I FEBRUARY 1979 NUMBER 50/$1~.00 Immorality? Indecency! Panic in '53 The charges were pure harassment, says Retreat to defence counsel as the trial of The Body "respectability." Politic concludes. But will the judge agree? Part Three of A look at the "obscenity" trial that wasn't. "Dreams Deferred." A MAGAZINE J I FOR GAY LIBERATION llLSUllg U[, Toronto police hit the Barracks — the gay community hits back. And how not to. TBP investigates Toronto's 14 "homo- sexual slayings'.j» And.. Everywoman: Breaking out of the kitchens of language Out in the City: Supermarket extra- vaganza — and the alternatives EIGHTH YEAR No sense beating around the bush. The Body Politic needs sider how we might reach more people. No time to find cash fast. ways of pushing our advertising revenue up to the modest We've just come through the most difficult period in quota we've set for it. this magazine's seven-year history. We've had to cope with No time, finally, to make sure that when we got through a police raid that took away vital records, a long and com- this crisis The Body Politic would still be solvent. plicated defence effort that has absorbed huge amounts So far, it still is — but not by much. And there are some of money and energy, and a trial that has tied us up almost major hurdles coming up. At the end of March, our lease completely over the past few weeks. runs out. Whatever quarters we find are bound to be more A lot of people have helped, to be sure. They have con- expensive. On April 1, postage costs will increase by more tributed the funds to keep our lawyer working, have given than 20%. Printing and production expenses, office sup- freely of their time to help publicize the case, and have put plies, telephone bills all keep steadily going up. in the countless hours of volunteer labour that it has al- We need the kind of support we have always needed to ways taken to get TBP out every month. keep TBP going — support from the community we do our Without that kind of commitment, The Body Politic best to serve. wouldn't exist. We need support from people like you. But right now we need even more than that. The emer- So we're asking, straight out. Not very subtle, we admit, gency demands of the past year have all but swamped but then neither is the need. efforts to keep TBP itself healthy. There has been no time Our address is below. to work on broadening our distribution. No time to con- Please give generously. TBP, BOX 7289, STATION A,TORONTO, ONTARIO M5WIX9 D Thislssue Number 50 February 1 979 "The liberation of homosexuals can only be the work of homosexuals themselves." — Kurt Hiller, 1921 — The Collective Christine Bearchell, Rick Bebout, Gerald Harmon, And now — the baths: p 12 Robin Hardy, Edward Jackson, Bill Lewis, Tim McCaskell, Paul Trollope, Mariana Valverde, Toronto cops make their first raid on a steambath — 28 are charged, Alexander Wilson none plead guilty. Community reaction: a huge rally, an angry march, Designer Kirk Kelly and preparations for a court battle (yes, The News another one) to test whether baths are or Gerald Hannon, BUI Lewis Toronto, this issue: Paul Aboud, Clarence Barnes, are not criminal "bawdy houses." Chris Bearchell, Robin Hardy, Ross Irwin, Edward Jackson, Michael Lynch, Allan Maclean, Gordon Montador, Paul Trollope, Mariana Valverde, Eugene Zimmerebmer The mayor, the media, but no verdict yet: p8 Jeremy Bass (Winnipeg), Maurice Beaulieu (Quebec), Elgin Blair (Mississauga), Michael Calcott (St John's), The Shah was being thrown out in Iran, the great snows came to the North Atlantic, Russ (Calgary), (Montreal), Congdon Ron Dayman and The Body Politic endured its trial — all in a day's reportage. One year after the David Garmaise (Ottawa), Education Collective, Gay Community Centre (Saskatoon), porn squad visits Pink Triangle Press, scores of pink triangles crowd the courtroom Elizabeth Bolton (Montreal), Barry Eriksen (Guelph), to witness an "obscenity" case where, legally, obscenity wasn't the issue. Jim Mendenhall (Brandon), Jim Monk (Windsor), Robin Metcalfe (Halifax), Terry Nelson (Regina), Oh, well. There was John Sewell.... Bob Radke (Edmonton), Rosemary Ray (Edmonton), Stuart Russell (Montreal), Joe Szalia (Kitchener), James Thatcher (London), Merv Walker (Vancouver) Getting dead in Hogtown: p 19 • Tim McCaskell (International) The headlines scream "Homosexual Murder." You'd think gay people were Michael Merrill (San Francisco) OVER doing the killing, but the truth is that we're the victims in at least 13 Toronto Our Image homicides in the past four years. What do these cases have in common? Why Mariana Valverde, Alexander Wilson Burke Campbell, Douglas Chambers, Robin Hardy, aren't they being solved? And how can you keep yourself out of the statistics? Edward Jackson, Graham Jackson, TBP's Robin Hardy investigates and advises. Tennyson, KILL Robin Metcalfe, Paul Pearce, James Lorna Weir, George Whitmore Features Cold chills, Robin Hardy, Edward Jackson war paranoid reactions: p 22 And... Jolui D'Emilio, Gerald Hannon, Robin Metcalfe The red scare came and the radicals were swept aside in the nervous search Columns for Eisenhower-era "respectability." In this final installment of "Dreams Our new column, Everywoman, Mariana Valverde, Alexander Wilson, Ian Young Deferred," John D'Emilio recounts the first steps in a sad retreat. debuts with thoughts on the brave Letters/Community Page new world of woman words, p 18. Robin Hardy, Paul Trollope Not by the hairs... 