Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
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
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, on news and current events and theoreti- It was a place where all these really smart ances about how articles appeared in the final
whereby members who disagreed on an issue cal debates about sexuality circulated within people were doing really interesting things version of an issue. It was in working through
or theoretical approach went head-to-head in the office, weaving together a community of and having fabulous discussions.” The excite- ideas and political views and in continually
an effort to grasp a middle ground and to talk activists and writers. Long before the days ment of being surrounded by others who were educating one another that the productive
their way to some kind of agreement. Whether of desktop-publishing software, the task of so passionate about ideas, politics and the engagement of liberation was sustained.
individuals were on the collective, making producing a newspaper involved the labour- possibility of changing the world fuelled the East Coast correspondent and collective
decisions about which articles to run, or were intensive work of editing articles, doing paper. When an issue went to press, a debrief- member Robin Metcalfe describes his work
carrying out more mundane tasks like answer- paste-up and revising the final proof before it ing session known as a “postpartum” would with the paper as a formative experience that
ing telephone calls or sorting classifieds, the went to print. It meant that people spent long be held a week or so later at the home of a col- provided an education in political theory, as
time commitment to the paper made for hours working side by side with one another. lective member or at one of the collectively well as writing. He explains, “I can’t stress too
ongoing face-to-face interaction with others. Long-time collective member Gerry Oxford run households where key Body Politic figures much the importance of The Body Politic for
For those on the editorial collective, the cir- remembers his own experience with the paper — like Ed Jackson, Merv Walker and Paul me both in terms of giving me a theoretical
culation of memos and the constant flow of with fondness. He recalls, “It was such a gift if MacDonald — lived. These gatherings were an framework and a practical experience with
materials created a web of constant activity. you were a smart kid coming out. You know, occasion for people to discuss their reactions writing. I consider it my first sort of profes-
Discussions about recent articles, comments it was unlike anywhere else in the world. to articles and, sometimes, to share griev- 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
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 —
‘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.
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 many people did, because a good friend was
by Gillian was a feminist anti-porn cru- already there, because I liked the people,
Rodgerson sader. Our dates included the and because I was looking for a way into
Gillian Rodgerson Take Back the Night march the community and the life that I needed
joined The Body and Lesbians Against the to have. In the aftermath of the bathhouse
Politic collective Right events, and her idea of raids, I’d helped my friend Craig Patterson
in 1983. Today she a love letter was a copy of a political essay sell copies of The Body Politic at the rally
sits on the board of she’d written, dedicated to me. Being a at St Lawrence Hall, hearing Margaret
directors of Pink lesbian seemed to involve an awful lot of Atwood make her famous remarks about
Triangle Press meetings… interrupted occasionally by how shocked she’d be if someone burst in
and works as a demonstrations. while she was taking a bath. And slowly,
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
Women working on
and Virginia Woolf were my pin-up girls. the paper sometimes
I really wasn’t looking in the right places. faced suspicion
Then, in May 1979, the Bi-National Lesbian
Conference came to town. Helene and
from other dykes:
I were asked to speak at a workshop on why did we work so
young lesbians. There I was, speaking fairly closely with men?
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 The legacy
I’m a lesbian? After all, here I am, sitting over the next year or so, I moved away from or small. More talking, sometimes arguing, The Body Politic wasn’t always an easy
here, being a lesbian! With other lesbians!” Waterloo, fell in love again (this time with sometimes just hanging out over dinner place to be: arguments were passionate,
I was pretty easily pleased and I felt like I a woman who couldn’t stand meetings and and telling stories: over the course of a and because most of us worked so hard,
was on my way. 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
It began for me... ing for gay liberation were synonymous, in with Tim McCaskell on the international from other dykes: why did we work so
When the baths were raided in February a way. Demonstrations and groups were news desk, and from Tim I learned to look closely with men? How could we support
of 1981, I was at university in Waterloo, 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
but I still had one foot in Toronto. By then 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
I’d progressed from meetings to meetings 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?
and dances and eventually, to working on Reading and writing and talking, always Latin America and in the United States. Why did I stay? I stayed because I
the Gay Liberation of Waterloo helpline, talking, were the ways we made sense of Each new gay group that emerged in a found a group of people from whom
giving advice and support to anonymous, the identities we were trying to assume: country where there had been only iso- I learned how to think, how to write and
sometimes desperate, voices on the phone. lesbian, feminist, gay man, socialist. lation was a cause for celebration; each the power that our words could have.
