, camping, kayaking, ski- ing, cycling, back-packing, nature study, bridge, movies and the arts; am seeking a close relationship with another masculine guy, either gay or bisexual, who shares these interests. My goal is to build a log home northwest of Metro, and live a simple, conserv- er-type lifestyle. Surely there is another guy out there who shares this dream. Box 290, Station M, Toronto,
M6S4T3.
IF YOU ARE A REAL SLAVE with a high pain threshold digging a rough fantasy trip, if you enjoy being slapped across the face, the bite of the belt on your ass, being put in bondage and abused, then be prepared to act. This is no sissy stuff Total submis- sion is the limit. 1 am 32, attractive, well-buih. Got my head well together. Only explicit letter of your capaci- ty and description gets reply. Age or race irrelevant if you are slim and well-built. Marc, Box l(X)-385, 2
Bloor St W, Toronto ON M4W 3E2.
PROFESSIONAL ATTRACTIVE GWM 30, tired of bars and attitude of Toronto men. Looking for attrac- tive man interested in theatre, sports, travel. Some- one who enjoys sharing quiet times with special per- son. There must be interesting men out there who want more than a one-night stand and who have a positive attitude toward themselves. You are 25-38, sincere, intelligent professional, honest, sensitive and seeking relationship with caring man. Please provide
detailed response. Drawer C811.
OUTDOORSMAN, PERSONABLE, thirtyish, seeks younger brother who doesn't do his camping on Yonge Street. Adventure, travel, employment possi-
ble. Discretion assured. Drawer C809.
ATTRACTIVE GWM, 32, physically, socially, emo- tionally weU together, masculine, easygoing, sincere. Tired of cheating myself sexually, wants to meet same to fulfill unconditional fantasies. I am ready to ex- plore anything as top or bottom with adventurous man. We decide our limits together. No bullshit could lead to complete "ownership" of each other. If com- patible nothing can be too far. I am into everything related to: S/M, heavy B&D, CBTT, enema, complete ass work, F and G active /passive, WS, blindfold, toys, humiliation, confinement, abuse, smoke, pop- pers, spanking, jockey shorts, role-playing, fantasy trips, shaving (FF?) and anything kinky or unusual. Scat and mutilation are out. Cleanness and respect are in. You are slender, well-built (boyish looking, little hair a plus) masculine acting and looking. Direct, un- inhibited. Detailed letter and photo (returned) a must. Box 100-385, 2 Bloor St W, Toronto, ON
M4W 3E2.
ATTRACTIVE HAIRY MASCULINE male coUects and wears silky nylon lingerie. Would like to meet
THE
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other masculine men 35 to 55 interested in this pastime for fun and games. Discretion assured and expected. Descriptive letter and phone number secures prompt
reply. Drawer C772.
TALL, WORLD-TRAVELLED, passable TV, ex- dancer, now 33. Seeks clean, raunchy, dominant top
males for most scenes. Drawer C782.
BLOND BLUE-EYED slim male late 20s, 5*8" 130 lbs, average looks, searching for big built males to forty, for hot times, almost anything goes. Leather, S/M, B&D, jockstraps, jackoffs, underwear, greek, french, active, passive, etc... Frank letter appreciat-
ed, will answer all. Drawer C814.
WHITE MALE, 40s, seeks educated, intelligent, lov- ing black male, any age. I'm masculine and affection- ate, physically trim, enjoy music and theatre, believer in interracial harmony and understanding. Drawer
C816.
TALL DARK HANDSOME early 30s, masculine white male, wants same who wants what I have to of- fer: understanding, caring, honesty, stability, tired of bar scene, sense of humour, possible healthy lasting relationship with right man, who knows what he
wants. No games. Drawer C8I7.
MALE, EUROPEAN ORIGIN, fond of leather and boots, wants friend, preferably with motorcycle. Box 572, Concord, ON L4K 1C6.
SHARE GOOD TIMES, photography, classical music, cooking, country walks, beaching, etc. Things go better with a warm friend. GWM 5'6" 130 lbs, moustache, short beard, blonde, 36 years, looking for someone with similar interests to share meaningful times. Do us both a favour, take a chance. Drawer C841.
GAY WHITE MALE, 5'10" blue eyes, attractive, looking for serious tennis pjutner friend etc. Over 30 preferable. I am a student. Club member would be great. Photo, phone appreciated. Reply 109 Pem- broke St, Apt 2, Toronto, ON M5A 2N9.
BIG, FUZZY, CUDDLY teddy bear who is well-used (40s) and comfortable is in need of well-adjusted, in- telligent, interesting and caring person. Drawer C839. GWM, ATTRACTIVE, 28, 5'10" 155 lbs, sincere and affectionate seeks friends 21-28 possible relationship. Interests: outdoor activities, literature and good times with friends. Photo please. Drawer C838. YOUNG TORONTO GUY, mid 20s, into scat, wishes to make friends. Enjoy movies and cycling. Write Jim, Box 203, Station K, Toronto, ON M4P 2G5. SENSITIVE, INTELLIGENT MALE, 40s, enjoys erotic self-stimulation, sharing sensuous pleasure with men, all races, 30-65. Phone number requested. Drawer C836.
GWM, 30, BRIGHT, stable, masculine, handsome, 148 lbs, 5'H" brown hair, moustache, French. Look- ing for a sincere masculine male for friendship, affec- tion and possible relationship. Reply with phone
number. Drawer C829.
HOT PASSIVE GUY, 26, 5'7" 135 lbs, into having his ass explored by cocks, dildoes, toys. Also into B&D, enemas, new experiences. Would like to meet skilled explorers of any age to discover and expand horizons. Have own toys but bring yours too. Drawer C83I.
HAVE YOU EVER been hurt by a lover, afraid to try again? I was deeply hurt but am prepared to try again. I seek someone to share my life on a one-to-one basis. I like music, dancing, plants, cuddling. If you are sin- cerely looking for a companion and lover in all ways please answer. If not please don't waste my time and yours. Write today and don't delay. It could be a beau-
tiful spring. Drawer C832.
GWM, 47, QUIET TYPE seeks same for friendship and possible relationship. Photo, phone number ap- preciated. Discretion assured and expected. Drawer C834.
WARM, FURRY, FUN, sensitive, positive, appreci- ative, humpy, mature, fit. Homo Canadensis. Ready to mate with dewhiskered male of same species. Plen- ty of primal comfort. If given phone number, purrs. Given photo, purrs riotously. Drawer C835.
CLASSIFIED INFORMATION
Welcome to TBP classifieds - gay people out to meet other gay people, right across Canada and beyond our borders too.
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Remember, too, your ad is reaching other people, not just a box number. So it's smart to be positive about yourself, not insulting to others. We will edit out phrases like "no blacks" or "no fats or ferns." Answering an ad. No charge - just put your reply in an envelope and address it as in the diagram. Be sure the draw- er number is on the outside of the en- velope. Office staff do not open any mail addressed to a drawer.
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Clip this form and mail it with payment to: TBP CLASSIFIEDS. Box 7289, Station A, Toronto ON IV15W 1X9.
