40 Years of

Pink Triangle Press

An XTRA! special commemorative Supplement

The Body Politic

At the genesis of sexual liberation in Canada

I
n 1987, when The Body Politic folded, a gap opened up between the
by Michael generation of gay liberationists and young queers who would come of
Connors age in the decades to follow.
Jackman The moment marked the end of a media venture that shaped the
scope of gay and lesbian politics in Canada and beyond. The Body
Michael Connors
Politic, published by what would become Pink Triangle Press, came to
Jackman is a PhD
serve as a paper of record in documenting activism, arts and culture, as
candidate in social
well as the changing realities and challenges faced by lesbians and gays.
anthropology at
The paper brought together a network of sex radicals who documented,
photo of the Body Politic by Ryan Faubert

York University. His

celebrated and critiqued the arrival of the new world of gay life in urban
research focuses
centres throughout much of North America and Europe. When The
on media activism
Body Politic disbanded, the politics of sexual liberation that guided the
and queer history
work of the paper continued in different forms, through the work of
in Canada.
Xtra and wherever people from The Body Politic ended up, but the social
world of the paper ceased to exist. My doctoral research in anthropology
at York University has allowed me to explore that social world. Conver-
sations with people who were involved with the paper during its 15-year
run (1971–1987) have helped to shed light on the significance of The Body
Politic to queer history and the value of the paper as a social and intellec-
tual experiment. Beyond simply celebrating the paper, it is worth thinking
about how and why it is still relevant today and what we might learn from
18  Oct 20, 2011 40 Years of Pink Triangle Press

those who devoted so much of their time and

energy to the work of sexual liberation.
The origins of The Body Politic have been
well documented by Peter Zorzi and Charles
Dobie, both of whom were involved with the
first issue. In the autumn of 1971, members
of radical activist group Toronto Gay Action
got together to spread the word about the first
gay demonstrations in Canada, held the pre-
vious summer on Parliament Hill in Ottawa
and in Robson Square in Vancouver. By creat-
ing a newspaper, the message of coming out
of the closet could reach a broad audience and
help to recruit new members to the growing
gay liberation movement. The aims and goals
elaborated in We Demand, a piece written for
the first demonstrations and later printed in
the first issue of the paper, outlined a set of
tangible concerns dealing with policing and
law protections, but the paper’s liberationist
aims were much broader in scope. The newly
formed collective sought to radicalize gays
and lesbians and to challenge the conspiracy
of silence about homosexual desire.
The paper is often remembered for its
sometimes-controversial treatment of hot
topics. The publication of articles like “Of
Men and Little Boys” and “Men Loving Boys
Loving Men” attracted attention from various
opponents who accused the paper of promot-
ing pedophilia. The second article and another
on the subject of fisting raised the eyebrows
of many readers and attracted attention from
authorities who brought charges of obscenity
against the paper. Accusations of racism were
brought forward when the paper published a
classified ad from a man looking for a black
houseboy. These controversies are easy to
recall, as they mark moments when the paper
made headlines in other newspapers across
the country. But the actual work of The Body
Politic through the ’70s and ’80s was often
more subtle and worked through very careful
analysis of sexuality and the lived experiences
of gays and lesbians.

The collective
As many Body Politic people described the
space, it was one of intense debate and vibrant
social life. Weekly meetings of the collective
were lively and engaging and often quite epic.
Group decisions were made by consensus,
whereby members who disagreed on an issue
or theoretical approach went head-to-head in
an effort to grasp a middle ground and to talk
their way to some kind of agreement. Whether
individuals were on the collective, making
decisions about which articles to run, or were
carrying out more mundane tasks like answer-
ing telephone calls or sorting classifieds, the
time commitment to the paper made for
ongoing face-to-face interaction with others.
For those on the editorial collective, the cir-
culation of memos and the constant flow of
materials created a web of constant activity.
Discussions about recent articles, comments
on news and current events and theoreti-
cal debates about sexuality circulated within
the office, weaving together a community of
activists and writers. Long before the days
of desktop-publishing software, the task of
producing a newspaper involved the labour-
intensive work of editing articles, doing
paste-up and revising the final proof before it
went to print. It meant that people spent long
hours working side by side with one another.
Long-time collective member Gerry Oxford
remembers his own experience with the paper
with fondness. He recalls, “It was such a gift if
you were a smart kid coming out. You know,
it was unlike anywhere else in the world.
It was a place where all these really smart
people were doing really interesting things
and having fabulous discussions.” The excite-
ment of being surrounded by others who were
so passionate about ideas, politics and the
possibility of changing the world fuelled the
paper. When an issue went to press, a debrief-
ing session known as a “postpartum” would
be held a week or so later at the home of a col-
lective member or at one of the collectively
run households where key Body Politic figures
— like Ed Jackson, Merv Walker and Paul
MacDonald — lived. These gatherings were an
occasion for people to discuss their reactions
to articles and, sometimes, to share griev-
ances about how articles appeared in the final
version of an issue. It was in working through
ideas and political views and in continually
educating one another that the productive
engagement of liberation was sustained.
East Coast correspondent and collective
member Robin Metcalfe describes his work
with the paper as a formative experience that
provided an education in political theory, as
well as writing. He explains, “I can’t stress too
much the importance of The Body Politic for
me both in terms of giving me a theoretical
framework and a practical experience with
writing. I consider it my first sort of profes-
sional venue — although I never got paid.”

a Pink
Triangle
Press
timeline
With files from
Mark Rickey,
Rick Bébout,
Julia Garro,
Paul Gallant,
1971 1972 1973
Gordon Bowness Jearld Moldenhauer The printer’s bill for 5,000 consensus when possible. and -operated, and bar The Body Politic publishes Gay pride activities
and Matt Mills announces at a Toronto copies of the publication Membership changes patrons are not always Gerald Hannon’s “Of Men take place in Vancouver,
Gay Action meeting that is $255, paid out of the over time, but volunteer overly fond of radicals), and Little Boys” in Issue 5. Saskatchewan, Winnipeg,
all are welcome to join a pockets of the collective. time and labour keep the the revolutionary gay The Globe and Mail’s Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal
group of people starting a That collective later publication alive. newspaper eventually Kenneth Bagnell lambastes and Halifax.
gay liberation newspaper. evolves into “a group of The first issue costs 25 attracts readers and the gay community The Body Politic gives
Issue 1 of The Body Politic people who regularly give cents. Hawked on Toronto contributors from across because of the article. birth to the Gay Liberation
hits the streets around their time and labour” street corners and in bars Canada and around Toronto celebrates Gay Movement Archives, which
Halloween. On its cover is to the production of (when the hawkers aren’t the world. Pride Week in August. will eventually grow into
an image from the Aug 28 the magazine and who tossed out; gay bars are the Canadian Lesbian and
We Demand protest on exercise editorial control mostly straight-owned Gay Archives.
Parliament Hill. over the content, by
 an Xtra! special commemorative Supplement  oct 20, 2011  19

