HIGH GEAR/FEBRUARY 1978

THE BODY POLITIC RAIDED

For Ed Jackson and Tim McCaskell December 30, 1977, surely must have seemed reminiscent of Nazi Germany in the early 1930's. Ed and Tim are two employees of The Body Politic, Canada's largest and most-respected gay periodical. On that Friday, four officers of the Toronto Morality Squad and an officer from the Ontario Provincial Police entered the offices of The Body Politic armed with a search warrant. The warrant authorized the officers to search for material relevant to charges which might be laid against the paper under Sec. 164 of the Criminal Code (use of the mails for the purpose of transmitting or delivering anything that is obscene, indecent, immoral or scurrilous.").

Jackson describes the incident as follows: "They went through the offices with a finetooth comb for 3 1/2 hours. By

the time they left, they had filled

twelve large shipping boxes with documents and records.

They took subscription listings

dating years into the past, distribution and advertising records, corporate and financial records (even our cheque book), classified ad records and addresses, manuscripts for publication, letters to the editor, books offered for sale by Pink Triangle's book service... they opened mail both personal and business, went through our photo file. A lot of material necessary for continued publication is gone.."

Clayton Ruby, attorney for The Body Politic was present during part of the search and seizure. He offered to provide the officers with the material for which they claimed to search. They refused the offer. Ruby feels that the warrant is illegal under Canadian law because of its vagueness. He will move to have it quashed in the Supreme Court of Ontario. If he is successful, material confiscated will have to be returned to the paper.

Commenting on the warrant,

Ruby said that when it is sworn out "it must be specific in description. It is illegal if it doesn't describe particular pieces of evidence which, in this case, the police may have been authorized to take The real intent was to close the paper..." He further added that "the terms of the warrant were so broad that they allowed seizure of almost anything on the premises ... this warrant is illegal under law ..."

The apparent cause of the police action appears to be a series of articles which appeared in Toronto's sensational right-wing tabloid, the Sun. Columnist Claire Hoy believes that gay people are sick, calls them fags and degenerates, believes they should stay in the closet and opposes the inclusion of "sexual orientation" in the Ontario Human Rights Code. Hoy opposes everything The Body Politic stands for, and he has

attacked the paper many times seizing the subscription list. It

in his column.

In his most recent attack, he branded homosexuals as being "child rapers." The December / January issue of The Body Politic featured an article entitled "Men Loving Boys Loving Men" which attempted to explore the subject of affectional and sexual relations between males over and under 21 -the legal age of consent for people in Canada. As a result of the hysteria provoked by Hoy's misrepresentations concerning the article, the Attorney General of Ontario authorized the search warrant.

The Body Politic feels that the actual cause for the present crackdown is a desire to impede the real advances being made by gay people. The Ontario Human Rights Commission has recommended that "sexual orientation" be added to the province's human rights code.

According to the Gallup Poll,

the majority of Canadians favor such protection for gay people.

On January 5, charges under Sections 159 and 164 of the Criminal Code of Canada were laid by the Crown Attorney against Pink Triangle Press, the non-profit publisher of The Body

Politic, and against the officers of the Corporation. Corporation President Kenneth Popert, Secretary Edward Jackson and Treasurer, Edward Hannon were arrested and then freed on their own recognizance pending trial. The charges under Section 159 ruled obscene the book "Loving Man" by Mark Friedman. Early in 1977, Canadian Customs had ruled that the book was not obscene, The obscenity charges under Section 164 of the Code were filed against the December / January issue of the newspaper for "publication of obscene

material."

The Body Politic collective delayed publication of the controversial article for almost six months. The staff was divided over the repercussion

the articles could generate.

Some felt that the articles could be used against the gay community by the media which often equates the subject with child molestation.

Edward Jackson pointed out that "this is only one article in a paper that has been in publication for six years and it is about the lives of only four men. That the government uses it as an excuse to refuse recognition of the rights of thousands of gay people is simply further evidence of how much we need protection. The real intent of the raid was to shut this newspaper down.... all the police needed to press charges under Section 164 was a copy of the paper and proof that we distributed it. Our lawyer has stated that the police could easily have established that BP was sent through the mails by checking with the post office." Jackson went on to conclude that the raid "was an obvious attempt to terrorize the readers of this newspaper by

has the effect of intimidating subscribers of a publication of which the government does not approve. The article has serious and frightening implications for the entire Canadian publishing industry. Freedom of the press is the issue."

The future of The Body Politic is in serious jeopardy; however, the collective intends to keep the paper alive. Jackson stated that "the gay liberation movement which gave birth to the paper must not be intimidated. We will make every effort to continue to publish."

