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| Founder |
|
|---|---|
| First issue | 1984 (1984) |
| Final issue | 1992 (1992) |
| Company | Rites Publishing |
| Country | Canada |
| Based in | Toronto,Ontario |
| Language | English |
Rites was a Canadian magazine, published forgay,lesbian,bisexual, andtransgender communities in Canada from 1984 to 1992.
The magazine was published inToronto, Ontario, by Rites Publishing and was produced by anon-profit collective. Founding members of theRites collective were Peter Birt, Romaine Brooks, Lyn Freese,Gary Kinsman, Anne Nixon, Heather Ramsay, andDoug Wilson. Many of the founding members had previously been associated withPink Ink, a monthly national publication for lesbians and gay men of which five issues were published between July 1983 and January 1984.[1]
Over its almost eight years of operation, additionalRites collective members included (in the order in which they joined): Mary Louise Adams, Stuart Blackley, Susan Wilkes, Scott Ferguson, Celest Natale, Doug Stewart, Ruthann Tucker, Robert Champagne, Becki Ross, Michael Nicholson,Shawn Syms, Mark Michaud, Anne Vespry, Rebecca Frank, Regan McClure, Lynn Iding and Rachel Aitcheson.[citation needed]
A total of 76 issues ofRites were published – from Vol. 1 No. 1 (May 1984) to Vol. 8 No. 6 (January/February 1992).Rites was published 10 times a year, until Vol. 8 No. 4 (September/October 1991) when the frequency of publication changed to six times a year.[citation needed]
Two thousand copies of each issue were printed and distributed through paid subscriptions and distribution to retail outlets across Canada and theUnited States. The readership ofRites was 60 per cent lesbian and lesbian/gay-positive women, and 40 per cent gay and lesbian/gay-positive men.[citation needed]
An expressly political magazine,Rites was published to further lesbian andgay liberation,feminism, and progressive social change. TheRites collective saw the magazine as part of building an active lesbian and gay liberation movement.Rites was committed to cross-Canada coverage and the equal involvement of lesbians and gay men in all aspects of the magazine's production.
Rites explored the interconnections between the lesbian and gay liberation movement, thewomen's movement,anti-racist struggles,peace activism, thetrade union movement, struggles related to class, age anddisability, and other liberation struggles, including the fight to endapartheid inSouth Africa.Rites was also committed to developing a political response to theAIDS crisis, supporting persons living with AIDS (PLWAs), and eroticizingsafe sex.
Rites rejected the sexuallibertarian politics commonly asserted by other lesbian and gay publications that it saw as failing to challenge sexist and racist forms of social power underlying the experiences of women, lesbians, and gays of colour.
Rites' news group – an extensive network of volunteer news correspondents across Canada – produced news articles and shorter news briefs covering, amongst other issues: therights of sex workers, feminist struggles related topornography, anti-censorship struggles (including the legal case brought by Toronto'sGlad Day Bookshop and the Canadian Committee against Customs Censorship challengingCanada Customs' censorship ofThe Joy of Gay Sex), police harassment of lesbians and gays,International Women's Day,abortion rights,Take Back the Night marches, lesbian andgay pride marches across Canada, lesbian motherhood, anti-apartheid struggles (including those ofSimon Nkoli, then South Africa's leading black gay activist), and the formation and operation ofAIDS Action Now! in Toronto.Rites also covered the struggle for legal protection against discrimination in provincial and federal law, including the anti-discrimination case of fired racing steward John Damien in Ontario and the campaign that led to inclusion of "sexual orientation" in theOntario Human Rights Code.
Rites also contributed extensively to Canadian news coverage of the AIDS crisis, including reporting on activism at the 1989 Montreal International AIDS Conference and publishing "Talking Politics: Diary of an AIDS Activist", a regular column by George Smith, who was also a founder of Toronto's Right to Privacy Committee.Rites was a vital early source of information on AIDS treatment, publishing Sean Hosein's regular column "AIDS Treatment Update" from September 1987 onwards.
In addition to news coverage,Rites was a forum to examine the rites and rituals of lesbian and gay culture and published new works of lesbian and gay fiction, poetry, photography and visual arts. Writers published inRites included: Michael Riordan,Ian Young,Mariana Valverde, Sara Diamond,Makeda Silvera, Robin Metcalfe,Sky Gilbert, Michael Achtman,Thomas Waugh,Marusya Bociurkiw,Anne Cameron, Steven Maynard,Audrey Butler, Doug Stewart, and François Lachance. Amongst others,Rites also published the poetry of Brenda Brooks andIan Iqbal Rashid, the photography ofCyndra MacDowall, the visual art ofPersimmon Blackbridge andSheila Gilhooly, the graphic illustrations of Alanna Marohnic, andThe Chosen Family cartoons ofNoreen Stevens.
Rites also published extensive cultural reviews of plays, movies and books, includingPeter McGehee's "In My Opinion", a regular cultural review column. A number of occasional columns, "Lesbiantics", "Fairy Tales", and "No Regrets", explored personal experiences and opinions. Scott McArthur and David Adler wrote a ground-breaking column on disability issues in the lesbian and gay community.
Rites was an important forum for the publication of Canadian lesbian andgay history, publishing the first interview withJim Egan, Canada's first public gay activist in the 1950s (who initiated a lawsuit –Egan v Canada – that ultimately led, in 1995, to a landmarkSupreme Court of Canada decision interpreting theCanadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to prohibit discrimination by the state based on sexual orientation). The magazine also carried articles on the history of lesbian and gay communities in Toronto andMontreal, and published a special supplement of lesbian and gay history book reviews.
Other special supplements published inRites over its history included features on families, youth, lesbians and gays of colour, lesbian and gay survivors ofchildhood sexual abuse, AIDS prevention,racism,science fiction, aging, and relationships.
In Vol. 7 No. 8 (January/February 1991)Rites published "Queer Entries", a comprehensive index to its first six volumes (from May 1984 to April 1990).Rites was also indexed in theAlternative Press Index.
Rites Publishing ceased operation in April 1992, citing a shrinking volunteer workforce and growing debts caused by escalating costs and declining revenues.
Collections ofRites can be found in a number of public libraries in Canada, as well as at theCanadian Lesbian and Gay Archives in Toronto.