MAY 1982
THE BODY POLITIC/41
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RETURNING TORONTO SEPTEMBER after |
M6R2N5 seeks M forenroiintpr<: '^■xiial |
|
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three years study in England. Male, 26, blond; nice looks and body, sexy. Energetic, bright, complicated, decent, radical. Sexually versatile, open. Seek new |
proclivities negotiable, though waxing bambi. Not in- to those not into the bar and bath scene. Send letter— photo optional — to Drawer C848. |
|
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contacts, twenties, for mutual personal and physical pleasure (and respect). Write with details of interests, fantasies and photo. Discretion assured. Drawer C824. |
MASCULINE GUY 33, 5'7" 145 lbs seeks attractive companion to share closet. We have demanding ca- reers and live life in straight surroundings, but long for a discreet and mutually satisfying one-to-one rela- tionship. Enjoy movies, books, ocean, sunshine, travel. We could be sharing all these things. Drawer C847. |
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WHOLESOME, INTELLIGENT, INDEPEN- DENT non-smoker (John Denver sans god and coun- try) wanted (William Hurt please reply) by tall, attrac- tive blond, 26. Into films, dancing with friends, theatre and a little exercise. Starving for an honest, direct relationship /friendship. Perfect people need not reply. Preps welcomed. Photo appreciated. Drawer C828. |
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Dr. 1. Von Lichtenberg Ph.D., Psychotherapist Initial visit — No charge Strictly confidential 922-2996 Toronto |
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ATTRACTIVE MAN, MID-40s, 5'8" 135 lbs, seeks masculine yet sensitive man interested in music, theatre, movies, summer outings. Moustache OK, but no beards please. I'd appreciate full description of you and your interests. Drawer C8I8. |
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INTERESTED IN MEN of action above 35 possess- ing strength of body and mind who feel good about themselves and enjoy the satisfaction that results from one-to-one sexual encounters which mav devel- |
BLACK FRIEND WANTED by sensitive, warm, in- telligent male, 46, who enjoys people, music, conver- sation, sex. Please write with phone number. Drawer C850. |
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op into a friendly buddy relationship. rm32, 5'8" 140 lbs, muscular, agile, greek passive, french active, fill- ed with a zest for Ufe. Get the message? Drawer C819. |
MALE, 26, LIKES MUSIC, movies, theatre, etc, seeks sincere, affectionate companion. Photo appre- ciated. Drawer C852. |
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WITH TASTE, PLEASANT clean-cut male seeks meaningful spring-summer romance with spicy taste- ful sincere gay male. Rodnee (416) 922-8484. |
RUBBER TURNS ME ON, how about you? I am a gay guy, looking for a guy (single, married, any race) to share the pleasures of gay rubber sex. Frank letter |
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WANT TO MEET well-endowed black man up to 35 years. I am 45 years, good-looking, and very generous to the right person. Love to travel. Drawer C821. |
with phone requested. Will reciprocate. Absolute dis- cretion assured. Drawer C853. |
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GWM, 26, 5'7" interested in movies, domestic life. |
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I WANT SOMEONE who's willing to: go slow, go on dates, get involved and is honest with me and himself. I'm 35, WM. Let's talk and exchange details. If you're between 25-35, then write. Risk it! Contact is adventurous Drawer C822 |
animals, bicycling. Looking for masculine, gentle, ro- mantic and affectionate male to 35 to share life and love. Not into "dance till you drop" nightlife. Enjoy giving massages. I know you're out there and I want to meet you. Drawer C854. |
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MISSING FROM MY LIFE: a young affectionate and charming friend. Won't you help me find you? |
PRETTY TRANSVESTITE, 33, tall but convincing, seeks randy men for parodies of heterosexuality. Phone number please. Drawer C851. |
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stable, romantic but rational, 35, 5'6" 150 lbs, blond, blue-eyed individual. Have a great sense of humour and wide interests. Looking for a mature, sharing and lasting relationship. Photo appreciated but will an- swer all. Drawer C823. |
Ottawa/Eastern Ontario YOUNG MALE COUPLE beginning farming in Glengarry county looking for others with similar life- style for friendship from Cornwall to Montreal. Any age. Penpals welcome. Drawer C796. |
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GAY INTRO'S |
OTTAWA AREA, affectionate, masculine male, tall, slim, discreet, 40s, varied interests, seeks a one-to-one relationship with another sincere, honest male 35-50, not afraid of a commitment. Closet types welcomed. Drawer C748. |
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by APOLLO'S other Ways |
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Montreal |
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MONTREAL AND QUEBEC AREA: Let's start this spring together, get out of our solitude, have a full, lasting relationship! Let's share our evenings and more.... Don't think you can't find the right man: give it a try and write. If you are looking for a dynam- ic, non-possessive, financially independent man in his late (but crisp) thirties, 6' 170 lbs — he's waiting for your letter! You should be 35-45, have a job, good |
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^^^^M^^^^ |
body, like privacy, reading, music. Remember: write |
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GAYS call (416) 222-9330 or -9331 meet other sincere, responsible people for lasting or short term " relationships „ Annual fee— Discretion Assured |
toaay, not tomorrow — it couia be a Deautitul spring! , Drawer C762. |
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GAY — MONTREAL honest male in business likes outdoor wilderness, quiet life and cities, enjoys trav- elling, has good sense of humour, social, gentle, dis- creet, naturist, sensible, financially secure, independ- ent, healthy, fully alive, enjoys outside dinners, open minded. Welcome decent attractive good-looking men, 18-21 to visit or stay at Montreal or Swiss chalet, will give hospitality and good times, to enjoy the finer |
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TWO GAY PROFESSIONAL men (lovers) seek so- phisticated gentleman or couple to share very discreet rendezvous. We are both mid-30s — clean-cut— who both enjoy the finer things in life. Let's fulfill our fan- tasies? Please write and send telephone number and photo. Absolute discretion assured. Drawer C825. GOOD-LOOKINGGUY, 30, 5'8" 140 lbs, adequate- ly endowed, light brown hair, blue eyes, neatly trim- med beard and moustache, masculine appearance. I'm interested in meeting other guys between 25 to 35 who are available for afternoons or late-night ses- sions. I'm not interested in serious relationships, only sex that will be mutually satisfying to both of us. If you need a good sex buddy without all the emotional entanglement then drop me a hot letter, photo and phone number. This could be the hot time you've been looking for. No limits, anything goes. Drawer C826. GWM DEVELOPING INTEREST in heavy rubber seeks others with same interest for mutual enjoyment or correspondence. Ray, Box 214, Station M, Toronto ON M6S 4T3. |
things of life. Affectionate, agreeable, educated, re- fined if possible. 1 am generous for the right compa- nion. I adore animals. Serious repUes and recent photo a must. Andri BenoTt, 5991 rue de la Roche, Montreal, QC H2S 2C8, (telephone 1-514-277-7834 weekdays only). |
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BANG • LOCKER ROOM HARDWARE • THRUST COCO SNOW • ZAP SOLID RUSH • DAMRON GUIDE WHOLESALE INQUIRIES ONLY RLS MANAGEMENT 66 Gerrard Street East Toronto, ON MSB 1G5 (416) 977-4718 |
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VERY SINCERE YOUNG man, affectionate, honest, good-looking, non-smoker, 27, 5'8" 135 lbs, many interests. Looking for positive man, between 27-39, who is kind, sincere, mature, and in desire and |
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need of enlightening friendship (relationship). Do we have the same quest in life? Photo appreciated. Tor- onto area please. Drawer C844. |
TBP RE-INVENTS THE WHEEL with our brand new "frequency discount" scheme for classified advertisers. Check the order form for details. |
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ATTRACTIVE MARRIED GUY, masculme, quiet, gentle, 30, 5'7" 142 lbs, seeks attractive married man. |
Maritimes |
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preferred to 40 to teach and instruct me in the pleasures of gay sex. Drawer C845. |
KENTVILLE AREA, 40, 5'10" 180 lbs, clean, mas- culine, muscular, white, sincere, versatile male; en- |
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ATHLETIC BLACK MALE, 29, attractive mascu- line, open, considerate, honest and together, with many interests, seeks thoughtful, open, attractive masculine male for friendship or possibly more. Photo and phone number appreciated and answered first. Drawer C846. |
joys quiet times with good friends, good food, drink, music, movies, bodybuilding, outdoors, reading. Would like to hear from guys with similar interests for casual visits or long-term sharing relationship. Pos- sibly interested in vacation exchange with guys in Tor- onto or other parts of Canada. Drawer C803. |
42/THE BODY POLITIC
MAY 1982
Work
CANADIAN MAN, 23, returning from England this summer, seeks position as personal assistant, re- searcher from August. Well educated. Administrative and office skills. Genuine offers please. Toronto area.
Drawer C820.
BUSINESS RATES in TBP classifieds have hit a new low — only 50<t a word ! ! Get 'em while thay last !
KEY WEST
The Island For A II Seasons.