but sought to challenge common-sense ideas

top left:  Ed Jackson and his then-partner,
Merv Walker, working on layout at TBP’s first
real office on Carlton St. Gerald Hannon
above left:  Gerry Oxford (almost never with a
shirt on) in the layout area at the Duncan St
office, with Tom Suddon. Gerald Hannon
above:  The Body Politic collective, charged with
publishing obscene material, in May 1982. Top
row, from left: Roger Spalding, Ed Jackson,
Stephen Macdonald, John Allec, Chris Bearchell,
Ken Popert. Bottom row: Gerald Hannon, Tim
McCaskell, Kevin Orr (of Glad Day Bookshop,
charged separately), Rick Bébout.  Bill Loos
top right:  Rick Bébout, who passed away in
2009, tirelessly contributed his prolific design
and writing skills to TBP. xtra files
While there were paid staff members,
no one ever received payment for his or her
writing, which meant that the paper relied
heavily on volunteer labour. The culture of
giving that enabled the work of the paper has
been detailed by the late Rick Bébout. On his
website Bébout explained the significance of
gift-giving to the spirit of the paper, where no
one ever calculated the cost of their efforts
and the few staff members who did receive a
paycheque also volunteered their time. As he
described it, the paper was a labour of love
for those willing to dedicate their time and
energy to it. In this sense, these efforts were
part of a gift culture. In Bébout’s view, “Gifts
Gifts move in circles:
they come back to the
giver as part of that
circle. And they come
back transformed,
enriched as they were
passed along.
— Rick Bébout,
TBP Collective member
move in circles: they come back to the giver as
part of that circle. And they come back trans-
formed, enriched as they were passed along.”
This is how the paper grew to be a publication
of international renown — through the con-
certed efforts of a small group of individuals
who were willing to work together to change
the world.
Defining the path
Critical analysis informed so much of the
discussions, writing and organization of the
paper. Many of the key thinkers had university
degrees, but this was by no means an indicator
of one’s skill as a writer or critical thinker. The
Body Politic collective were smart people who
brought to the paper their talents as writers,
editors and theorists. But they all learned from
one another, sharing their expertise. What
mattered was their willingness to examine
tough questions about sex and society and to
put what skills they had to good use.
As a paper with a strong emphasis on social
critique, it garnered a reputation as a difficult
read. Articles were often long, sometimes seri-
alized over more than one issue. News and
event listings were written in plain English,
but analytical articles were often pitched to a
reader with a larger-than-average vocabulary
who was familiar with intricate political argu-
mentation. This tendency toward theory was
not mere intellectualism on the part of writers
about sexuality, culture and history. It was in
the pages of The Body Politic in 1974 that the
world first read James Steakley’s research on
the Nazi persecution of homosexuals during the
Holocaust. In 1982 the paper printed anthro-
pologist Gayle Rubin’s path-breaking work on
sadomasochism, critiquing anti-sex feminist
politics of the day. The late Michael Lynch and
others wrote levelheaded and insightful com-
mentaries on responses to HIV/AIDS and the
growing epidemic. In many ways, the paper
served as a journal for what would become the
now well-established field of sexuality studies.
Collective member Gillian Rodgerson
remembers theoretical debates of the early
1980s as a mingling of perspectives. She says,
“People like Sue Golding were writing about
Michel Foucault’s ideas. There were people
who were doing what we would now call queer
theory, and others were coming at it from
having worked with the traditional left... All
these different schools of thought.” At times,
this likely meant that people whose approaches
were incompatible simply agreed to disagree.
But more often debates pushed people’s think-
ing in new directions, inviting them to question
what they might take for granted as normal or
unnatural about their desires, sexual relation-
ships and friendships.
The writing of founding member Jearld
Moldenhauer, especially in the very early
issues of the paper, offered a sophisticated
analysis of connections between class and
sexuality — a concern that permeated much
of the paper’s writing over the years. Engaging
the theoretical work of Herbert Marcuse and
others, his writing incited people to challenge
the repression of sexual desire and existing
class structures. It would be rare to find anal-
ysis of such depth and length in newspapers
today. Looking back over the last four decades,
Moldenhauer explains, “As the movement
grew, the sort of radical questioning element,
trying to challenge the structure of society, just
lost ground... The Body Politic was perceived as
a vehicle to analyze and write about all sorts
of sexual-political issues — to get people to
rethink their positions on sex and love.”
Expression of sexualities
On a very basic level, the political aims of the
paper were about coming out, being out and
encouraging others to do the same. But the
politics of liberation encompassed far more
than bringing an end to closetry, especially
for those who had previous experience in
other kinds of social movement organizing.
Many saw sexual liberation as connected to
the work of activists fighting against sexism,
racism, the systematic violence of psychiatry,
the injuries of the class system, and a host
of other social injustices. This emphasis on
building coalitions with other social move-
ments stemmed, in part, from the influence
of Trotskyist political theory. In simple terms,

1974 1975 1977 1978 1979

The Toronto Star accuses
The Body Politic of
advocating “homosexual
seduction of children.” TBP
counters with a special
free supplementary
edition headlined “The
Star Sells Hate.” The Club
Baths, The Barracks, the
Library steam bath and
the Roman Sauna pull
their advertising from TBP
following the uproar.
Issue 18 of The Body Politic
is ordered off the stands
by the Toronto Morality
Squad because of a
cartoon depicting two men
sucking cock. The cartoon
reappears on the cover of
Issue 19 with a lightning
bolt covering the offending
act. An officer from the
morality squad quips,
“Kids are coming in off the
streets and buying this,
and we can’t have that,
now can we?”
1976
Canada officially gains
a new not-for-profit
corporation: Pink Triangle
Press. The Body Politic
continues to operate
autonomously within the
newly established press.
The Body Politic publishes
Gerald Hannon’s “Men
Loving Boys Loving Men.”
The Toronto Sun’s Claire
Hoy is apoplectic: “Kids,
not rights, is their craving.”
TBP’s office is raided Dec
30. Police officers cart
away 12 shipping boxes
of material (manuscripts,
subscription lists, etc).
On Jan 5, the officers of
Pink Triangle Press — Ed
Jackson, Gerald Hannon
and Ken Popert — are
charged with use of the
mails for transmitting
indecent, immoral or
scurrilous literature.
The Body Politic Free the
Press Fund is established.
Orange-juice promoter and
sexual-repression activist
Anita Bryant visits Toronto,
Edmonton, Winnipeg,
Moosejaw and London.
She is confronted with
angry demonstrations.
On Dec 9, Toronto police
raid The Barracks.
The PTP officers are found
not guilty, but Ontario
Attorney General Roy
McMurtry appeals.
The Barracks defence fund
(later the Right to Privacy
Committee) forms.
The Crown is ordered to
return material seized in
the 1977 raid on the offices
of TBP and to pay costs.
The Crown appeals.
20  Oct 20, 2011 40 Years of Pink Triangle Press

