Rites (magazine)
Encyclopedia
Rites was a Canadian
magazine, published for gay
, lesbian
, bisexual and transgender
communities in Canada from 1984 to 1992.
, Ontario
by Rites Publishing and was produced by a non-profit collective. Founding members of the Rites collective were: Peter Birt, Romaine Brooks, Lyn Freese, Gary Kinsman
, Anne Nixon, Heather Ramsay, and Doug Wilson
. Many of the founding members had previously been associated with Pink Ink, a monthly national publication for lesbians and gay men of which 5 issues were published between July 1983 and January 1984.
, Mark Michaud, Anne Vespry, Rebecca Frank, Regan McClure, Lynn Iding and Rachael Aitcheson.
2000 copies of each issue were printed and distributed through paid subscriptions and distribution to retail outlets across Canada and the United States
. The readership of Rites was 60% lesbian and lesbian/gay-positive women, and 40% gay and lesbian/gay-positive men.
, feminism
and progressive social change. The Rites 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, the women’s movement, anti-racist struggles, peace
activism, the trade union
movement, struggles related to class, age and disability
, and other liberation struggles, including the fight to end apartheid in South Africa
. Rites was also committed to developing a political response to the AIDS
crisis, supporting persons living with AIDS (PLWAs), and eroticizing safe sex
.
Rites rejected the sexual libertarian
politics of some other lesbian and gay publications that it saw as failing to challenge sexist and racist forms of social power underlying the experiences of women and lesbians and gays of colour.
, anti-censorship
struggles (including the legal case brought by Toronto’s Glad Day Bookshop
and the Canadian Committee against Customs Censorship challenging Canada Customs’ censorship of The Joy of Gay Sex), police harassment of lesbians and gays, International Women’s Day, abortion
rights, Take Back the Night
marches, lesbian and gay pride
marches across Canada, lesbian motherhood, anti-apartheid struggles (including those of Simon Nkoli
, then South Africa’s leading black gay activist), and the formation and operation of AIDS 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 the province’s 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.
, Robin Metcalfe, Sky Gilbert
, Michael Achtman, Thomas Waugh, Marusia Bociurkiw, Anne Cameron
, Steven Maynard, Audrey Butler, Doug Stewart and Francois Lachance. Amongst others, Rites also published the poetry of Brenda Brooks and Ian Iqbal Rashid
, the photography of Cyndra MacDowall, the visual art of Persimmon Blackbridge and Sheila Gilhooly, the graphic illustrations of Alanna Marohnic, and The Chosen Family
cartoons of Noreen Stevens
.
Rites also published extensive cultural reviews of plays, movies and books, including Peter 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.
, Canada’s first public gay activist in the 1950’s (who initiated a lawsuit – Egan v. Canada
- that ultimately led, in 1995, to a landmark Supreme Court of Canada
decision interpreting the Canadian 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 and Montreal
, and published a special supplement of lesbian and gay history book reviews.
Other special supplements published in Rites over its history included features on: families, youth, lesbians and gays of colour, lesbian and gay survivors of childhood 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 6 volumes (from May 1984 to April 1990). Rites was also indexed in the Alternative Press Index.
Collections of Rites magazine can be found in a number of public libraries in Canada, as well as at the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives
in Toronto.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
magazine, published for gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
, lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
, bisexual and transgender
Transgender
Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....
communities in Canada from 1984 to 1992.
Founding
The magazine was published in TorontoToronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
by Rites Publishing and was produced by a non-profit collective. Founding members of the Rites collective were: Peter Birt, Romaine Brooks, Lyn Freese, Gary Kinsman
Gary Kinsman
Gary Kinsman is a Canadian sociologist. He is one of Canada's leading academics on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues. In 1987, he wrote one of the key Canadian texts on LGBT social history, Regulation of Desire, reprinted in 1995...
, Anne Nixon, Heather Ramsay, and Doug Wilson
Douglas Wilson (Canadian gay activist)
Douglas Wilson was a Canadian gay activist, graduate student, publisher and writer born in Saskatchewan. In 1975, he gained prominence in a fight for gay rights with the University of Saskatchewan...