For free map and brochure:
write Key West Business Guild,
P.O. Box 1208-B3.
Key West, FL 33040.
Messages
DEAR LADY PRUDENCE, what can we say. May it be twice as much fun now that it's legal. We would also say twice as often, but that is too too mind-bog- gling-making. Happy Birthday and love from the
muffins at the office. .
LOW! LOWER! LOWEST! That's right folks, TBP classifieds have new lower business rates. For just 50<t a word, your message could be reaching thousands of committed readers.
Prisoners
A NOTE TO PRISONERS who wish to have pen-pals — Metropolitan Community Church is offering a pen-pal service to men and women prisoners through the church's prison ministry. The address is Prison Ministry, 730 Bathurst St, Toronto ON M5S 2R4. I AM A 35-YEAR-OLD INMATE at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility who would like to receive letters. Arkmail Ray Sales, No 156-781, Box 45699,
Lucasville, OH 45699 USA.
GAY CHRISTIAN IN PRISON would like to start a
gay monastery when I get out in about 3 years. If you
would like to help in this please write. I would like to
have some gay Christian pen pals from all over the forOntO
world. R Scott, No 624655, Cedar Hall, B-U, Box wiiiw
900, Shehon, WA 98584 USA.
NON-SMOKING PROFESSOR on leave seeks fur- nished 2-bedroom apartment in downtown Toronto from June, July or August 1982 to June, July or Aug-
ust 1983. Drawer C728.
WANTED — PLEASANT, friendly, quiet person to share gentleman's home. Most reasonable rent in ex- change for light housekeeping. Prefer (but not re- stricted to) Asian male — student or employed. Draw-
er C833.
ROOM IN STUDENT/ WORKER co-op house — M/F, G/ST. Approximately $180/month including utilities. Bathurst /Dupont area, phone 533-7800. SHARE HOME CLOSE to downtown. Will consider reduced rent to student in exchange for light house-
keeping. John 363-9972 after 5 pm.
SHARE WITH 2 OTHERS: renovated home— south Riverdale. Fireplace, 5 appliances, good TTC. Look- ing for responsible person 24-35. 463-1567 evenings. DON MILLS: ALIVE 40s GWM seeks similar re- sponsible gay male to share fully equipped townhouse with full private garden, parking. Close to park system. Must love animals. $300 plus utihties, first
and last. Drawer C842.
DOWNiSVIEW NEAR York University. Female pre- ferred. Share 3-bedroom with 2 other women. $167
monthly. References required. 636-5492.
DAVISVILLE/BAYVIEW MALE has house to
share. Serious inquiries only. 481-1076.
LARGE 1-BEDROOM fiat, renovated, lots of sun- light, 1 1/2 bathrooms, basement study, fireplace, deck, garden. Gay man or woman, references. Brunswick /Harbord area from July 1. Drawer C855. QUEEN AND CARLAW. Huge, 3-bedroom semi- furnished apartment over store. Corner property. Skylights. Mature professionals only. $600, all includ-
ed. 482-5243, evenings.
3 PAISLEY, DUNDAS / LOGAN, totally renovated, modern, bright retreat, close to downtown, move-in condition, all new apphances, sauna, fireplace, fin- ished basement. A Benegbi RE Ltd, A Hotter, 222-2003.
FOR EXTRA FUN, take more than one! We're not suggesting anything illegal or fattening, but simply that TBP classifieds are now cheaper by the dozen (or the deuce). Check the order form for details.
Services
Homes
Alberta
SHARE MY LARGE 2-stOrey house, 5 minutes from downtown Calgary. Separate rooms $250 plus utili- ties. Write Otto, 228 llth Ave NE, Calgary, AB T2E 0Y8 or call 276-6165 or 263-1114.
Saskatchewan
GWM 44 trim, business-oriented, returning to Reg- ina. Seeks 2 discreet males under 30 to share furnished house. Must be responsible, law-abiding, perhaps students. Photo, letter to Cam, TGA-4825, Box 5332, Denver, CO 80217 USA. Good home, very low cost.
Southern Ontario
OPENLY GAY PSYCHOTHERAPIST. Individual/ Couple Counselling. Also sexual dysfunction coun- selling. Confidence guaranteed. Eugene Allen
Schoentag, 524 Bathurst St, 967-0272.
THERAPEUTIC ACUPRESSURE massage helps relieve tension pain by professional MASSAGE
therapist T Fung, PhD, RMT. 966-5159.
PROFESSIONAL THERAPEUTIC MASSAGE in the comfort of your home DOES NOT HAVE TO COST AN ARM AND A LEG. Massage stimulates circulation, helps relieve fatigue, eases nervous ten- sion, helps relieve muscular pain, reduces edema, en- courages relaxation and sleep. Jack Gilead, MA,
RMT. By appointment. %8-0580.
CAREER COUNSELLING and resume prepara-
tion. Phone 469-0002.
MASSAGE. THERAPEUTIC — no sex. St Clair West area. Reasonable rates. By appointment. Call Bill 967-9195.
ROOM HOUSE pleasant accommodation. Come en- joy country. Relax. Have fun. Low. Write: FGarry, 32 Richmond St, Chatham. ON N7M 1N6.
Travel
Toronto
HOUSE TO SHARE with discreet gay males. Bloor/ Dufferin / Davenport area. Must be employed. Refer-
ences may be required. Drawer C756.
ROOM FOR RENT in gay house. $289 a month (with sun-room attached). 2 blocks from Gerrard, between Pape and Greenwood. Close to subway and all-night streetcar. Share rest of house including big kitchen, living room with working fireplace, yard. Carpeting and utilities included. Can furnish. Call 463-%88. DELAWARE, NORTH OF BLOOR, semi. 2 large bedrooms, I small bedroom, kitchen with sun-room, available May 1, $650 plus utilities. 482-5179 or
222-9080.
LARGE 3-STOREY HOUSE in Riverdale to share. Fully equipped with washer, dryer and dishwasher. There are 4 bedrooms, 2 living rooms, 2 bathrooms and 3 fireplaces. Handy to TTC. Available June 1. Call Stan after 6 pm at 461-2262.
BOSTON, US. The Parkview. Private guest rooms in the heart of Boston. 85 Westland Ave. (617) 536-3608. "COME TO LONDON FOR A GAY HOLIDAY" — The Philbeach Hotel, 30/31 Philbeach Gardens, London SW5, UK, Europe's largest gay hotel. Bar,
disco, restaurant. Tel: 01-373-1244/4544.
PROVINCETOWN'S WATERSHIP INN— Charm- ing guest house in centre of New England's hottest gay resort, (617) 487-0094, 7 Winthrop St, Province- town, MA 02657. Brochure available.
Volunteers
WE NEED YOUR HELP to run the TAG Friday night discussion groups. Volunteers needed to join the collective to help plan and facilitate the meetings. All that is required is 2 nights a month. For moreinform- alion^alUefT^977;6320Frid^
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Spend a pleasant vacation at the Lauder- dale Manor, located 300 feel from our beautiful beach and overlooking the Iniracoaslal Waterway. Party at the world- famous Marlin Beach Hotel next door and
come back to a quiet and friendly
atmosphere. Modestly priced hotel rooms,
efficiencies and apartments. Call or write
Lauderdale Manor, 2926 Valencia Street,
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316.
Telephone (305) 463-3385.
Films
WANTKD: GAY. XRATII), Super 8 or Standard 8 gay films in good shape. Discretion required and promised. Drawer C767.
Other
PHOTO OF YOUNG (18 f ) nude guys $3.00. Info Box 244, Succ D, Montreal, QC H3K 3G5 Canada. Guys from Mexico. Brazil, Thais. Canadians, black and white.
SOLSTICE. Gay astrological & tarol consultations. 463-9688.
Professional Photographer
Richard Plowright
- Portfolios
- Fashion
- Commercial arts
- Publicity
- Pet portraits
- Office decor
Himagery Photographies
P.O. Box 6245
Station 'A' Toronto
532-4380
24 hr telephone tape service
Canada's oldest penpal club for gay men.