this sort of political vision emphasized the

need for ongoing activism, that it would never
be enough to focus on the interests of one You might be
social group, like homosexuals, to the exclu-
sion of others. Coalitions between different
a bit richer
activist groups were necessary to ensure that or a bit poorer,
the movement attended to the needs and but most of us
concerns of all people. For liberationists who
were chiefly interested in freeing society from had to deal with
the shackles of heterosexual dominance, the the same
constraints of the patriarchal family and the
fearful life of the closet, it was sometimes dif-
discrimination,
ficult to work alongside people who did not the same
share their view of sexual liberation. marginalization,
Sexual politics was central to the paper,
in theory and in practice. Chris Lea recalls
the same cops,
the atmosphere of The Body Politic offices the same
and the paper itself. He explains, “The Body queerbashers.
Politic was very sexual. There was a kind of
fundamental idea that sort of permeated. It — Tim McCaskell,
was that promiscuity was the glue that kept TBP collective
the gay community together. They used to say
member
that. It’s hard to believe, but they used to say
that. So, it made me into a kind of more sexual
being, for sure.” For Lea the paper provided an
education in how to be open about sex and to
make sexuality a political practice, not just at
the paper but in other aspects of life as well.
He says, “It was The Body Politic that made me
political and made me see politics.”
Philosopher and Body Politic collective
member Sue Golding has argued that during
the years of gay liberation, people under-
stood coming out as a declaration “that the
body is political, and therewith, that sexual-
ity is political, ie a constructed source, a focal
point, an intersection of power at all levels
and in a multiplicity of ways.” As a central
tenet of sexual politics, most people involved
with The Body Politic understood the need
to challenge the status quo of heterosexual
dominance and the way rules about normal
sex shape our lives.
The majority of people involved with the
paper, regardless of their specific political and
theoretical views, felt that sexual liberation
was part of a larger web of activism. The ques-
tion of how to rally support and bring about
change in people’s attitudes toward sexuality
meant working with, rather than against, dif-
ferent communities. Approaching desire from
an angle somewhat different from Golding,
long-time collective member Ken Popert none-
theless sees power at work — not as something
that produces desire, but as an essential aspect
of how to mobilize politically. He describes his
belief in a vanguard left that needed a critical
mass to support its work. His understanding
of sexuality is as “a pristine impulse, and our
major task was to restore that.” If liberationists
wanted to bring about significant change and
to liberate desire from repression, they would
need to rally support in large numbers.
One of the most vigilant advocates for build-
ing connections between groups and across
lines of difference is collective member and
lifelong activist Tim McCaskell. As someone

1980 1981 1982 1983

The Free the Press Fund
places an ad in The Globe
and Mail signed by more
than 800 people urging the
attorney general to drop
the appeal.
The Pink Triangle Press
officers are ordered to face
a new trial. They appeal.
On Feb 5 Toronto police
raid four gay bathhouses
simultaneously, arresting
more than 300 men. A
number of demonstrations
follow, drawing thousands
of angry gay and lesbian
people into the streets.
The Body Politic loses
its appeal of the retrial
order and appeals to the
Supreme Court of Canada. The Body Politic is charged
The Court declines to again. This time, all nine
hear it. members of the collective
A story in the October are accused of publishing
issue of The Body Politic, obscene material for an
“Gay Cancer? Or Mass article examining fisting
Media Scare?” begins Pink etiquette. The offices are
Triangle Press’s coverage raided again on May 7.
of HIV/AIDS. TBP is acquitted of this
charge and again found not
guilty in the “Men Loving
Boys Loving Men” case.
Attorney General Roy An anti-porn crusade The Body Politic’s two
McMurtry continues to flares in Canada. In acquittals in the “Men
appeal the case. Vancouver, a Red Hot Loving Boys Loving Men”
Pink Triangle Press Video store is firebombed case are finally allowed
publishes Flaunting it! A by the Wimmin’s Fire to stand. There
Decade of Gay Journalism Brigade. The Body Politic are no more appeals.
from the Body Politic, is lambasted by some
edited by Ed Jackson and readers for continuing to
Stan Persky. accept Red Hot Video ads.
 an Xtra! special commemorative Supplement  oct 20, 2011  21

relaxed somewhat as the years moved on and

top, from left: Robin Metcalfe, a regular
contributor to TBP, 1976 ; Tim McCaskell at a
press conference following the first acquittal
of TBP in 1979 ; Chris Bearchell (left) at the
TBP victory celebration, 1979. courtesy of CLGA
Above: In 1982 the collective was charged
with obscenity for the second time. xtra files
left: The Body Politic office in May 1976,
at 24 Duncan St. Gerald Hannon
who worked on international
news, the breadth and scope of his
analytical writing often looked at
how interlocking issues of race,
class and sexuality affected peo-
ple’s everyday lives. He finds that
the work of queer community
mobilization was in certain ways
clearer during the days of gay lib-
eration. He explains that during
the ’70s, “class differences were
not so acute. You might be a bit
richer or a bit poorer, but most
of us had to deal with the same
discrimination, the same margin-
alization, the same cops, the same
queerbashers. There was a centre
of gravity in the middle and our
common sexual orientation could
bridge what other differences
there were.”
Engaging
community
The problem of coalition politics
plagued the paper from the outset.
The late Herb Spiers described
tensions within the collective in
the early years of the paper about
the inclusion of lesbian content as symptom-
atic of a larger problem of sexism. He recalled
that some men “thought that it was lesbians’
job to teach gay men about their lives and
issues.” In an effort to educate men on the
Body Politic collective, women organized con-
sciousness-raising groups. The gender divide
more women got involved. Chris Bearchell, a
mainstay through the late ’70s and early ’80s,
played an active role in encouraging friends,
lovers and other women to get involved. She
was an exception to the rule, not because she
was a woman mostly among gay men on the
collective, but because she dedicated so
much of her work to fostering connections
among feminists, liberationists, sex workers,
union activists and marginalized social groups.
The question of how to reach people was
always a concern for those at the paper. Gerald
Hannon was involved from the second issue
until the paper folded in 1987. His take on
The Body Politic’s commitment to extending
its reach emphasizes that the paper was quite
different from lifestyle magazines available
at the time. As he puts it, the paper’s percep-
tion of gays and lesbians was as “a nascent
community of interest, not a community of
consumers, which is how many gay magazines
would have seen you.” In Hannon’s view, it was
summed up in the shared belief that “people
in the community had a lot to learn from each
other, and The Body Politic could facilitate
that.” The key to advancing the work of sexual
liberation was to avoid becoming insular or
self-serving, and to find ways to reach people
who were not card-carrying liberationists.
People like Bébout were quite skilled at doing
this sort of work. According to Hannon, “Rick
Bébout became one of the most powerful
people in the paper, partly because he was
good at everything he did. He was community
oriented, with a strong sense that we weren’t
just producing this for a cadre of deeply
involved gay activists, but that it had to be for
a wider community, and that we had to build
that community.” Just how that community
would be created and transformed was never
totally clear, and the paper often had difficulty
pairing the sexual liberation agenda with other
social issues and other forms of oppression.
Indeed, this made for a rough ride when issues
of sexual freedom won out over other issues
of concern, particularly when feminist and
anti-racist politics were put on the table next
to liberationist concerns.
Looking back over the last 40 years, so
many of the people who were central to gay
liberation organizing and to The Body Politic
have passed on, many from HIV/AIDS. There
is an obvious danger in forgetting the struggles
of those who went to the wall in fighting for
sexual liberation. But there is an equal danger
in misunderstanding their efforts as fixed on a
limited set of achievements.
The paper was a social experiment, an intel-
lectual engagement, and a political project
aimed at changing the world. In this way, it
was a working out of difficult issues, some-
times messy and fraught with contradiction.
There is so much to be learned from the work
of the paper, from the rousing ideas laid out in
its pages to the incredible individuals who gave
so much of themselves to all of us. 