And, I’d kissed some girls along the way. Sort of accidental though my arrival setback an outrage, and there were a lot of None of the pretence of “objectivity” for
I wish I could say that I came to The 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
Body Politic through a burning com- me my queer life. I wrote a book review, on, or are just concluding now, nearly 30 about our agenda of persuasion. We
mitment to gay liberation or as a logical then a little news story, both edited by the years later. We wrote about the emergence recruit? Damn right! You treat us badly?
extension of my personal politics, but that late, wonderful Chris Bearchell with the of a new epidemic amongst gay men, and We’re going to expose you as the idiot that
wouldn’t exactly be true. Those things kind of seriousness and deep attention we tried to make sense of the science that you are! Not all of the best things about
developed later. I came to the paper, as that she paid to everything she did, large we suddenly had to absorb. The Body Politic made it into the pages
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
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 and poke them Toronto Pride
edition.
bought a Macintosh computer that in the eye.
cost, like, $10,000. We developed our
own photos. We had a darkroom.” — Ken Popert, with some of its readers. Xtra’s manage- nity organizations, and the people
Executive Director ment knows that and eagerly points out who lead them, are transparent and
of Pink that the paper is fuelled by a political accountable to gay and lesbian people.
Xtra grows up Triangle Press agenda of activism and sexual libera- It’s not about being mean or tearing
After The Body Politic folded in 1987, tion, not a desire to make money on people down, it’s about ensuring frank
and as events transpired and times the backs of blissfully ignorant readers. and open discourse. No question is off
changed, Xtra grew and adapted. In Glad Day bookshops; the murders of “It’s our job to make people uncom- limits in Xtra’s pages, no matter who or
1993, as revenues began to roll in to scores of community members, same- fortable and poke them in the eye,” what is at issue.”
Pink Triangle Press from its telephone sex marriage and, more recently, the says Popert. “We encourage people to What does the future hold for Xtra?
hook-up service Cruiseline, two more debate surrounding the criminaliza- be self-critical.” “Community newspapers are niche
editions of Xtra hit the streets: Xtra tion of HIV/AIDS. That’s true even — or maybe espe- publications that give readers some-
West in Vancouver and Capital Xtra During Canada’s most seminal queer cially — if it means criticizing people thing they can’t get elsewhere,” says
in Ottawa. Together they reported on times over the last three decades, of and institutions within Toronto’s gay Xtra’s publisher and editor-in-chief,
the political battles of the 1990s and which only a few are mentioned above, and lesbian communities. Brandon Matheson. “Even though
2000s: the defeat of the Ontario NDP’s Xtra was there, notepad and pen in “Gay and lesbian people deserve to the mainstream press has more gay
Bill 167, which would have granted hand, reporting and conspiring on know what’s really going on in their and lesbian content than it used to,
spousal rights to same-sex couples; issues of huge import to gay and lesbian communities,” says Matt Mills, Xtra’s it doesn’t do the job as effectively as
the raids at Remington’s, the Bijou, Canadians. It’s the paper’s contempo- associate publisher and editorial direc- the lesbian and gay press does. No
the Pussy Palace and Goliaths; the rary approach to activist journalism tor. “As part of its work, Xtra tries to one newspaper can be all things to all
censorship battles of Little Sister’s and that earns it a love/hate relationship ensure that gay and lesbian commu- people. That’s a false premise.”
A
lthough The Body Politic really hard work; there is not a lot of fab LADY KIER
by XTRA and Xtra are the original money in gay television.” Toronto’s gay scene maga-
STILL DEEE-
LITEFUL
STAFF heart and soul of Pink Fast-forward more than 110 epi- zine, fab, has been in print KAZAKY
VOGUING
Triangle Press, there are sodes: Bump! is currently seen on since 1994 and was pur- BOY BAND
myriad other projects television stations around the world, chased by Pink Triangle +HOTTEST
THE
that exist either to pay including OUTtv in Canada, OUTtv Press in 2008. Although PRIDE
EVENTS
the bills or take us into the future. The Netherlands and Logo in the US. it loves its best girlfriends,
“My own personal experience when fab is mostly by, for and
travelling around the world was that about gay men.
Squirt I had to search for the things that I “It’s an enduring brand
Squirt.org was launch- related to as a gay traveller,” says with a long and fabu-
ed in 2000, but it was Chang. “We knew that taking a search lous history,” says Pink
not until it became a like that to television would be of huge Triangle Press editorial
member-paid site that interest to people. Plus, we just wanted director Matt Mills. “It’s
SOAK ITUP
it really came into its to show how much fun gay life can be got its own voice and
own, blowing gold all around the world.” engages its audience in
over Pink Triangle Bump! has changed with the shift- a unique way.”