GAV mATCf
Members across Canada and the U.S.
P.O. Box 3043b, Saskatoon Sask S7K 3S9
Need help?
Looking for some professional
stiort-term accounting lielp?
Or maybe some legal advice?
Don 't know where to turn?
If you 're a gay community
organization, you can put an
ad in our classified section at a
50% DISCOUNT!
Ask us to put your ad
under VOLUNTEERS, and you
automatically qualify.
(jRRDEIDinjr)
12 Johnson St., Provincetown, Ma. 026S7 617-487-0138
Dr. Waiem H. Otto
CLIMCAL PSYCHOLOGIST
Private practice in individual, couple
and family therapy at 44 Jackes Avenue
(Yonge and St. Clair area),
Toronto, Ontario M4T 15E.
Confidentiality guaranteed. Telephone 962-5328.
MAY 1982
THE BODY POLITIC/43
NATIONAL/ BINAWNAL
ZLAIcoholics Anonymous. International Advisory Council for Homosexual Men and Women. lAC. PO Box 492. Vil- lage Sin. Hew York. NY WOU. ZAIIantic Gay Alliance/Association des Gaile)s de I'At- lantique. contac^bAE(Halilax). FLAG i Fredencion) or Northern Lambda Nord (Western NBj ^Canadian Gay Archives, Box 639. Stn A. Toronto. ON M5W 1G2 (4161977-6320 Z^Committee to Defend John Damien. Box 608. Stn K. Toronto. 0NM4P 2H1
ZDignity/Canada/Digniti. Box 1912. Winnipeg. MB R3C 392 (204) 772-4322
Z Foundation for the Advancement of Canadian Transsex- uals (FACT). Box 291. Sin A. Hamilton. ON L8N 308 (416)529-7884 Central Canada: Box 2666. Winnipeg. MB R3C 4B3 Southwest Ontario: MsRM Schwartzen- iruOer 21 Cherry St. Kitchener. ON N2G 205 576-5248 H Integrity (Gay A nglicans and their Friends) . Canadian regional representalive. c/o Box 34. Stn C. Calgary. AB T3A2G1 (403)233-7404
^International Gay Association. Secretariat. c/oCHLR. Box 931. Dublin 4, Ireland International Lesbian Infor- mation Secretariat. NVIH-OOC. Frederiksplein 14. 1017 XM. Amsterdam. Netherlands: ph: 234596/231192 International Co-ordination & Informa- tion Centre on Religion. POBoxl. Cork. Ireland: ph: 021-505394
ZLigo de Samseksamaj Geesperantistoj (LSG), gay Es- peranto organization. lOOCrerarAve. Ottawa. ON K1Z 7P2.
~Ntw Democratic Party Gay Caucus, Box 792. Stn F. Toronto. ON M4Y 2N7
bisection on Gay and Lesbian Issues in Psychology, c/o Gary McDonald. Dept ot Psychology. U of Windsor. N9A 3P4
^Women's Archives, Box 928, Stn Q, Toronto, ON M4T2P1.
NEWFOUNDLAND
Provincial
ZGay Association in Newfoundland (GAIN), PO Box
1364. Stn C. SlJohn's. A1C 5N5.
NOVA SCOTIA
Halifax
Z The Atternate Bookshop, 1588 Barrington St. 2nd lloor Mailing address: Box 276. Stn M. B3J 2N7. (902) 423-3830 II busy 422-4545 i: Gay A lliance lor Equality Inc(GAE), Box 3611. Halifax South Postal Stn. 83J 3K6 (902) 429-4294. r Gay Artists Musicians Entertainers Society (GAMES) of Atlantic Canada. Box 3611. South Sin. B3J 3K6 ZGayline. (902) 429-6969. Mon-Wed. 7-9pm. Thurs- Sat. 7-10 pm Info, referrals and peer counselling. Oper- ated by GAE
Gay Youth Society of Halifax. For info, call Gayline or 422-4545 (Mon)
'ZLesbian Drop-In, 2nd and 4th Fnot month, 1225 Bar- rington St Info 429-4063 Music and conversation ZSparrow, (Gay Christians). Box 3611. South Postal Stn. B3J 3K6 Meets Sun at 8 pm. 2435 Brunswick St Col- leehouse every Sun at The Turret. 9 pm -1 am Call Gay- line or The Turret lor into
r The Turret Gay Community Centre, 1588 Barrington SI (902)423-6814 Mailing address Box 3611. Hatilax South Postal Stn. B3J 3K6
NEW BRUNSWICK
Fredericton
Jredericton Lesbians and Gays (FLAG), (506) 457-2156 Meets 2nd Wed ol month
Moncton
^Metropolitan Community Church, c/o Box 2362, Stn A. Etc 8J3
Western NB
^Northern Lambda Nord, Box 990. Caribou. Maine 04736 USA Serving Western NB and Northern Maine (Madawaska/Victoria/Carllon. NB: Timiscouata. Quebec: and Aroostook. Maine) (207)496-0188.
QUEBEC
Hull
Association Gaie de rOuest Ouibicois (AGOG), CP
1215 Succ B. J8X 3X7 (819) 778-1737
Montreal
Alpha Kira Fraternity, CP 153, Succ Victoria, H3Z 2V5 Association pour les droits de la communauti gale du Ouibec (ADGQ). CP36. Succ C. H2L 4J7 Bureau 263 est rue SamteCatherine. 2eetage (514)843-8671 IThe Capables, Box 966. SuccH. H3G2M9 (514) 486-4404 Support group lor bisexual men
Comite de soutien aux accusis de Truxx, a/s Librarie L Androgyne (see below)
ZDignity/ Montreal, Newman Centre. 3484 rue Peel.
H3A 1W8- (514)392-6711.
Z Eglise Communautaire de Montreal, Montreal Commu- nityChurch. CP610. SuccNDC. H4A 3RI (514) 489-7845.
~ Federation canadienne des transsexuels, 16 rue Viau. VaudreuilJ7V 1A7
ZFemmes gales i I'ecoute. (514) 843-5661. —Gay Health Clinic. Montreal Youth Clinic/Clinique des Jeunes de Montreal. 3465 Peel Street. H3A 1X1. (514) 842-8576 General practice. Mon-Fri. 9-5 pm: open until 8 pm Mon & Fri only. Closed daily 12:30- 1 :30 pm. ZGaylnfo, CP610. SuccNDG. H4A 3R1. (514) 486-4404. ThursandFri, 7-11 pm Recorded message other times.
r Gayline, (514) 931-5330 (women). 931-8668 (men). 7 days a week. 7-11 pm.
DGay Social Services Project, 5 rue Weredale Pk, West- mount H3Z 1Y5 (514)937-9581. OIntegrity: Gay Anglicans and their friends, c/o 305 ave- nue Willibrord. Verdun H4G 2T7 (514) 766-9623. CLambda Youth, c/o The Yellow Door. 3625 Aylmer. H2X 2C3 Meets Fri eve.
OLesbian and Gay Friends of Concordia, c/o CUSA, Con- cordia University. 1455 boul de Maisonneuve ouest. H3G 1M8. (514)879-8406. Oltice: room 307. 2070 MacKay. open 1-4 pm weekdays. Meetings Thurs al 4 pm in room H-333-6.
aUbrairie I Androgyne, 3642 boul St Laurent. H2X 2V4. (514)842-4765.
aUgue Lambda Inc. CP 701. Succ N. H2X 2N5. Into: (514)843-5889
HNaches: Montreal's Gay Jewish Group. (514) 488-0849.
aParents of Days, a/s CP 153, Succ Victoria. H32 2V5. (514)486-4404.
aProductions88, CP 188, SuccC. H2L 4K1. Television programme Cote a cote. Mon 10 pm and Thurs 1 1 pm, Channel 9 Radio program on CIBL-FM. 104.5 MHz. Wed 7:30 pm and on CINQ-FM. 102.3MHz. Thurs 10am. □ta Rumeur des Berdaches, radio programme. Mon 20h. CIBL-mt, 104.5. CP36. SuccC. H2L 4J7 (514) 843-8671 or 526- 1489
ClTravesties a Montrial, social support tor transvestiles. CP 153. Succ Victoria. H3Z 2V5. (514) 486-4404 (Thurs and Fri only).