1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989

In January, Pink Triangle
Press gives birth to a four-
page bar rag called Xtra.
Intended as a promotional
tool for The Body Politic as
well as a way to reach more
people (and a different
audience) than TBP ever
could, Xtra soon outstrips
its parent in advertising
revenues and, eventually,
in circulation.
In April, seven years
and numerous trials and
appeals later, the police
finally return the last of
the materials seized in the
1977 raid on the offices of
The Body Politic.
Sexual orientation is added
to the Ontario Human
Rights Code.
In November, The Body
Politic celebrates its 15th
birthday, but the collective
becomes concerned
about its financial health
and its ability to continue
to make decisions. The
collective and staff decide
to suspend publication of
TBP and keep Pink Triangle
Press alive by focusing
on Xtra.
Pink Triangle Press
forges on with Xtra as
its new flagship brand.
The collective votes
to terminate its own
existence shortly after
appointing president and
collective member Ken
Popert as interim publisher
of Xtra. Popert remains
president and executive
director of PTP to this day.
In February, Xtra moves to
484 Yonge St and reaches
a circulation of 17,000
28-page copies.
The Dec 30 issue includes,
for the first time, a year-
end AIDS memorial page
called Proud Lives, an
idea picked up from the
former Vancouver-based
Q Magazine. It later
becomes a regular feature.
In June, for Pride Day,
Xtra sports its first full-
colour cover, on 18,000
40-eight page copies.
November sees the
premiere of XS, a
supplement to Xtra with
lesbian author Jane Rule on
the cover. The supplement
runs 43 issues before
being discontinued in 1993.
Continued on page 24 
22  Oct 20, 2011 40 Years of Pink Triangle Press

Covering the Press

A selection of memorable covers from The Body Politic
 an Xtra! special commemorative Supplement  oct 20, 2011  23

Daring
Together
The mission statement

T
he mission and values statement of Pink Triangle Press,
Daring Together, was the product of more than a year’s
work, carried out mostly by our board of directors but
with the advice of our employees. It was ratified by an
overwhelming majority in a cross-country employee
consultation conducted on April 8, 1998, and adopted by
unanimous vote of the members of the Press at the annual general meet-
ing held on May 30, 1998.
The iambic cadences of Daring Together are intended to make it easy
to remember. But the poetic form also encourages us to view it as a docu-
ment that asks to be interpreted rather than taken literally.

Daring Together
We, the members and workers of Pink Triangle Press,
are lesbians, gay men and people of good will.
We carry on the work first undertaken by The Body Politic.
The outcome that we seek is this —

Gay and lesbian people daring together to set love free.

Working to achieve our end, we use the published word.
We earn in commerce the money that we need,
mindful that money is not an end, but merely means.

‘Gay and lesbian people’

We have chosen as our public lesbians and gay men,
but we bear in mind all those who challenge gender
or bend the borders of desire.

‘Daring together’
The will and work to change our downcast state
can only be our own.
We engage our chosen public,
rousing them singly and in numbers
to think and act and grow and fill the world,
to form a movement, fight for change
and, in so doing, change themselves.

‘Set love free’

We honour lust and seek a world
where sex is valued as a human trait,
no more no less than any other,
and all are free and equal, no matter whom they love.

Engagement
We engage our chosen public —
readers, listeners, clients and each other —
as worthy equals, with respectful camaraderie.
In all our work we do our best, so drawing out the best in others.
We entice and we incite; we challenge and we lead.

Communities
Through the customs of their people, the web of their associations,
the output of their artists and the practice of their commerce,
communities are made and know themselves.
Through strife and argument they grow.
Because communities give birth to movements, we nurture them.

Words
Words are power and they always serve some purpose.
Others use them to oppress us. We use them to express our lives.
We assail the work of censors. Our drive is to arouse debate,
to inform and to enlighten in a fair and honest way.

History
Gay life was built from social circumstance
by conscious will and daunting work.
What came before is foundation, inspiration, a lesson and a warning.
We seek to own our history: we learn and teach and guard it.
24  Oct 20, 2011 40 Years of Pink Triangle Press

Meeting my life
What The Body Politic gave me

T
he first woman I really loved
by Gillian was a feminist anti-porn cru-
Rodgerson sader. Our dates included the
Gillian Rodgerson Take Back the Night march
joined The Body and Lesbians Against the
Politic collective Right events, and her idea of
in 1983. Today she a love letter was a copy of a political essay
sits on the board of she’d written, dedicated to me. Being a
directors of Pink lesbian seemed to involve an awful lot of
Triangle Press meetings… interrupted occasionally by
and works as a demonstrations.
book editor. In fact, I was going to meetings long
before I managed to even kiss another girl.
In the spring of 1979, I belonged to Gay
Youth Toronto (GYT). The meetings, held
at The 519, were usually attended by me,
one other young woman, named Helene,
and a lot of guys. I was 18, and apart from
my fellow GYT member, the only lesbians
I could find were in the card catalogue at
my local public library: Gertrude Stein
and Virginia Woolf were my pin-up girls.
I really wasn’t looking in the right places.
Then, in May 1979, the Bi-National Lesbian
Conference came to town. Helene and
I were asked to speak at a workshop on
young lesbians. There I was, speaking fairly
confidently on a subject I knew about only
in theory… One set-up blind date later, an
evening at the Jane Chambers play A Late
Snow, and still no kissing, but at least I’d
seen a lot of lesbians, including the ones
on the stage. I remember sitting on the
steps of Trinity-St Paul’s Church, looking
at passersby and thinking, “Do they know
I’m a lesbian? After all, here I am, sitting
here, being a lesbian! With other lesbians!”
I was pretty easily pleased and I felt like I
was on my way.
It began for me...
When the baths were raided in February
of 1981, I was at university in Waterloo,
but I still had one foot in Toronto. By then
I’d progressed from meetings to meetings
and dances and eventually, to working on
the Gay Liberation of Waterloo helpline,
giving advice and support to anonymous,
sometimes desperate, voices on the phone.
And, I’d kissed some girls along the way.
I wish I could say that I came to The
Body Politic through a burning com-
mitment to gay liberation or as a logical
extension of my personal politics, but that
wouldn’t exactly be true. Those things
developed later. I came to the paper, as
many people did, because a good friend was
already there, because I liked the people,
and because I was looking for a way into
the community and the life that I needed
to have. In the aftermath of the bathhouse
raids, I’d helped my friend Craig Patterson
sell copies of The Body Politic at the rally
at St Lawrence Hall, hearing Margaret
Atwood make her famous remarks about
how shocked she’d be if someone burst in
while she was taking a bath. And slowly,
Women working on
the paper sometimes
faced suspicion
from other dykes:
why did we work so
closely with men?
The legacy
over the next year or so, I moved away from or small. More talking, sometimes arguing, The Body Politic wasn’t always an easy
Waterloo, fell in love again (this time with sometimes just hanging out over dinner place to be: arguments were passionate,
a woman who couldn’t stand meetings and and telling stories: over the course of a and because most of us worked so hard,
preferred photographs to endless words) conversation that lasted for years, I fell a the paper was our social life as much as our
and returned to Toronto. In those days, for little in love with her, too. workplace. Women working on the paper
me and for my friends, being gay and fight- It was Chris who suggested that I work sometimes faced suspicion and criticism
ing for gay liberation were synonymous, in with Tim McCaskell on the international from other dykes: why did we work so
a way. Demonstrations and groups were news desk, and from Tim I learned to look closely with men? How could we support
where we met our friends and our lovers. at the world with my eyes more open than some of the things the paper was assumed
There was a lot that needed changing, they had ever been before. We wrote about to stand for? Why didn’t we give our energy
and it didn’t occur to us not to take it on. struggles in Eastern Europe, in Africa, in to a project solely for other women?
Reading and writing and talking, always Latin America and in the United States. Why did I stay? I stayed because I
talking, were the ways we made sense of Each new gay group that emerged in a found a group of people from whom
the identities we were trying to assume: country where there had been only iso- I learned how to think, how to write and
lesbian, feminist, gay man, socialist. lation was a cause for celebration; each the power that our words could have.
Sort of accidental though my arrival setback an outrage, and there were a lot of None of the pretence of “objectivity” for
there was, The Body Politic ended up giving both. Some of those stories are still going us: as long as we were fair, we were blatant
me my queer life. I wrote a book review, on, or are just concluding now, nearly 30 about our agenda of persuasion. We
then a little news story, both edited by the years later. We wrote about the emergence recruit? Damn right! You treat us badly?
late, wonderful Chris Bearchell with the of a new epidemic amongst gay men, and We’re going to expose you as the idiot that
kind of seriousness and deep attention we tried to make sense of the science that you are! Not all of the best things about
that she paid to everything she did, large we suddenly had to absorb. The Body Politic made it into the pages

