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Flaunting It!

Jackson, Ed; Perksy, Stan (eds.)

Publisher: Pink Triangle Press, Toronto, Canada
Year Published: 1982
Pages: 312pp Price: $9.95 ISBN: 0-919888-31-3
Library of Congress Number: HQ76.8.C2F43 Dewey: 306.7'66'0972
Resource Type: Book

An anthology of articles spanning the first decade of the Canadian gay liberation periodical, The Body Politic.

Abstract: FLAUNTING IT! is an anthology of articles spanning the first decade of the Canadian gay liberation periodical, The Body Politic. The book draws its title from the accusation, regulary made whenever homosexuals are at all visible or vocal, that they are "ramming" their preferences "down people's throats". Flaunting it.

The Body Politic has fought against the attitude, sometimes held even by gays themselves as well as by those hostile to them, that homosexuality is some how dirty or perverted, a guilty secret that properly belongs in the "closet". Instead, The Body Politic communicates the message that gay is good, and it also communicates the strong belief that only by organizing and acting can lesbians and gay men win and keep the rights to which they are entitled. Articles on gay history and culture, and reports on political and legal battles, all reflect this belief.

The most powerful parts of this anthology are the articles which flow most directly out of the principles that "the personal is political" and that "sexual politics matter". It is here that it becomes most clear that the issues raised by gay liberation transcend questions of civil rights or political organizing. In "Forgotten Fathers", Michael Lynch talks about the pain a gay father feels in haveng to decide between being honest about his gayness, and getting to keep his children. Lilith Finkler describe the anguish, confusion, and exhilaration of coming out as a lesbian at seventeen. Another article describe the special problems and additional obstacles faced by people who are handicapped as well as gay. Other topics include dancing, self-defence, child-adult relationships, censorship, lesbian humour, and psychiatry.

The Message of The Body Politic, and of this anthology, is that a serious examination of the questions raised by the gay movement means a basic re-evaluation of the way all of us lead our lives. The personal and the sexual have profound repercussions on structures of authority and power, on our fears and our willingness to seek and risk change. Confronting these issues is therefore of crucial importance.

[abstract by Ulli Diemer]

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

Risks
Throat-ramming: Gerald Hannon
Under the clock: Michael Riordon
Blessed are the deviates: a post-therapy check-up on my ex-psychiatrist: Michael Riordon
Coming out.. at seventeen: Lilith Finkler
The first dance: Irene Warner
Heroes: Michael Riordon
Getting off: Andrew Britton
The mirror of violence: Michael Riordon
Exorcising ghosts of friendship past: Lorna Weir

Living Our Lives
Getting royally fucked by a perfect sissy: Michael Riordon
Home and mother: Jane Rule
Fear of cruising: Jeff Richardson
Faces of sisterhood: Mariana Valverde
Forgotten fathers: Michael Lynch
The words: Ian Young
No sorrow, no pity: the gay disabled: Gerald Hannon
Neighbourly sentiments: Ken Popert
Confessions of a lunchroom subversive: Chris Bearchell
Not the same old place: openly gay in the post office: Walter Bruno
A vulnerable man: Michael Riordon

The Making of the Image of the Modern Homosexual
Homosexuals and the Third Reich: James Steakley
Towards 1984: Andrew Hodges
It pays to increase your wordpower: Michael Riordon
Friends (not lovers): Ken Popert
Taking over the house of language: Mariana Valverde
Six of One: a review of Rita Mae Brown's novel: Lorna Weir
Robin Tyler: comic in contradiction: Val Edwards
La cage aux folles: a review of the film: Gerald Hannon
Hosanna: a review of Michel Tremblay's play: David Mole
Trading on secrets: the making of a tv documentary: Chris Bearchell
Bad exposure: a review of The Gay Picture Book: Gordon Montador
Letters: Jane Rule
Dreams deferred: the early American homophile movement: John D'Emilio
Dangers of the minority game: Ken Popert
The day the homos disappeared: Robin Hardy

Advice on consent and other unfinished business
Advice on consent
Men loving boys loving men : Gerald Hannon
Paying the price: some letters to the editor
Teaching sexuality: Jane Rule
Another look: Rick Bebout, Chris Bearchell, Alexander Wilson
Working together
We need our own banner: Marie Robertson
Divided we stand: Andrew Hodges
Gay men and lesbians can work together: Chris Bearchell
Confessions of a lesbian gay liberationist: Beatrice Baker
Gay men's feminist mistake: Brian Mossop
Everyfaggot's dyke, everydyke's faggot: Chris Bearchell
Why I write for The Body Politic: Jane Rule
Agree to differ: Eve Zaremba
Cruising and censorship
Sex, death and free speech: the fight to stop Friedkin's Cruising: Scott Tucker
Middle-class alarm: Vito Russo
Help them see Cruising: Ken Popert
Dangerous notions: Scott Tucker
Whose freedom and whose press? Leo Casey & Gary Kinsman

In the courts, on the hustings, in the streets
The Seventies
We demand: August 28th Gay Day Committee
A strategy for gay liberation: Brian Waite
Victories and defeats: a gay and lesbian chronology 1969-1982
The end of the "human rights decade": Michael Lynch
Into the Eighties
Out in the Basque country: Tim McCaskell
Close but not enough: the 1980 Toronto municipal election: Ed Jackson
Raids, rage and bawdyhouses: Gerald Hannon
Homos at war: Gary Ostrom

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