Quebec
OGroupe gai de r University Laval (GGUL), CP2500. Pa- vilion Lemieux. Cite universitaire, Ste-Foy. G1K 7P4. = Le Groupe Unigailnc. CP 152. Succ Haute- Ville G1R 4P3 Social and cultural activities for men and women (418)522-2555.
□i 'Heure Gale. Pavilion De Koninck, Citi Universitaire, Sainte-Foy Radio program CKRL-FM. 89. 1 MHz. Thurs 7 pm.
ZJiligai. (418)522-2555. Gay info. Mon-Fri. 7-11 pm. Recorded message other limes
The Festival
June 2&July 5
The Confefence
July1^uly5
For more information:
Toronto Gay Community Council
730 Bathurst St, Toronto, ON M5S 2R4
Sherbrooke
L 'A ssociation pour I 'epanouissement de la communau- ti gale de I'Estrie (ACGE). CP 1374. JIH 5L9
ONTARIO Provincial
r Coalition for Gay Rights in Ontario (CGRO). Box 822.
Stn A. Toronto M5W 1G3. (416)533-6824.
Ear Falls/ Red Lake Area
DEar Falls Gays, PO Box 487. Ear Falls. P0V1T0. (807) 222-2185
Georgetown
OGeorgetown Gay Friends, Box223, L7G 4T1. (416)
877-0228
OHomophiles ol Halton Hills (HHH). 35 Lynden Circle.
L7G 4Y7 (416)877-5524. Drop-ins every Wed.
Guelph
OGuelph Gay Equality, Box 773, N1H 6L8. Gayline: (519) 836-4550. 24 hrs.
Hamilton
OGay Archives/ History Project for Hamilton-Wentworth (GAHP). (416)639-6050. Looking lor photos, clippings, correspondence, personal accounts about gay life and lib- eration in Hamilton, especially pre-1979. UGay Fathers of Hamilton. Support, advice. Meets twice a month. Call Gayline lor info. OGayline Hamilton, into on all groups and activities, peer counselling. (416) 523-7055 Wed through Sat. 7-11 pm. OHamilton United Gay Societies (HUGS), a meeting ol men and women, young and old. with discussions and speakers Meets on alternate Weds. Gay Community Cen- tre. Suite 207 41 King William St. 7:30 pm. Call Gayline tor further info.
dAddress lor all Hamilton groups listed above: Box 44. Sin B. L8L 7T5.
OMetropolitan Community Church, PO Box 344, Stn A, LBN 3C8. Call Gayline for info.
Kitchener/Waterloo
OGay Liberation of Waterloo (GLOW), c/o Federation of Students. Uol Waterloo. Waterloo N2L 3G1. (519) 884-GLOW. Coffeehouse every Wed at 8:30 pm, Campus Ctr. rm 1 10
OGay News and Views, radio programme, Tues, 6-8 pm, CKMS-FM. 94.5 MHz. 105. 7 MHz on Grand River Cable. 200 University Ave W. (519) 886-CKMS. OGays ol Wilfrid Laurier University, c/o GLOW. HKitchener-Waterloo Gay Media Collective, Box 274 1 . Stn B. Kitchener. N2H 6N3. (519) 579-3325. OLeaping Lesbians, radio programme. Thurs. 6 to 8 pm. CKMS-FM. 94.5 MHz. 105. 7 MHz cable. Write c/o LOOK
OLesbian Organization of Kitchener (LOOK), Box 2422. Sin B. Kitchener N2H 6M3. (519) 744-4863. Womyns colleehouse first Thurs ol month at 4 1 Margaret Ave, Kit- chener
London
' iGay Youth London, c/o HALO. Meets Thurs at 7 pm. 2nd floor. 649 Colborne SI. (519) 433-3762. iJGayline, (5 19) 679-6423. Info 24 hrs/day. Peer coun- selling Mon and Thurs. 7-10 pm. ]Homophile Association of London, Ontario (HALO), 649 Colborne St. N6A 3Z2. (519)433-3762. Coffee House: Sun and Mon. 7-10 pm. Disco/Bar: Fri and Sal. 9 pm -1:30 am.
1 iMetropolitan Community Church, Box 4724, Stn D, N5W 5L7 Services Sun. 7:30 pm al Unitarian Church. 29 Victoria SI W, north entrance to Gibbons Park. Into: Wor- ship Coordinator. (519) 433-9939 Rides: (519) 432-9690
Mississauga/ Brampton
[3GEM: Gay Community Outreach, Box 62, Brampton
L6V 2K7
OGayline West, (416)453-GGC0. Peer counselling.
Niagara Region
UGayline. (416) 354-3173. OGay Unity Niagara, Box 692, Niagara Falls L2E 61/5. f \Gay Trails, lor lesbians and gay men who enjoy hiking. Day and overnight trips planned. Visitors welcome. Write Gay Trails. Box 1053, Mam PO. St Catharines, L2R 7 A3, or call (416) 685-6431 belore9 am.
North Bay
' Waring Homosexuals Association of North Bay (CHANB). Box 649 Callander POH IHO. (705)476-3080.
Ottawa
Dignity/ Ottawa/ Dignity, Box 2102. SinD. K1P5W3.
Gay People at Carleton. c/o CUSA. Carleton University For more info, call (613) 237- 1717
Gays of Ottawa/Gals de t'Outaouais, Box 2919 Stn D. KIP 5W9 GO Centre. 175 Lisgar St: open 7:30-10:30 pm Mon-Thurs. Thurs: lesbian drop-in. 8 pm: Fri: social.
7:30 - 1 am: Sal: women's night. 7:30pm - 1 am: Sun: AA Live & Let Live group. 8 pm. Gayline: (613) 238-1717 Mon-Fn 7:30-10:30 pm. recording other times. Office: (613)233-0152.
OGay Youth Ottawa/ Hull/ Jeunesse Gai(e) d 'Ottawa/- Hull. For into call or write Gays ol Ottawa. Meeting/drop- in. Wed 8 pm. 175 Lisgar St.
OIntegrity/ Ottawa, (gay Anglicans and their friends) c/o St George s Anglican Church. 152 Metcalle St. K2P 1N9. (613)235-2516. 9-5. Mon-Fn. Meets 2nd and. 4th Weds at 7:30 pm. at St George's
OLesbiennes et gals du campus/ Lesbians and Gays on Campus, c/o SFUO. 85 rue Hasley Street. KIN 6A/5 OParents of Gays. Box 9094. K1G 3T8.
Peterborough
OGays of Trent and Peterborough. 262 Rubidge St, K9J 3P2. (705) 742-6229
Sudbury
OSudbury Lesbians and Gays (SLAG). Box 395. Stn B. P3E4P6. (705)675-5711.
Thunder Bay
ONorthern Women's Centre, 316BaySt. P7B 1S1. (807) 345-7802.
OGays of Thunder Bay (GTB), Box 2155, P7B 5E8. (807) 345-8011. Wed and Fri 7:30-9:30 pm. Recording other times. Meets Tues. Dances held monthly
Toronto
For information on groups in Toronto, check the Commu- nity section in Out in The City.
Windsor
OGay/Lesbian Information Line, Box 7002, Sandwich Postal Stn. N9C 3YC. (519)973-4957 OIntegrity, (gay/lesbian Anglicans), c/o Box 7002, Sandwich Postal Stn. N9C 3Y6. (519) 973-4957 OLesbian and Gay Students on Campus (LGSC). c/o Students' Activities Council, U of Windsor. (519) 973-4957. Rap sessions weekly OLesbian/Gay Youth Group, c/o Box 7002. Sandwich Postal Stn. N9C 3Y6. (519) 973-4957
MANITOBA
Provincial
OManitoba Gay Coalition. Box 27. UMSU, University of Manitoba. Winnipeg R3T 2N2. (204) 269-8678.