continued from page 21  1992 1993 1994

1990
Pink Triangle Press enters
the world of audiotext
(telepersonal chatlines),
eventually creating Xtra’s
Talking Classifieds and
Cruiseline.
The Church Wellesley
Review, a showcase for
new lesbian and gay
writing, debuts as a
supplement to Xtra.
1991
Pink Triangle Press
turns 20. The Dec 27
issue of Xtra is 22,000
40-page copies.
In Toronto, demonstrators
block Yonge and College
streets after Glad Day
Bookshop is charged
with obscenity for
carrying lesbian sex mag
Bad Attitude.
With June Rowlands as
the new mayor, the City
of Toronto finally proclaims
Pride Day. The crowd for
the subsequent party
numbers 100,000.
Cruiseline gains popularity,
leading to a bountiful year
for Pink Triangle Press.
Xtra West begins
publishing in Vancouver in
July, Capital Xtra in Ottawa
in September.
PTP also expands its
audiotext division to serve
gay and lesbian people in
the nation’s capital.
Xtra turns 10.
Pink Triangle Press
purchases Malebox, the
slutty little brother to the
Xtra sister publications.
Audiotext systems
expand into Calgary.
PTP moves its head offices
to 491 Church St on Oct 27
— 23 years, to the day,
after the publication of
the first issue of TBP.
Capitalxtra.on.ca goes live,
publishing material from
the Ottawa edition.
Ontario Bill 167, which
would add provisions for
same-sex couples to
dozens of laws, is defeated
in the Ontario legislature,
leading to outrage across
the province and a 10,000-
strong protest march in
the streets of Toronto.
 an Xtra! special commemorative Supplement  oct 20, 2011  25

An education
Required reading for every queer person

R
oughly two years ago, I was
by Peter unexpectedly offered the
Knegt chance to write a book that
Peter Knegt is a essentially condensed the en-
journalist and tire history of queer rights in
the author of the Canada into something like
recently published 150 pages. When I was approached about
book About the project, I knew I couldn’t pass up such
Canada: Queer an opportunity, but I also couldn’t help but
Rights. ask the publisher, “Wouldn’t it be a bet-
ter idea if you hired someone who’d lived
through it all?”
Not to say I’ve experienced my 10 years
of official queerness in some sort of utopia
of human rights advancement. As you can
learn by reading any contemporary issue
of Xtra, the fight for queer rights in this
country is far from over. But it’s undeni-
able that the years that preceded my own
experiences contained some of the most
influential moments in the narrative I was
being asked to depict in my book.
Fortunately for me, a paper time
machine of sorts has been provided: the
past 40 years of material produced by Pink
Triangle Press.
“You should probably just start with
The Body Politic,” one of the many lovely
volunteers at the Canadian Lesbian and
Gillian Rodgerson
on the roof of The Gay Archives said to me on the first of
Body Politic office, countless research visits. The Body Politic
1983. Lee Lyons was the genesis of Pink Triangle Press,
and it is also one of the primary sources
for my book. Photo of Peter Knegt by Adam Coish;
Photo Illustration by Lucinda Wallace

of the paper: in person, we were much

more amusing than we probably were in In hindsight battle Vancouver bookstore Little Sister’s
print, and the love and loyalty that most I had come across The Body Politic on a waged against Canada Customs… Pivotal
of us had for each other wouldn’t have few occasions while I was doing research No queer Canadian moment after pivotal moment covered
been obvious, either. But, I still feel it. for this or that queer studies class as an history lesson can with such remarkable passion and detail.
And all of the work I’ve done since then —
writing international news for Gay Times
undergrad, but I never fully compre-
hended its scope. When the first of the
compare to the And these writers weren’t even getting
paid. As a queer Canadian, as a journalist
in England, editing Capital Gay and Diva seemingly endless boxes of back issues education of reading and as someone trying to chronicle history,
magazine, working with Feminists Against was placed in front of me at the archives, everything Pink I was absolutely blown away.
Censorship and Outrage! and Amnesty that quickly began to change. Reading I ended up photocopying more than
International — comes directly from through The Body Politic isn’t simply Triangle Press has 1,000 pages from the magazine, advertise-
what I learned there. Even now, when I’m reading through some magazine. It is a offered us. ments included (a couple of hilariously
thinking my way through some project, historical and cultural experience, a portal dated personal ads still hang on my fridge).
I hear Rick Bébout’s voice in my head into the lives of the women and men who And while that allowed me to complete my
asking, “What’s it for?” because knowing fought to allow me the privilege of writing task, this fact remains: no queer Canadian
why I’m doing something will usually my book in the first place. “Men Loving Boys Loving Men” article, history lesson can compare to the educa-
show me how to do it. The onset of AIDS in Canada, which and the subsequent legal battles faced by tion of reading everything Pink Triangle
And, as activists have known for cen- reads like a horror story you know the three Pink Triangle Press directors; the Press has offered us. From the 15 years of
turies, the exhilaration of being a part of ending to; the massive bathhouse raids in extensive “clean-up” of queer Montreal The Body Politic to the 27 years of Xtra that
something bigger than yourself and the Toronto, Montreal and Edmonton (and in anticipation of the 1976 Olympics; the follow, it should be required reading for
sense of comradeship that comes from a almost everywhere else); the raids on The civil rights legal battles surrounding John every queer person in Canada the second
common purpose is incredibly sexy.  Body Politic office itself after the infamous Damien and Doug Wilson; the dramatic they come out. 