31 p Out in the City, which spent last Nakeds in review Harriet Heustis Jackson survived in Layout and Production month out in the streets, returns with Rick Bebout rural New Bruoajofk despite her rich the grocery hunting in stain- Massimo Agostinelli, Ralph Buchalter, Continental philosopher Michel goods on facial foliage. Burke Campbell, Bill Chesney, Terry Farley, Foucault says that repression isn 't the less wonderland and beyond, p 43. Amy Gottlieb, Alcime Robitaille, Jim Tennyson, Today, she in In the Classifieds, miss the and members of the collective dominant force our sexual history, don't new Typesetting: has an Pinktype, Toronto and what's more, that it really doesn't section where even piggies converse Printing: Delta Web Graphics, Scarborough admirer. repress. Lorna Weir explains. Male with bunnies. Take a look, beginning Advertising and Promotion nudes in books, dirty music on discs on p 39. Rick Bebout, Robin Hardy and anti-faggotry in the Massimo Agostinelli, David Maclean, Ross Irwin mass ad biz also make news in this month's Our Other features Subscriptions and Distribution Image, TBP's review section. Letters, Editorial, Keith Sly, Robert Trow p 4; p 6, Bill Chesney, Dan Schneider Monitor, p 37; Ivory Tunnel, p 38, members of the collective The cover: On location with a rented uni- and many others Community Page, p 42. Between the form and a borrowed towel, collective mem- Lines, The New Age and Tribal Rites, Office bers Alex WHson and Keith Sly dramatize the Rick Bebout, Gerald Hannon Barracks raidfor photographer Gerald absent for a variety of reasons, Denis Fontaine, Eugene Zimmerebmer Hannon. Photo ofJohn Sewell by Frank will return. Fear not. and members of the collective Rooney of Socialist Voice. Tht Body Politic is published ten limes a year by Pink is at Triangle Press, a non profit corporation, as a contribu not yet concluded. Their caution uon to the building of ihegay movement and the growth best a mixed blessing. of gay consciousness. Responsibility for the content of Showing Politic, for contempt In the case of The Body Tht Body Politic rests with the Body Politic Collective, an autonomous body operating within Pink Triangle example, the laying of charges last Press The collective it a group of people who regularly A note on the legal limits to freedom of the press January served to stop the flood of give their time and labour to the production of this maga- zine. The opinions of the collective are represented only We go to press this month before Pro- They exist, first and foremost, to protect media misinformation about the article in editorials and clearly marked editorial essays Offices vincial Court Judge Sydney Harris the right of the accused to a fair trial. "Men Loving Boys Loving Men," but it of 7V Body Politic are located at 24 Duncan Street (fifth other floor) in Toronto. brings down his verdict on the criminal They arc supposed to prevent the kind of also led to a virtual blackout on The publication of an advertisement in Tht Body Politic charges facing The Body Politic. That publicity that might prejudice a jury or news related to TBP or its case. The does not mean that the collective endorses the advertiser delay has created some interesting judge either before or during a trial. The magazine was relegated to a strange Muilirtgaddrest The Body Politic. Bos 72J9, Station A. problems for us. laws are also there, we read, to protect semi-outlaw status; the straight press Toronto. Ontario. Canada M5 W I X9 Phone (416)163-6320 Readers will note in our coverage of the dignity of the judicial system. They was thus freed from the obligation to the case (see page 8) that we report the are meant to control public or press deal with it at all. Politicians have Available on microfilm from: court a con- MacLaren Micropublishing. Box 972, Station F, facts of the trial and the media reaction comments which "question the integrity always found contempt of Toronto. Ontario. Canada M4Y 2N9 to it, but we do not analyze or interpret. of the court," or "impute improper venient excuse for refusing to say anything about an issue.