It’s a big day for print magazines. THE BODY POLITIC magazine was first published on November 1, 1971 by an informal collective, operating out of the home of Glad Day Bookshop owner Jearld Moldenhauer. The collective was incorporated as Pink Triangle Press in 1975.
Writers associated with the magazine included Gerald Hannon, Robin Hardy, Stan Persky, John Greyson, David Rayside, Sue Golding, Rchard Summerbel and Gary Kinsman. The Body Politic was sometimes controversial. It was charged with publishing obscene material twice, in 1977 for Hannon’s article “Men Loving Boys Loving Men”, and in 1982 for “Lust with a Very Proper Stranger”, an article on fisting. The magazine was acquitted in both trials. Materials seized by police in the Hannon trial were not returned to the magazine until 1985.
The magazine ceased publication in 1987, following PTP’s launch of the tabloid Xtra in 1984. In 2008, it was ranked as the 17th most influential magazine in Canadian publishing history by Masthead, the trade magazine of the Canadian magazine publishing industry. The magazine also created the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives in 1973.