1996 1998 2000 2001

The audiotext division
of PTP branches out to
Edmonton and Winnipeg.
Xtra, Capital Xtra and Xtra
West move from a folded
to a tabloid format.
Malebox leaves Ottawa for
Toronto, getting a facelift
and a new name: Canadian
Male. It runs for two more
years, ceasing publication
in 1998.
In late October, PTP turns
a happy and healthy 25.
Xtra.ca goes live,
covering Toronto only.
1999
In September, PTP takes
its first tentative steps into
interactive web content.
Squirtpersonals.com
gets its first hit.
Xtra, Xtra West and Capital
Xtra conduct their first
formal reader surveys.
Xtra publishes a news-
flash warning that police
have raided Toronto’s
Bijou porn theatre. Police
charge 18. The charges are
dropped months later.
Squirt.org, a site that
allows gay men to swap
cruising tips and tricks,
launches.
Pink Triangle Press
launches a glossy
magazine, Go Big. It runs
three issues before being
discontinued in May 2001.
Toronto police raid the
Pussy Palace and the Bijou.
Xtra covers same-
sex marriages at the
Metropolitian Community
Church of Toronto and
the court struggle over
gay-positive books in the
Surrey, BC, school system.
Aaron Webster is beaten
to death in a cruising area
of Vancouver’s Stanley
Park. Xtra West covers
the subsequent push
for anti-homophobia
programs in BC schools,
police accountability
for the safety of gay
men in area parks, and
the apprehension of
Webster’s killers.
26  Oct 20, 2011 40 Years of Pink Triangle Press

Moving boldly forward

Xtra comes into its own

W
hen Xtra first
by Michael launched in To-
Pihach ronto in March
An extended version of 1984, it wasn’t
of this piece, “Why the politically
Does Xtra Do minded news
Some of the Things source you know today. It was more
It Does,” was or less a party and community guide,
published in the a lighter alternative to the political,
Toronto edition of radical, intellectual, serious tone of
Xtra in June 2009. The Body Politic.
“Xtra was an attempt to be more
popular than The Body Politic,” says
Ken Popert, Pink Triangle Press pres-
ident and executive director. It was
initially distributed as a compact, fold-
able pamphlet. “Something free that
people could stuff in their pockets.”
Xtra’s early Toronto editions
brimmed with gay party listings, per-
sonal ads and advertisements for
the popular gay bars of the day, such
as Chaps and Colby’s. It had a flashy,
hot-pink design and eventually began
publishing accessible stories with a
much broader appeal.
“People called Xtra a clone paper,”
says Pink Triangle Press publisher
and editor-at-large, David Walberg,
who started at Xtra in 1989 as a part- far left:
time production assistant. The clones It’s our job The very first
in those days were the mustache, tight to make people edition of Xtra,
in 1984.
jeans and bulging package set.
“It was the dawn of desktop pub-
uncomfortable left: The 2011

lishing,” recalls Walberg. “We had just
bought a Macintosh computer that
cost, like, $10,000. We developed our
own photos. We had a darkroom.”
Xtra grows up
After The Body Politic folded in 1987,
and as events transpired and times
changed, Xtra grew and adapted. In
1993, as revenues began to roll in to
Pink Triangle Press from its telephone
hook-up service Cruiseline, two more
editions of Xtra hit the streets: Xtra
West in Vancouver and Capital Xtra
in Ottawa. Together they reported on
the political battles of the 1990s and
2000s: the defeat of the Ontario NDP’s
Bill 167, which would have granted
spousal rights to same-sex couples;
the raids at Remington’s, the Bijou,
the Pussy Palace and Goliaths; the
censorship battles of Little Sister’s and
and poke them
in the eye.
— Ken Popert,
Executive Director
of Pink
Triangle Press
Glad Day bookshops; the murders of
scores of community members, same-
sex marriage and, more recently, the
debate surrounding the criminaliza-
tion of HIV/AIDS.
During Canada’s most seminal queer
times over the last three decades, of
which only a few are mentioned above,
Xtra was there, notepad and pen in
hand, reporting and conspiring on
issues of huge import to gay and lesbian
Canadians. It’s the paper’s contempo-
rary approach to activist journalism
that earns it a love/hate relationship
with some of its readers. Xtra’s manage-
ment knows that and eagerly points out
that the paper is fuelled by a political
agenda of activism and sexual libera-
tion, not a desire to make money on
the backs of blissfully ignorant readers.
“It’s our job to make people uncom-
fortable and poke them in the eye,”
says Popert. “We encourage people to
be self-critical.”
That’s true even — or maybe espe-
cially — if it means criticizing people
and institutions within Toronto’s gay
and lesbian communities.
“Gay and lesbian people deserve to
know what’s really going on in their
communities,” says Matt Mills, Xtra’s
associate publisher and editorial direc-
tor. “As part of its work, Xtra tries to
ensure that gay and lesbian commu-
Toronto Pride
edition.
nity organizations, and the people
who lead them, are transparent and
accountable to gay and lesbian people.
It’s not about being mean or tearing
people down, it’s about ensuring frank
and open discourse. No question is off
limits in Xtra’s pages, no matter who or
what is at issue.”
What does the future hold for Xtra?
“Community newspapers are niche
publications that give readers some-
thing they can’t get elsewhere,” says
Xtra’s publisher and editor-in-chief,
Brandon Matheson. “Even though
the mainstream press has more gay
and lesbian content than it used to,
it doesn’t do the job as effectively as
the lesbian and gay press does. No
one newspaper can be all things to all
people. That’s a false premise.” 