. Many of the founding members had previously been associated with Pink Ink, a monthly national publication for lesbians and gay men of which 5 issues were published between July 1983 and January 1984.
Membership
Over its almost 8 years of operation, additional Rites 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 SymsShawn Syms
Shawn Syms is a Toronto, Ontario-based writer and activist on LGBT issues and other aspects of progressive politics.From 1988 until 1992, he was one of the editors and publishers of Rites, an Canadian monthly magazine of queer history, politics and culture...
, Mark Michaud, Anne Vespry, Rebecca Frank, Regan McClure, Lynn Iding and Rachael Aitcheson.
Issues
A total of 76 issues of Rites 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 6 times a year.2000 copies of each issue were printed and distributed through paid subscriptions and distribution to retail outlets across Canada and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The readership of Rites was 60% lesbian and lesbian/gay-positive women, and 40% gay and lesbian/gay-positive men.
Subjects
An expressly political magazine, Rites was published to further lesbian and gay liberationGay Liberation
Gay liberation is the name used to describe the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender movement of the late 1960s and early to mid 1970s in North America, Western Europe, and Australia and New Zealand...
, feminism
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
and progressive social change. The Rites 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, the women’s movement, anti-racist struggles, peace
Peace
Peace is a state of harmony characterized by the lack of violent conflict. Commonly understood as the absence of hostility, peace also suggests the existence of healthy or newly healed interpersonal or international relationships, prosperity in matters of social or economic welfare, the...
activism, the trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
movement, struggles related to class, age and disability
Disability
A disability may be physical, cognitive, mental, sensory, emotional, developmental or some combination of these.Many people would rather be referred to as a person with a disability instead of handicapped...
, and other liberation struggles, including the fight to end apartheid in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. Rites was also committed to developing a political response to the AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
crisis, supporting persons living with AIDS (PLWAs), and eroticizing safe sex
Safe sex
Safe sex is sexual activity engaged in by people who have taken precautions to protect themselves against sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS. It is also referred to as safer sex or protected sex, while unsafe or unprotected sex is sexual activity engaged in without precautions...
.
Rites rejected the sexual libertarian
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
politics of some other lesbian and gay publications that it saw as failing to challenge sexist and racist forms of social power underlying the experiences of women and lesbians and gays of colour.
Rites' news group
Rites’ news group – an extensive network of volunteer news correspondents across Canada – produced news articles and shorter news briefs covering, amongst other issues: the rights of sex workers, feminist struggles related to pornographyPornography
Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...
, anti-censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
struggles (including the legal case brought by Toronto’s Glad Day Bookshop
Glad Day Bookshop
Glad Day Bookshop is an independent bookstore in Toronto, Ontario, specializing in LGBT literature. The store is located at 598A Yonge Street near the city's Church and Wellesley neighbourhood.-History:...
and the Canadian Committee against Customs Censorship challenging Canada Customs’ censorship of The Joy of Gay Sex), police harassment of lesbians and gays, International Women’s Day, abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
rights, Take Back the Night
Take Back the Night
Take Back the Night is an internationally held march and rally intended as a protest and direct action against rape and other forms of sexual violence...
marches, lesbian and gay pride
Gay pride
LGBT pride or gay pride is the concept that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people should be proud of their sexual orientation and gender identity...
marches across Canada, lesbian motherhood, anti-apartheid struggles (including those of Simon Nkoli
Simon Nkoli
Simon Tseko Nkoli was an anti-apartheid, gay rights and AIDS activist in South Africa.Nkoli was born in Soweto in a seSotho-speaking family. He grew up on a farm in the Free State and his family later moved to Sebokeng...
, then South Africa’s leading black gay activist), and the formation and operation of AIDS 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
Sexual orientation
Sexual orientation describes a pattern of emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to the opposite sex, the same sex, both, or neither, and the genders that accompany them. By the convention of organized researchers, these attractions are subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality,...
” in the province’s 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.
Other areas of interest
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 in Rites included: Michael Riordan, Ian Young, Mariana Valverde, Sara Diamond, Makeda SilveraMakeda Silvera
Makeda Silvera is a Caribbean Canadian novelist and short story writer.Silvera emigrated to Canada at the age of 12 with her family, and currently lives in Toronto. She published two volumes of short stories in the 1990s before releasing her first novel, "The Revenge of Maria" in 1998, followed by...