Brandon
OGay Friends of Brandon, Box 492. R7A 5Z4. (204) 727-4046.
Thompson
OGay Friends of Thompson, Box 151 R8N 1N2. (204) 677-5833 (8- 10 pm. Tues and Thurs).
Winnipeg
OCouncil on Homosexuality and Religion, Box 1912. R3C 3R2. (204)269-8678. 772-8215. Worship, counsel- ling, library
ODignity/Winnipeg, Box 1912. R3C3R2. OGayAA New Freedom Group. Box2481. orcontact through Manitoba Central Otiice. (204) 233-3508. OGay AlAnon Group. Info: (204) 269-8678. OGay Community Centre, 277 Sherbrooke St. (204) 786- 1236. Incorporating Giovanni's Room, a cafe lor les- bians and gay men. Open every day at 5:30 pm. Sun al 1 pm. Fully licensed.
OGays for Equality, Box 27 UMSU. Uol Manitoba. R3T 2N2. (204) 269-8678. OLesbian Drop-In, Thurs. 7-10 pm at 730 Alexander Ave. Entertainment & coffee. OOscar Wilde Memorial Society. Box 2221. R3C 3R5. Variety ol social, cultural and educational activities. OProject Lambda, Inc, gay community services. Box 3911. Sin B.R2W5H9
OWinnipeg Gay Media Collective. Box 27 UMSU. Uol Manitoba. R3T 2N2. (204)269-8678. Produces "Coming Out, ' ' weekly halt-hour cable cast (Thurs. 1 1 pm. Chan- nel 13W).
OWinnipeg Gay Youth, Box 27 UMSU. Uol Manitoba, R3T 2N2. (204) 269-8678.
OUniversity of Winnipeg Gay Students Association. Info: (204) 269-8678
OThe Women'sLine. (204) 774-0007. Thurs, 7:30-10 pm.
SASKATCHEWAN
Provincial
ODignity/ Saskatchewan (gay Catholics and friends).
Box 3181. ReginaS4P3G7
OGay Rights Subcommittee, Saskatchewan Association
tor Human Rights, 305- 1 16 3rd Ave S, Saskatoon.
S7K 1L5. (306) 244-1933.
OLesbian and Gay Saskatchewan, Box 7508, Saskatoon
S7K 4L4.
Battleford
OBaltfelord Gay Community, c/o Box 401, Saskatoon. S7K 3L3.
Carrot River
t \Carrot River Gays, c/oBox401. Saskatoon. S7K3L3.
44/THE BODY POLITIC
MAY 1982
Prince Albert
OPrince Albert Gay Community Centre, (The Zodiac Club). Box 1893. S6V 6J9- 1-24 WW St. E. (306) 922-4650. PtJoneline Wed-Thurs. 8-10 pm. social eve- nings Fn-Sat, I0pm-2am.
Regina
ORumours (gay community centre), 2069 Broad St (back
entrance). (306)522-7343.
nRegina Women 's Community and Rape Crisis Centre.
219-1810 Smit/l St. S4P 2N3. (306) 522-2777. 352-7688.
Saskatoon
aGay & Lesbian Support Services, 217- 1 16 3rd Ave S.
Operates Gayline. Mailing address: Box 858 1 .
OGay Community Centre, Box 1662. S7K 3R8. 245-3rd
Ave S. (306) 652-0972.
OGayline, (306)665-9129 Mon-Ttiurs, 7:30-10:30 pm.
Counselling, support groups available.
DLutherans Concerned. Box 8187 S7K 605.
astubble Jumper Press, 21-303 Queen St. S7K 0M1.
West Central Region
aWest Central Gays, c/o Box 401. Saslotoon S7K 3L3
ALBERTA
Provincial
I iAIberta Lesbian and Gay Rights Association (ALGRA).
Box 1852. Edmonton T5J 292.
Calgary
; Calgary Camp 181 Association, Box 965. Stn T,
T2H 2H4. Dances, campouts. sports and ottier activities
tor lesbians and gays.
DCalgary Gay Fathers, Call or write GIRO lor info.
ODignity/ Calgary. Box 1492. Stn l T2H 2H7
OGay Information and Resources Calgary (GIRC), Old Y
BIdg. Stes 317-323. 223 12AveSW. T2P 0G9 (403)
234-8973. Into and counselling Mon-Fri. 7-10 pm.
Dances, discussion groups, newsletter, gay rights action.
Mailing address. Box 2715. StnM. T2P3C1.
DIntegrity: Gay Anglicans and their friends, c/o Box 34.
StnG. T3A2G1.
DLesbians and Gays at University of Calgary, Students
Club. MacEwanHall. U of Calgary. T2N 1N4.
ZMetropolitan Community Church, 204-16 Ave. NW.
T2M 0H4 (403)277-4004. Services Sun 11:30amand
7 pm at above address.
^Right To Privacy Committee, Box 2943, Stn M,
T2P 3C3. Info on gays and the law, legal referrals.
Edmonton
DDignity Edmonton Digniti, PC Box 53. T5B 2B7.
^Edmonton Roughnecks Recreation Association, (403) 488-7981. Volleyball. Softball, gymnastics - glee club anyone'^
OGay Alliance Toward Equality (GATE), Box 1852. T5J 2P2. Office: 10173-104 St. (403) 424-8361. Into and counselling. Mon-Sat. 710 pm. Sun 2-5 pm. Also coffeehouses, socials, newsletter, resource library.
ZGay Fathers & Lesbian Mothers. For info calf (403) 424-8361
^Metropolitan Community Church of Edmonton. PC Box 1312. T5J 2M8. (403)482-4213. Worship Sun at 7:30 pm. Unitarian Church. 12530-110 Ave. Privacy Defence Committee, c/o Box 1852. T5J 2P2. Womonspace, No 1. 8406-104 St. T6E 4G2. (403) 433-9344 (Jeanne). Social & recreational group for les- bians.
Red Deer
Gay Association of Red Deer (GARD), Box 356. UH 5E9
BRITISH COLUMBIA
Provincial
[ Gays and Lesbians in the United Church in BC. Box
46586. Sin G. Vancouver V6f1 4G8. Support group and educational resources.
Kamloops
Thompson Area Gay Group (TAGG). Box 3343. V2C 6B9 welcomes women and men to regular meetings, discussions, social events Into, newsletter peer sup- port, friendship.
Kelowna
Managan Gay Organization. Box 1165. Sin A. Kelowna VI Y 7P8 Mutual support The group can be contacted directly by phone through the Kelowna Crisis Centre
Prince Rupert
Gay Peopfe of Prince Rupert, Box 881. V8J 3Y1. (604) 624-4982 (eve).
Vancouver
Archives Collective. Box 3130. MPO. V6B 3X6
Coming Out (Gay Radio), c/o Vancouver Cooperative Radio. 337 Carrall St. V6f^J4 Thurs at 6:30 pm. 102 7 MHzFM
Congregation Sha'ar Hayam, Jewish gay synagogue. Box 69406. VbK 4W6 (604) 255- 1076
Dignity/ Vancouver. Box 3016. V6B3X5 (604) 684-7810
Gay and Lesbian Caucus of the BC NDP. (604) 263-9043
OGayblevision. TV show by gay people about gay lite, culture and art. Regular monthly and special pro- grammes. 837 Bidwell St. V6G2J7 (604)689-5661 nCay/ Lesbian Law Association. Faculty ot Law. Univer- sity of British Columbia. Vancouver OGay and Lesbian Peopfe of Simon Eraser University. c/o SFU Student Society Simon Eraser University. Bur- naby V5A 1S6. (604) 291-3181 or 291-4539. OGays and Lesbians of UBC, Box 9. Student Union BIdg. U of British Columbia. V6T 1 W5. (604) 228-4638 Meets Thursat 12:30pm(see '■The Ubyssey" for room) Ointegrity: Gay Angficans and their friends. Box3416l. Stn D. V6J4N1. (604) 873-2925. OLesbian and Gay Health Sciences Association, c/o Gay People of UBC. Box 9. Student Union BIdg. UBC. V6T 1W5.
