AIDS Coverage in The Body Politic, 1981–1987: An Annotated Bibliography

Abstract

Introduction In several years after 1969 Stonewall riots, North America saw flowering of gay press in major urban centers. Toronto had numerous gay periodicals of its own prior to this time, but city's most significant chapter in gay journalism began in November 1971 when The Body Politic published its first issue. The periodical continued for another fifteen years, publishing 135 issues before its demise in February 1987. The Body Politic eventually became source of some of best gay journalism in North America. Its influence on gay and lesbian movement in Canada cannot be overestimated, helping to define gay thought throughout country and beyond. (1) In fact, The Body Politic was not simply a gay newspaper, but was seen by some as the house organ of Canadian gay movement. (2) For its writers, journalism was essentially politics by other means. Many of important moments in Canadian gay history during this period were played out on pages of The Body Politic. There are many examples of political role of periodical, but two most prominent examples of this are surely high-profile obscenity trials sparked by a 1977 article on intergenerational sex, and key role played by The Body Politic in organizing a response to notorious bathhouse raids that took place in Toronto between 1978 and 1981. (3) Throughout its history, The Body Politic advocated what were then considered radical gay values: its perspective was consistently community-based, sex-positive, anticensorship, and supportive of choice and self-determination. Now, fifteen years since its demise, The Body Politic is still invaluable as a documentary source of Canadian gay history. (4) An important chapter in this history began in September 1981, publication date of first article in Canadian gay press on what eventually became known as AIDS. It was first of some 150 articles on AIDS to appear before paper's last issue. Written by an impressive list of authors, including Michael Lynch, Rick Bebout, Jane Rule, Ed Jackson, Ken Popert, Gerald Hannon, Bill Lewis, and Cindy Patton, these articles provide a window into way epidemic impacted Canadian gay community and how these events were interpreted in crucial early years. In a January 1986 memo circulated internally to The Body Politic collective, journalist Rick Bebout characterized The Body Politic coverage of AIDS as embodying following four approaches: skepticism of scientific and media authority; need to resist panic and hysteria both within and beyond gay community; need to seek information on which we can make informed judgments about sexual practices; and, most recently, need to preserve what is best and most distinctive about gay erotic culture in face of a disease which apparently threatens its very roots. (5) The Body Politic writers were determined to find an appropriate gay response to crisis and to resist being overtaken by forces such as public health establishment, medical profession, and mainstream media--forces often seen as hostile to gay community. The challenge, as The Body Politic saw it, was to respond effectively to epidemic while preserving community-based and sex-positive values of gay community. After years of struggle, The Body Politic refused to surrender hard-won freedoms of sexual expression and self-determination to professionals, pundits, and politicians. The Body Politic journalism shows how this new challenge to gay culture and identity was negotiated. The historical of AIDS epidemic are well known. The importance of The Body Politic coverage is not so much for its chronological record of these facts--after all, writers of The Body Politic seemed to believe that facts rarely spoke for themselves--but for its interpretation of events. …