, Robin Metcalfe, Sky Gilbert
Sky Gilbert
Schuyler Lee Gilbert, Jr. is a Canadian writer, actor, academic and drag performer. Born in Norwich, Connecticut, he studied theatre in Toronto, Ontario at York University and the University of Toronto, before becoming co-founder and artistic director of Buddies in Bad Times, a Toronto theatre...
, Michael Achtman, Thomas Waugh, Marusia Bociurkiw, Anne Cameron
Anne Cameron
Anne Cameron , August 20, 1938 in Nanaimo, British Columbia) is a Canadian novelist, poet, screenwriter and short story writer. Much of her work is inspired by Northwest Coast First Nations mythology and culture....
, Steven Maynard, Audrey Butler, Doug Stewart and Francois Lachance. Amongst others, Rites also published the poetry of Brenda Brooks and Ian Iqbal Rashid
Ian Iqbal Rashid
Born in 1971 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Ian Iqbal Rashid is a poet, screenwriter and filmmaker.In his early childhood, his family were forced to leave Tanzania. After failing to secure asylum in the UK and US, they settled in Canada...
, the photography of Cyndra MacDowall, the visual art of Persimmon Blackbridge and Sheila Gilhooly, the graphic illustrations of Alanna Marohnic, and The Chosen Family
The Chosen Family
The Chosen Family was a Canadian comic strip, written and drawn by cartoonist Noreen Stevens. The strip, which first appeared in 1988, was based on Stevens' own life, revolving around a lesbian couple named Weed and Kenneth-Marie...
cartoons of Noreen Stevens
Noreen Stevens
Noreen Stevens is a Canadian cartoonist, who created and wrote the lesbian comic strip The Chosen Family....
.
Rites also published extensive cultural reviews of plays, movies and books, including Peter McGehee
Peter McGehee
Peter Gregory McGehee was an American-born Canadian novelist, dramatist and short story writer.Born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas to Frank Thomas and Julia Ann May McGehee, Peter moved with his family to Little Rock when he was six. He was the second of three children...
’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.
Social status
Rites was an important forum for the publication of Canadian lesbian and gay history, publishing the first interview with Jim EganJim Egan
James K. "Jim" Egan , nickanamed "Troy Terrier", was an American Major League Baseball player from New Haven, Connecticut who played one season as a pitcher and center fielder for the Troy Trojans of the National League in...
, Canada’s first public gay activist in the 1950’s (who initiated a lawsuit – Egan v. Canada
Egan v. Canada
Egan v. Canada, [1995] 2 S.C.R. 513, was one of a trilogy of equality rights cases published by a very divided Supreme Court of Canada in the spring of 1995...
- that ultimately led, in 1995, to a landmark Supreme Court of Canada
Supreme Court of Canada
The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court of Canada and is the final court of appeals in the Canadian justice system. The court grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants each year to appeal decisions rendered by provincial, territorial and federal appellate courts, and its decisions...
decision interpreting the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is a bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada. It forms the first part of the Constitution Act, 1982...
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 and Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, and published a special supplement of lesbian and gay history book reviews.
Other special supplements published in Rites over its history included features on: families, youth, lesbians and gays of colour, lesbian and gay survivors of childhood sexual abuse, AIDS prevention, racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
, science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
, aging, and relationships.
In Vol. 7 No. 8 (January/February 1991) Rites published “Queer Entries,” a comprehensive index to its first 6 volumes (from May 1984 to April 1990). Rites was also indexed in the Alternative Press Index.
Disbandment
Rites Publishing ceased operation in April 1992, citing a shrinking volunteer workforce and growing debts caused by escalating costs and declining revenues.Collections of Rites magazine can be found in a number of public libraries in Canada, as well as at the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives
Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives
The Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives is a non-profit organization in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, which collects material relating to the history of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities in Canada....
in Toronto.
See also
- List of Lesbian Periodicals, Journals and Magazines, Past and Present