2002 2003 2005

Vancouver and Ottawa
are added to xtra.ca.
Xtra covers Marc Hall’s
fight to take his boyfriend
to the prom; the libel ruling
against Toronto councillor
Kyle Rae after comments
he made about the
conduct of seven police
officers during the Pussy
Palace raid; and the arrest
of seven members of the
Totally Naked Toronto Men
contingent in the Toronto
Pride parade.
Police raid Calgary gay
bathhouse Goliaths,
and Xtra West stops
the presses, running a
special supplement that
is distributed in Calgary, a
city in which Pink Triangle
Press does not have a print
publication.
The Supreme Court of
Canada rules that the
Surrey School Board
had no grounds to ban
gay-friendly books in its
schools.
PTP produces the first
season of gay travel
television show Bump!
It airs on PrideVision, a
Canadian digital specialty
television channel.
Pink Triangle Press joins
a consortium of investors
in the purchase of
PrideVision. The channel
is rebranded as OUTtv.
The press will eventually
build an almost 25-percent
stake in the enterprise.
Squirt.org becomes
a member-paid site.
After relentless coverage
in the pages of Xtra West,
police in BC arrest four in
connection with the 2001
murder of Aaron Webster.
2004
The Toronto Women’s
Bathhouse Committee
reaches a settlement with
the Toronto Police Service
over the 2000 Pussy
Palace raids.
Canada fully embraces
same-sex marriage, with
the passage of the Civil
Marriage Act. Pink Triangle
Press provides office
space and sponsorship
for Canadians for Equal
Marriage.
2006
Pink Triangle Press
purchases long-running
US gay publication
The Guide, which will later
be transformed into a
travel-focused publication
and transition from print
entirely to web in 2010
(it continues online at
guidemag.com).
PTP extends an $18,000
short-term loan to the
Ottawa Pride Committee
after the organization finds
itself deeply in the red.
 an Xtra! special commemorative Supplement 
Our work today
Ongoing projects from Pink Triangle Press
by XTRA
STAFF
2007
Bump! is made available for
home DVD and download
sales through major
retailers, including Netflix,
Blockbuster and Amazon.
Pink Triangle Press
produces the first of
its ongoing annual
Toronto International
Film Festival television
shows, Out@TIFF.
A
lthough The Body Politic
and Xtra are the original
heart and soul of Pink
Triangle Press, there are
myriad other projects
that exist either to pay
the bills or take us into the future.
Squirt
Squirt.org was launch-
ed in 2000, but it was
not until it became a
member-paid site that
it really came into its
own, blowing gold all
over Pink Triangle
Press.
“It is the money-
maker of the oper-
a tion,” says Liam
­ for travellers and video clips from the
O’Reilly, Squirt’s marketing manager.
“It brings money from advertising
and memberships to help fuel the
rest of the Press’s projects.”
Which explains how Press pub-
lications are resistant to economic
downturns, changing media landscapes
and any other disruptions of print
advertising revenues.
Squirt does a lot of things, but the
secret to its success is the way it acts
as a conduit through which gay men
can hook up with one another for sex.
“Squirt tends to be the sure bet,”
O’Reilly says. “If you come onto Squirt,
you’re going to find somebody serious
about hooking up wherever you may be.”
The future of Squirt?
“We’re always innovating, but I
think we’re going down the road for
social networking rather than simply
a person-to-person site,” O’Reilly says.
“We’re also developing some interest-
ing ways to enhance personal profiles.”
Bump!
When the first season of the gay travel
television show Bump! aired in 2002
on what was then called PrideVision,
it was among the very first of its kind.
“The whole area of gay travel was
pretty new,” says Andrew Chang, co-
executive producer of Bump! and Pink
Triangle Press’s chief operating officer.
“For us to get sponsorship was really,
2008
Pink Triangle Press buys Masthead magazine
the assets of Toronto’s fab names The Body Politic
magazine. The magazine’s among Canada’s 20 most
final issue of the year influential magazines of
features a cover and all time.
interview with Lady Gaga,
who subsequently goes
on to some success as a
pop star.
really hard work; there is not a lot of
money in gay television.”
Fast-forward more than 110 epi-
sodes: Bump! is currently seen on
television stations around the world,
including OUTtv in Canada, OUTtv
The Netherlands and Logo in the US.
“My own personal experience when
travelling around the world was that
I had to search for the things that I
related to as a gay traveller,” says
Chang. “We knew that taking a search
like that to television would be of huge
interest to people. Plus, we just wanted
to show how much fun gay life can be
around the world.”
Bump! has changed with the shift-
ing media landscape. Last year, a series
of applications for mobile devices was
introduced, including practical tools
TV show.
“Our whole focus has been going
multimedia,” says Chang. “That’s
where we’re going and that’s where we
need to keep moving. Mobile is the way
to go right now.”
For more information and upcom-
ing episodes, visit bumptv.com.
Guidemag.com
Pink Triangle Press purchased long-
running US journal of sexual liberation
The Guide in 2006. Since then The
Guide has undergone a huge trans-
formation. In 2010 it emerged from
its chrysalis a comprehensive online
resource for gay and lesbian travel-
lers, of both the actual and armchair
varieties.
“Our tagline is ‘A world of gay ad-
venture,’” says Ken Hickling, director
of advertising sales for Pink Triangle
Press. “There is something fabulous
to see, feel and do as a gay person in
just about every city in the world, and
we’re going to find it and we’re going to
give it to you.”
“We’re in the planning process
for the next stage of a total rebuild of
the website,” Hickling says. “We have
more than 200 cities up and running.
We have a lot of detailed information
on events, places, things to do. We’re
continuing in that vein and building on
that theme.”
CANADA’S GAY & LESBIAN NEWS
2009
Bump! starts shooting in
high definition video and
launches a series of mobile
travel apps.
Christopher Skinner is
beaten and crushed to
death under the wheels
of an SUV just blocks
from Toronto’s gay
neighbourhood. His
killers remain at large.
oct 20, 2011  27
fabmagazine.com
#
427 JUNE 22–JULY 5, 2011
FREE ($4.50 IN SOME CITIES)
fab LADY KIER
Toronto’s gay scene maga-
STILL DEEE-
LITEFUL
zine, fab, has been in print KAZAKY
VOGUING
since 1994 and was pur- BOY BAND
chased by Pink Triangle +HOTTEST
THE
Press in 2008. Although PRIDE
EVENTS
it loves its best girlfriends,
fab is mostly by, for and
about gay men.
“It’s an enduring brand
with a long and fabu-
lous history,” says Pink
Triangle Press editorial
director Matt Mills. “It’s
SOAK ITUP
got its own voice and
engages its audience in
a unique way.”
Early this year, a new
and improved website,
fabmagazine.com, went OUR ANNUAL PRIDE ISSUE
live to coincide with the
release of fab’s annual gay
sex survey. It was a great success with
fab readers, and Mills says a redesigned HARDtv
print edition can be expected sometime “Every straight Canadian has several
over the next few months. television channels available to them
for straight porn,” says HARDtv
general manager Brett Drysdale. “We
offer the gay community a similar
service with gay adult erotica.”
HARDtv’s genesis came in 2006
through a kind of binary fission, in
which OUTtv was born and PrideVision
spun off as the gay-porn-all-the-time
channel, soon to be rebranded as
HARDtv. Pink Triangle Press was a mi-
Queeriesmag nority shareholder in both channels; in
The newest of Xtra’s little sisters is 2010 the Press purchased a controlling
Queeriesmag, an online magazine and share in HARDtv.
community for women at queeries- Drysdale says he’s working on a
mag.com. new show, a sort of Entertainment
“I wanted to develop some women’s Tonight for the gay porn business. Also
products specifically for lesbian and branded HARDtv, the show represents
queer women,” says Suzy Malik, pub- his effort to build a library of new pro-
lishing editor of Queeriesmag and gramming on the channel. 
advertising art director for Pink Tri-