Press. ing media landscape. Last year, a series Early this year, a new
“It is the money- of applications for mobile devices was and improved website,
maker of the oper- introduced, including practical tools fabmagazine.com, went OUR ANNUAL PRIDE ISSUE
a tion,” says Liam
for travellers and video clips from the live to coincide with the
O’Reilly, Squirt’s marketing manager. TV show. release of fab’s annual gay
“It brings money from advertising “Our whole focus has been going sex survey. It was a great success with
and memberships to help fuel the multimedia,” says Chang. “That’s fab readers, and Mills says a redesigned HARDtv
rest of the Press’s projects.” where we’re going and that’s where we print edition can be expected sometime “Every straight Canadian has several
Which explains how Press pub- need to keep moving. Mobile is the way over the next few months. television channels available to them
lications are resistant to economic to go right now.” for straight porn,” says HARDtv
downturns, changing media landscapes For more information and upcom- general manager Brett Drysdale. “We
and any other disruptions of print ing episodes, visit bumptv.com. offer the gay community a similar
advertising revenues. service with gay adult erotica.”
Squirt does a lot of things, but the HARDtv’s genesis came in 2006
secret to its success is the way it acts Guidemag.com through a kind of binary fission, in
as a conduit through which gay men Pink Triangle Press purchased long- which OUTtv was born and PrideVision
can hook up with one another for sex. running US journal of sexual liberation spun off as the gay-porn-all-the-time
“Squirt tends to be the sure bet,” The Guide in 2006. Since then The channel, soon to be rebranded as
O’Reilly says. “If you come onto Squirt, Guide has undergone a huge trans- HARDtv. Pink Triangle Press was a mi-
you’re going to find somebody serious formation. In 2010 it emerged from Queeriesmag nority shareholder in both channels; in
about hooking up wherever you may be.” its chrysalis a comprehensive online The newest of Xtra’s little sisters is 2010 the Press purchased a controlling
The future of Squirt? resource for gay and lesbian travel- Queeriesmag, an online magazine and share in HARDtv.
“We’re always innovating, but I lers, of both the actual and armchair community for women at queeries- Drysdale says he’s working on a
think we’re going down the road for varieties. mag.com. new show, a sort of Entertainment
social networking rather than simply “Our tagline is ‘A world of gay ad- “I wanted to develop some women’s Tonight for the gay porn business. Also
a person-to-person site,” O’Reilly says. venture,’” says Ken Hickling, director products specifically for lesbian and branded HARDtv, the show represents
“We’re also developing some interest- of advertising sales for Pink Triangle queer women,” says Suzy Malik, pub- his effort to build a library of new pro-
ing ways to enhance personal profiles.” Press. “There is something fabulous lishing editor of Queeriesmag and gramming on the channel.
to see, feel and do as a gay person in advertising art director for Pink Tri-
just about every city in the world, and angle Press’s connectivity department.
Bump! we’re going to find it and we’re going to “I had a lot of people coming up to me
When the first season of the gay travel give it to you.” asking when there was going to be a
television show Bump! aired in 2002 “We’re in the planning process queer women’s fab.”
on what was then called PrideVision, for the next stage of a total rebuild of Malik says that though Queeriesmag
it was among the very first of its kind. the website,” Hickling says. “We have soft-launched just over a year ago, “we
“The whole area of gay travel was more than 200 cities up and running. haven’t done the official launch of the
pretty new,” says Andrew Chang, co- We have a lot of detailed information product yet.” She’s hopeful that the
executive producer of Bump! and Pink on events, places, things to do. We’re brand will grow to include a print com-
Triangle Press’s chief operating officer. continuing in that vein and building on ponent. Queeriesmag is also beginning
“For us to get sponsorship was really, that theme.” to experiment with online video.
L
et me begin with a death. are about 30 percent of the Press at
by Gerald Let me begin with a sen- the employee level, higher among
Hannon tence I wrote on the last the members of the board. I see trans
page of the last issue people. I see people of colour. I see
Gerald Hannon did
of The Body Politic, “a progress — I remember that the Press,
manage to reinvent
magazine for lesbian/gay in my day, was almost entirely male and
himself, in the wake
liberation” (the forerun- very definitely entirely white. But even
of the passing of
ner of Xtra). That issue, number 135, then, collective members like Chris-
The Body Politic,
was dated February 1987. It was the tine Bearchell and Tim McCaskell
as a successful
last issue not because we were bank- never stopped reminding the rest of
freelance writer and
rupt (though we were on the edge) or us, mostly university-educated, white,
sex worker.
because the police had hounded us out middle class men, of how smart it was
of existence (though they tried). The to try to build a movement that reached
reasons were many and complex, but out to allies in other communities.