OLesbian Information Line. (604) 734-1016. Sun and Thurs. 7-10 pm.
OThe Lesbian Show. Co-op Radio. 337 Carrall St. V6B2J4. 102.7 MHz FM. Thurs. 7:30 pm OSociety for Pofiticaf Action for Gay People (SPAG). Box 2631. Mam PC. V6B 3W8. Ph: James Trenholmeat (604) 224-7738 or Vince Mams at 435-7376. riVancouver VD Clinic. Rm 100. 828 W 10th Ave (near Gen Hosp). (604) 874-2331. Ext 220 O Vancouver Gay Community Centre (VGCC), Box 2259. MPO. V6B 3W2. (604)253-1258. OWomen in Focus. 204-456 W Broadway. V5Y 1R3. (604) 872-2250 OZodiac Fraternal Society. Box 33872, Stn D. V6J 4L6.
Victoria
OThe Island Gay Community Centre Society, 1318 Balmoral Rd. VSR 1L7 Sponsors Gay Cafe at 1923 Fern- wood every Thurs till midnight, and bowling, self-defence classes, volleyball and swimming. ONeed (Victoria Crisis Line), (604) 383-6323. 24 hrs. Some gay into available.
OUniversity of Victoria Gay Focus Club, Student Union BIdg. U of Victoria, Box 1700, V8W 2Y2.
PUBLICATIONS
OAfter Stonewalf, Box 7763, Saskatoon. SK S7K 4R5.
Die Berdache, CP36, Succ C, Montreal, PQ H2L 4J7.
(514)843-8671.
OThe Body Politic , Box 7289 Stn A. Toronto. ON
M5W 1X9.(416)977-6320.
OCHANB Bulletin, Box 649 Callander, ON POH 1H0
OFLAGMAG, Box 1556. Stn A. Fredericton. NB
E3B 5G2.
OThe Gay Gleaner, PC Box 1852, Edmonton, AB
T5J 2P2.
OGay Information Cafgary, No317. 223- 12 Ave. SW.
Calgary. AB T2R 0G9
OGay Niagara News, Box 692, Niagara Falls. ON
L2E 6V5.
OGay Phoenix, Box 44. StnB. Hamilton. ON L8L 7T5.
(416)639-6050.
OGEM Journal, Box 62. Brampton. ON L6V 2K7
OGrassroots, Box 7508. Saskatchewan. SK S7R 4L4
OGO Info, Gays of Ottawa/Gais de IVutaouais. Box 2919.
Stn D. Ottawa. 0NK1P5W9
OGuelph Gay Equality Newsletter, Box 773, Guelph, ON
N1H 6L8.
OHALO Newsletter, 649 Cotborne Street. London. ON
N6A 3Z2.
OInternationat Justice Monthly. c/oRR4. Harrow. ON
NOR 1G0.
OLesbian/ Lesbienne, PO Box 70. Stn F. Toronto. ON
M4Y2L4.
OMaking Waves: An Atfantic Quarterly for Lesbians and
Gay Men. Box 8953. Station A. Halifax. NSB3K 5M6
ONetwork Victoria, Dept7. Box 4276. Stn A, Victoria. BC
V8X 3X4 (902)381-2225.
ONorthern Lambda Nord Communique. Box 990.
Caribou. Maine 04736. USA.
OThe Radical Reviewer (lesbian/feminist literary
tabloid). PO Box 24953. StnC. Vancouver. BC. V5T 4E3.
0 Thompson Area Gay Group Newsfetter, Box 3343. Kam- loops. BC V2C 6B9
OThuntierGay. c/o Box 2155. Thunder Bay. ON. OVGCC News. Vancouver Gay Community Centre Soci- ety Box 2259 MPO. Vancouver. BC V6B 3W2 (604) 253-1258. Voices, (lor lesbian feminist/separatists), c/o
1 Andrews. RR 2. Kenora. ON P9N 3W8
1 iWilde Times, Box 2221, Winnipeg MB. R3C 3R5.
Is your group listed?
Network is TBP's listing of lesbian and gay groups throughout Canada and Quebec. It's a way of letting people in your part of the country know what's happening, and a way of getting others involved.
We'll gladly change, add or delete any information on your group — just drop us a line! Network, Box 7289, Stn A, Toronto, ON M5W 1X9
SASKATOON
HOMECOMING '82
celebrating ten years of community Sept. 2-6
For more information Gay & Lesbian Support Services P.O. Box 8581, Saskatoon, Sask
Montr^l
THE
HOTEL
t^lTH
k
LAUBERGE
SAUNA T. v.- SHOWERS
>1070 MacKay St .Monlrear.PO Hx^ ?Hi 514 878 9393
Canada
BirrcRCNCc
LAUBERGE
SAUNA TELE.- DOUCHES
1070 Rue MacKdy Montreal. PQ hso ;mi 514 878 9393
SIXTH ANNUAL
DIGNITY CANADA DIGNITE
CONFERENCE
FREE TO BE
EDMONTON, ALBERTA May 21 • 24. 1982 Hotel MacUonald
GUEST SPEAKERS / WORKSHOP LEADERS
• Oxford theologian and Dominican priest • GILES HIBBERT.
• RICHARD R. PALMER ■ Episcopalian priest from Dignity Denver.
• Holy Name Sister - SUE WOODRUFF - from Portland. Oregon. Leader in SIGMA (Sisters in Gay Ministry Associated) and co-chair of Womens Concerns Committee of Dignity Inc.
• BRO. WILLIAM ROBERTS ■ from New York and member of National Assembly of Religious Brothers. Has developed an educational series on the non-sexual aspects of homosexuality.
Write:
Dignity Edmonton Dignite
P.O. Box 53.
Edmonton, Alberta T5J 2G9
MAY 1982
THE BODY POLITIC/45
vvy
V
^ DOU51E ^^-^,, .
>1 game of legal legerdemain!! Costs only $80,000!! (so far...) Takes years to play!!
START
November 1971:
Form a collective to publish a gay
liberation magazine — any number
can play!
July 1975:
Incorporate as Pink Triangle
Press. Choose three players to serve
as nominal directors.
Publish 38 issues through October 1977.
ri^^^
:\A^^
.XNe*°
Nov 21, 1977:
Publish Issue 39,
a review of the major
themes of the year.
Include an article on
Anita Bryant's
favourite subject.
Call it "Men Loving
Boys Loving Men"
Dec 22-27, 1977:
Toronto Sun colum- nist and notorious homophobe Claire Hoy attacks you for "promoting child abuse." The Sun editorializes against you.
Dec 27, 1977:
Get nervous!
(but give 'em hell)
Issue a press release
denying Hoy's charges
and defending your right
to discuss controversial
issues. Hire the city's
best civil rights lawyer.
46/THE BODY POLITIC
Apr 24, 1978:
The police give you
permission to copy
your material at their
office — for a fee.
Mar 23, 1978:
The Body Politic
Free the Press Fund
holds a demo at
McMurtry's office,
demanding return of
the materials.
(Somehow, it doesn't
work.)
Dec 30, 1977:
The five cops from Operation P(the joint provincial/mun- icipal police porn squad) carry off 12 cartons of business
records, manu- scripts and subscrip- tion lists. Send off one player to get it all back.
Feb 21, 1978:
Lawyer says the warrant
used to seach your
office was so broady
worded the cops could
have taken everything.
Send one player off to
challenge the legality
of the warrant.
Mar 15, 1978:
A County Court judge rules that the warrant was legal.
YOU LOSE!
You appeal to a higher court.
Apr 14, 1978:
The Ontario Court of Appeal upholds the County Court ruling.
YOU LOSE!
You seek leave to
appeal to the
SUPREME COURT
OF CANADA.
June 5, 1978:
The Supreme Court
refuses to hear the
case.
YOU LOSE!
DEAD END
Proceed to July 12, 1978
July 18, 1978: ■ Appointment with \ destiny:
A date for trial is set: January 2, 1979. Start looking for witnesses.