angle Press’s connectivity department.
“I had a lot of people coming up to me
asking when there was going to be a
queer women’s fab.”
Malik says that though Queeriesmag
soft-launched just over a year ago, “we
haven’t done the official launch of the
product yet.” She’s hopeful that the
brand will grow to include a print com-
ponent. Queeriesmag is also beginning
to experiment with online video.
2010 2011
Xtra undergoes a redesign, Bump! wins a Hugo Pink Triangle Press flees
including a new logo. Television Award of Merit. its long-time second-
Pink Triangle Press, Xtra covers the Pride storey digs at 491 Church
in partnership with Toronto censorship St for a swanky new space
long-time television controversy. at 2 Carlton St.
collaborator Peace Point PTP launches a comedy
Xtra closes its
Entertainment, buys Ottawa office. news television show,
Canadian digital specialty The Gayest Show Ever.
gay porn channel HARDtv.
28  Oct 20, 2011 40 Years of Pink Triangle Press
Seeking our history
I can look back now over 40 years, and smile at my naiveté
L
et me begin with a death.
by Gerald Let me begin with a sen-
Hannon tence I wrote on the last
page of the last issue
Gerald Hannon did
of The Body Politic, “a
manage to reinvent
magazine for lesbian/gay
himself, in the wake
liberation” (the forerun-
of the passing of
ner of Xtra). That issue, number 135,
The Body Politic,
was dated February 1987. It was the
as a successful
last issue not because we were bank-
freelance writer and
rupt (though we were on the edge) or
sex worker.
because the police had hounded us out
of existence (though they tried). The
reasons were many and complex, but
in our world-weariness and exhaus-
tion that year closing the paper down
felt inevitable. I wrote on that final
page that, though we hoped one day to
bring something new into the world, “I
feel now that nothing again will ever be
so new and fresh and young and eager,
so pigheaded, so infuriating, so clumsy
and so young.”
I had a reason to feel passionate and
bereft — I’d worked on every issue but
the first, which was dated November/
December 1971. The Body Politic had
been my job and had consumed my
life for 15 years. And then, suddenly, it
was gone. And then, suddenly, I was 42
years old and had to reinvent myself on
the brink of middle age. I wasn’t very
hopeful, either for myself or the pros-
pects for gay publishing.
History proved me wrong. Oct 27,
2011, marks the 40th anniversary of the
day the first issue of The Body Politic
went to press. Its children — the media
conglomerate that is Pink Triangle
Press — rule gay publishing in Canada.
The Press is almost embarrassingly
successful. With yearly revenues of
more than $9 million, and more than
65 employees headquartered in more
than 14,000 square feet of office space
on the 16th floor of a building at Yonge
and Carlton in Toronto, it has interests
in print, television and online media.
The Press makes a profit — it has to.
The money doesn’t go to sharehold-
ers, though — it becomes seed money
for new enterprises or gets ploughed
back into the community. That was the
model at The Body Politic. It still is.
I am the vice-president of the board
of directors of the Press and its longest-
serving member. I see how far we’ve
come. In the best ways, though, I see
that we haven’t changed much at all.
How far we’ve come
I look around the office today, and I see
mostly young faces, and I remember
that the Press was started by kids —
at 27, I was the oldest member of that
founding group. We were kids who
didn’t know anything about journal-
Creative direction and ism, or publishing, or accounting,
design by Lucinda or advertising sales, kids who met in
Wallace, with thanks each other’s apartments, who believed
to the Canadian in collective decision making despite
Lesbian and Gay its sometimes near comical inefficien-
Archives, Harold cies (for the first few issues, articles
Averill and Gerald were approved, or not, after being
Hannon for help with read aloud by the author, which meant,
photo research. given the potential for embarrass-
ment and ill will, that near everything
got approved). The kids I see today
are impressively skilled and know a
lot more than we did. They have to.
The world has changed. But they’re
passionate, know they don’t know
everything and know they have to
learn. That hasn’t changed.
I look around the office today and
I see shamelessness. The art work on
the walls is unabashedly erotic and
political. The video arm of Pink Trian-
gle makes delicious little fuck videos
as promo for squirt.org. I remember
that the press, 40 years ago, fought for
the sexual emancipation of the young,
championed drag, shone a spotlight
on the erotic needs of the disabled and
played shamelessly with the erotic
potential of office life (I  remember
the men in the office queuing up on
the roof to fuck some guy who came
in off the street, begging to be fucked.
I remember another night when, after
everyone else had gone home, I tried
to push a broom handle up my ass
because I was so horny. In deference
to current pieties, I should add that it
was a consenting broom handle).
I look around the office today and I
see women. I see a lot of them —they
are about 30 percent of the Press at
the employee level, higher among
the members of the board. I see trans
people. I see people of colour. I see
progress — I remember that the Press,
in my day, was almost entirely male and
very definitely entirely white. But even
then, collective members like Chris-
tine Bearchell and Tim McCaskell
never stopped reminding the rest of
us, mostly university-educated, white,
middle class men, of how smart it was
to try to build a movement that reached
out to allies in other communities.
I remember how that paid off big time
during crises like the 1977 police raid
on The Body Politic and the subsequent
criminal charges — the arts communi-
ties slowly emerging along Queen West
were among our first supporters (visit
the General Idea retrospective at the
Art Gallery of Ontario — it’s the best
show in Toronto — and realize that
that smarty-pants collective was just a
bunch of local goofs, like us, back in the
’70s, and were among the performers
at a support rally held just before The
Body Politic trial began in 1979. The
then-mayor of Toronto, John Sewell,
also attended that rally and voiced his
support. Read that these Ford-ster
days, and weep).
An enduring mission
“What came before is foundation,
inspiration, a lesson and a warning.
We seek to own our history: we learn
and teach and guard it.” Those are the
last two sentences of the Press mission
statement, a document I helped devise.
I’ve been in the privileged position of
seeing our history unfold over the last
40 years and, for some of that time,
have had a hand in guiding it. History
became part of our mission because
we discovered, to our surprise, that
we actually had a history. Back in 1971,
History became many of us thought we were the first
part of our homosexuals ever to make a claim for
mission because justice and acceptance. It was revela-
tory to discover, in a groundbreaking
we discovered, series of articles we published in The
to our surprise, Body Politic, that there’d been a thriv-
ing gay movement in Germany until it
that we actually was crushed by the Nazis. It was reve-
had a history. latory, and a warning — Berlin had had
both a varied commercial gay scene
and organizations working to change
Above Gerald Hannon anti-gay laws. A few years later, many
in the Duncan St office of those struggling young men and
of The Body Politic.
Courtesy of Gerald Hannon
women were in death camps. That
was a hard lesson. It was good to learn
(we can all share that history now, and
the many histories that followed and
preceded it, thanks to the Canadian
Lesbian and Gay Archives, an organi-
zation started by The Body Politic).
“We seek to own our history: we
learn and teach and guard it.” Owning,
sharing, teaching, guarding. Forty
years have taught me that history
never stops, even when our bodies do;
that history never stops, and we can
shape it. I can look back now over 40
years and smile at my naiveté in 1987.
Things still glisten.