in our world-weariness and exhaus- I remember how that paid off big time
tion that year closing the paper down during crises like the 1977 police raid
felt inevitable. I wrote on that final on The Body Politic and the subsequent
page that, though we hoped one day to criminal charges — the arts communi-
bring something new into the world, “I ties slowly emerging along Queen West
feel now that nothing again will ever be were among our first supporters (visit
so new and fresh and young and eager, the General Idea retrospective at the
so pigheaded, so infuriating, so clumsy Art Gallery of Ontario — it’s the best
and so young.” show in Toronto — and realize that
I had a reason to feel passionate and that smarty-pants collective was just a
bereft — I’d worked on every issue but bunch of local goofs, like us, back in the
the first, which was dated November/ ’70s, and were among the performers
December 1971. The Body Politic had at a support rally held just before The
been my job and had consumed my Body Politic trial began in 1979. The
life for 15 years. And then, suddenly, it then-mayor of Toronto, John Sewell,
was gone. And then, suddenly, I was 42 also attended that rally and voiced his
years old and had to reinvent myself on support. Read that these Ford-ster
the brink of middle age. I wasn’t very days, and weep).
hopeful, either for myself or the pros-
pects for gay publishing.
History proved me wrong. Oct 27, An enduring mission
2011, marks the 40th anniversary of the “What came before is foundation,
day the first issue of The Body Politic inspiration, a lesson and a warning.
went to press. Its children — the media We seek to own our history: we learn
conglomerate that is Pink Triangle and teach and guard it.” Those are the
Press — rule gay publishing in Canada. last two sentences of the Press mission
The Press is almost embarrassingly statement, a document I helped devise.
successful. With yearly revenues of I’ve been in the privileged position of
more than $9 million, and more than seeing our history unfold over the last
65 employees headquartered in more 40 years and, for some of that time,
than 14,000 square feet of office space have had a hand in guiding it. History
on the 16th floor of a building at Yonge became part of our mission because
and Carlton in Toronto, it has interests ment and ill will, that near everything we discovered, to our surprise, that
in print, television and online media. got approved). The kids I see today we actually had a history. Back in 1971,
The Press makes a profit — it has to. are impressively skilled and know a History became many of us thought we were the first
The money doesn’t go to sharehold- lot more than we did. They have to. part of our homosexuals ever to make a claim for
ers, though — it becomes seed money
for new enterprises or gets ploughed
The world has changed. But they’re
passionate, know they don’t know
mission because justice and acceptance. It was revela-
tory to discover, in a groundbreaking
back into the community. That was the everything and know they have to we discovered, series of articles we published in The
model at The Body Politic. It still is. learn. That hasn’t changed. to our surprise, Body Politic, that there’d been a thriv-
I am the vice-president of the board I look around the office today and ing gay movement in Germany until it
of directors of the Press and its longest- I see shamelessness. The art work on that we actually was crushed by the Nazis. It was reve-
serving member. I see how far we’ve the walls is unabashedly erotic and had a history. latory, and a warning — Berlin had had
come. In the best ways, though, I see political. The video arm of Pink Trian- both a varied commercial gay scene
that we haven’t changed much at all. gle makes delicious little fuck videos and organizations working to change
as promo for squirt.org. I remember Above Gerald Hannon anti-gay laws. A few years later, many
that the press, 40 years ago, fought for in the Duncan St office of those struggling young men and
How far we’ve come the sexual emancipation of the young, of The Body Politic.
Courtesy of Gerald Hannon
women were in death camps. That
I look around the office today, and I see championed drag, shone a spotlight was a hard lesson. It was good to learn
mostly young faces, and I remember on the erotic needs of the disabled and (we can all share that history now, and
that the Press was started by kids — played shamelessly with the erotic the many histories that followed and
at 27, I was the oldest member of that potential of office life (I remember preceded it, thanks to the Canadian
founding group. We were kids who the men in the office queuing up on Lesbian and Gay Archives, an organi-
didn’t know anything about journal- the roof to fuck some guy who came zation started by The Body Politic).
Creative direction and ism, or publishing, or accounting, in off the street, begging to be fucked. “We seek to own our history: we
design by Lucinda or advertising sales, kids who met in I remember another night when, after learn and teach and guard it.” Owning,
Wallace, with thanks each other’s apartments, who believed everyone else had gone home, I tried sharing, teaching, guarding. Forty
to the Canadian in collective decision making despite to push a broom handle up my ass years have taught me that history
Lesbian and Gay its sometimes near comical inefficien- because I was so horny. In deference never stops, even when our bodies do;
Archives, Harold cies (for the first few issues, articles to current pieties, I should add that it that history never stops, and we can
Averill and Gerald were approved, or not, after being was a consenting broom handle). shape it. I can look back now over 40
Hannon for help with read aloud by the author, which meant, I look around the office today and I years and smile at my naiveté in 1987.
photo research. given the potential for embarrass- see women. I see a lot of them —they Things still glisten.