July 12, 1978: Church and State dig for witnesses:
Anti-porn priest Brad
Massman asks MCC
pastor Brent
Hawkes to testify
against you. He
refuses.
$
Feb 4, 1978:
Supporters donate
more than $10,000 in
just one month.
Feb 3, 1978:
Alive & Kicking!
You publish Issue 40
— 3 weeks late. The
Fund holds a benefit
showing of Word
Is Out.
Jan 24-27, 1978:
In San Francisco, Harvey Milk calls for a tourist boycott of
English Canada; supporters demon- strate at Canada House in London.
Jan 14, 1978:
Anita Bryant comes to town; community
demonstrates
against her — and in
support of your right
to publish.
LUi
Dec 31, 1977:
Hold a press conference
with lawyer Clayton Ruby denouncing raid as an attack on freedom of
the press and an at- tempt to intimidate the gay community.
Jan 1-4, 1978: Get support!
GATE Vancouver becomes the first group to demonstrate against the raid. Other groups and public figures pro- test as well.
Jan 5, 1978:
The Press and its directors (you 3 lucky players!) are charged under Sec 164 of the Criminal Code (mailing "inde- cent, immoral or scurrilous" material).
$Jan 4, 1978: Get money! Form The Body Politic Free the Press Fund; send a letter to your subscribers and friends seeking support.
MAY 1982
$ Aug 26, 1978: The Fund has col- lected $24,000 — and spent $15,000.
Witnesses: You get sexolo- gist John Money, journalist June Callwood; they get ho- Tiophobe Hoy & fundamen- talist Ken Campbell.
...copies of The Joy of Gay Sex and The Joy of Les- bian Sex — held for 8 months,
though never under
charge.
Jan 2, 1979: Trial begins before Provincial Court Judge Sydney Harris.
TRIAL
May 31, 1982:
Retrial begins. You've got
your community and your
witnesses behind you —
but what about the judge?
Jan 3, 1979:
Local artists perform at a benefit for you; Toronto
Mayor John Sewell
speaks in defence of the
gay community. The
media go crazy.
Jan 2-8, 1979:
In six days of testimony,
the Crown presents
none of the seized
material — except one copy
of Issue 39 — as evidence.
Feb 14, 1979: Judge Harris delivers his verdict: NOT GUILTY!
<;f^
'^oi-
Dec 21, 1981:
Re-appointment with
destiny:
Date for retrial is set: May 31, 1982.
Dec 31, 1981:
Fund has raised $67,800
— spent $56,000. Relax?
Well, you'll need $18,000
more to cover retrial..
■ lyuft"
i
Oct 6, 1981: Word from the top:
NO!
The Supreme Court
refuses to hear your
case.
June 15, 1981:
Three Supreme Court justices, including Chief Justice Bora Laskin, hear your applica- tion. They reserve judgment. You hold your breath.
Feb 19, 1979:
You serve notice of intent to sue, but get nasty reac- tions from the media and your community. You cool off and let the idea die....
•^^''*'^'"^' Feb 15, 1979: The Toronto Star reports your acquittal in a front-page story with a misleading headline (You say it means "Now kiss our ungrateful
bums. Body Politic says"). Send one player off to scream at the editor.
Feb 16, 1979: Get litigious!
The Sfar prints a tiny
correction — and an
editorial based on their
own false story, calling
you "truculent" and
"provocative." You
decide to sue.
BUT...
Mar 6, 1979: The Crown appeals:
Attorney General McMurtry, citing "errors
of law" in decision,
seeks to overturn your
acquittal.
Apr 11, 1979: Finders keepers:
Despite your acquittal, the Crown
refuses to
return the material;
they say they'll need it
for the retrial....
r^--^
Mar 15, 1982:
County Court grants the
Crown their appeal,
letting them hold onto
the material.
YOU LOSE!
Feb 2, 1982: Finally...
County Court hears the Crown's appeal of Judge Harris's deci- sion. (You wonder why they could still want all that old stuff.)
^^0C^^>j
BUT...
Jan 21, 1980:
The Crown announces
it will appeal Judge
Harris's decision —
and until the appeal is
heard, they'll keep the
stuff.
Mar 16, 1982:
Gather all players for
consultation.
Discuss whether to
proceed any further
with court action to
get materials back.
With a retrial date
already set, you
speculate you won't
have much luck. You
decide not to.
DEAD END
Proceed to retrial
Special dice (well, one die) included. Remember: you can only move one step at a time...
Apr 1,1981: Off to Ottawa:
You decide to seek
leave to appeal to
the Supreme Court.
Mar 26, 1981:
Gather all players for
consultation:
Deliberate on whether to try to appeal the Court of
Appeal decision to
— trumpet fanfare here —
THE SUPREME COURT
OF CANADA!
Mar 25, 1981:
The Ontario Court of
Appeal upholds the
County Court decision.
Which means:
YOU LOSE!
Mar 4, 1981:
The Ontario Court of Appeal hears your appeal of the County Court deci- sion granting the Crown's appeal (still with us?) of your acquittal.
Oct 26, 1979:
Judge Harris (acting
as a Justice of the
Peace) hears your
application for a
court order forcing
the Crown to return
your records.
Dec 27, 1979:
Judge Harris
orders the
Crown to return
all the
materials
— and to pay
your court
costs!
DEAD END
Proceed to Mar 25, 1981
Mar 4, 1981:
The Court rejects your arguments — and makes you pay
the Sun's and the Crown's costs!
YOU LOSE!
Mar 4, 1981:
The Court of Appeal
hears your case. The
Crown attorney says
you are tjeing
contemptuous....
Mar 3, 1981:
You see the article as an attempt to influence justice.
Send off one player
to have McMurtry
and the Sun cited for
contempt of court.
SUN
$
Mar 31, 1979:
The Fund has collected
$32,000 — but spent
$33,500.
PANIC!
Mar 3, 1981: Loose talk:
McMurtry says in the Toronto Sun that gay leaders are "t>ent on
confrontation." He means you: he mentions "Men
Loving Boys Loving Men."
Feb 6, 1980:
Fund gets 800 signa- tures and $9,500 for a huge ad in the Globe and Mail urging McMurtry to drop his appeal.
Feb 7-8, 1980:
County Court hears Crown appeal of your acquittal. The Canadian Civil Liber- ties Association speaks on your behalf, claiming that Sec 164 violates the Bill of Rights.
Very pretty, but..
Mar 7, 1980:
County Court agrees with the Crown, over- turns your acquittal and orders a new trial. In other words:
YOU LOSE!
u
Mar 7, 1980:
You can play this
game, too:
You appeal the County Court deci- sion to the Ontario Court of Appeals.
$
Dec 31, 1980:
The Fund has raised
$53,600 — spent
$46,000.
RELAX.
MAY 1982
THE BODY POLITIC/47
.„ we'll l»'" Sion A, '"■ - p., spe*
d no n.oney """box 7289, S«' ^^,«,ere. f »'
send "° ' criptio"^' ^ ms$1 5.9° *" TBPSubsf;^,,, Canada. U
delivery, a"
Please enter a free, six-issue gift subscription to The Body Politic for.
Name .
Address,
City Code
And for:
Name
Address.
City Code
And for.
Name
Address.
City Code
And say it's from:
Myname
Address
City Code
Sigrtalure
Ma// this card to: Ttie Body Politic, Box 7289, Statiort A. Toronto, ONM5W1X9. We'll begin free, SIX issue subscriptions lor eacti of g the people named above, beginning with the next issue. ^
There's a cheaper way to get that long-distance feeling.
Just about all of us in Toronto have old friends scattered across the country, friends we want to stay in touch with, if only just to say hello.
Calling is expensive. But we have a cheap and easy way to say hello from Toronto once a month: a free introductory subscription to The Body Politic.
All you have to do is fill in the other side of this card and mail it to us. The only thing you have to pay for is that one postage stamp — we'll cover the rest. As soon as we hear from you, we'll start a free, six-issue subscription for each of your friends, starting with the very next one. And we'll include a note saying it's from you.
So, why not take a minute and say hello?