The National Gay Task Force expressed shock and dismay to the police harassment and criminal charges brought against the paper. "We believe that actions taken by the Toronto police are violative of all internationally accepted

GAY RIGHTS IN

hosting the controversial orange Ohio's Queen City may be juice queen as Cincinnati

residents take sides over the battle of "human rights." An ordinance similar to the one year is being drafted and should repealed in Dade County last soon be available for City Coun-

cil consideration.

The proposal was suggested early last year by a coalition of feminists, gay rights groups, and

the

Civil Libertarian Organization. It has been sent to

the Council Human Resources Committee.

The ordinance would outlaw

discrimination based on age, gender, number of dependents, physical handicaps, marital status, neighborhood, national origin, sexual preference, personal appearance, political affiliation, pregnancy, race, criminal record or religious affiliation.

Understandably, most City Council members are wary of the issue and most have refused

CENTER UPDATE

By Stan Kawecki Due to the fire that destroyed the Center and it's contents, we will be temporarily out of action for a couple of weeks. We hope to have the hotline working soon.

Any help in terms of money or donations of furniture will be greatly appreciated.

Any money can be sent to GCCC c/o HIGH GEAR Box

C.H.E.E.R. AWARDED

A grant for a three-year project to study civil liberties and sexual orientation has been given to the Center for Homosexual Education and Evaluation Research at San Francisco State University. The $500,000 grant was awarded by the National Institute of Mental Health of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. This is the first federally-funded study of the violation of civil liberties of men and women who

principles of freedom of the press and expression. We believe that confiscation of subscription and advertising. lists which have effectively prevented publication of future The Body Politic issues, is violative of all accepted principles of search and seizure in a democratic society. And we believe that neither the book, Loving Man, nor the December / January issue of The Body Politic can be considered "obscene" under any currently applied definition of the term outside of totalitarian societies.

"In our view the obscenity charge against Loving Man is clearly absurd since it is a sex manual on the model of many others sold in the U.S. and Canada to both heterosexuals and homosexuals, and, we are informed, had been previously cleared for distribution by

CINCY

to comment on it saying that they preferred to wait until the proposal gets to the city

solicitor's office.

Council member Guy C. Guckenberger indicated that the proposal was given little attention before the fall elections because members feared voter rejection if they favored the legislation. "Everybody's a little nervous, nobody wants to bring it up before council, nobody wants to be saddled with bringing it up if it looks like the Dade County thing." Gucken. berger continued, "I think if it comes up, it'll be introduced by a committee."

Guckenberger personally favors some sort of gay rights legislation but said passage would depend upon public reaction, and on how the ordinance would affect hiring in the Police and Fire Departments.

Mayor Gerald Springer said that he had not yet seen the human rights proposal but he would support a proposal that

6177 Cleveland, Ohio 44101. If furniture, please send your name and phone number too.

We will probably be relocating to a new downtown center. We feel that by having the center downtown, we will be more accessible to the gay community. The purpose of the center is to provide a place for gays to meet and to participate in alternative activities. We hope

are homosexual or who depart from the feminine and masculine stereotypes. The grant makes possible the use of the methodology developed by C.H.E.E.R. in a recently completed study, also funded by NIMH.

The data will be used to document cases of discrimination based on sexual orientation and social sex-role stereotyping in public and

Canadian customs.

Page 1

"The real basis for the harassment of The Body Politic, we believe, was its publication of the December/January issue of an article entitled "Men Loving Boys Loving Men." While we do not endorse the conclusions reached by that article, we believe it to have been in the best traditions of responsible journalism .. offering important insights into a little-known and littleunderstood aspect of human sexuality in a completely unsensational way. We believe that no citizen of either the United States or Canada who believes in freedom of expression can fail to protest when obscenity statutes are used to harass publishers of articles on unpopular subjects or punish the authors of unpopular opinions."

bans discrimination in such areas as housing and em-

ployment against any person including homosexuals.

Miss Susan Nay of the Bryant "Protect America's Children" organization in Miami, Florida, said recently that the group "would be glad" to help fight the proposed Human Rights ordinance if they were asked. So far they have not been asked.

for

Miss Nay indicated that "Protect America's Children" would make anti-homosexual available pamphlets distributors in Cincinnati. Residents of the city were recently interviewed regarding the proposal. A University of Cincinnati instructor said he opposed the ordinance because "homosexuals are sick, abnormal people." He refused to be identified because that he feared "gay rights groups would come and demonstrate on my front lawn."

that you will help in making it a

success.

Volunteers are desperately needed to help woman the hotline, and to participate in the running of the center itself. If you can offer any help, please send your name and phone number to P.O. Box 6177 Cleveland, Ohio 44101

If all goes well, the new center will open March 1.

private institutions. The study will strengthen the protection of the civil liberties of homosexual men and women.

The program will be directed by Dr. John P. De Cecco, Professor of Psychology, San Francisco State University, and Michael Shively, Associate Director, C.H.E.E.R. Donald C. Knutson, Professor of Law, University of Southern California, is legal counsel to the project.