| It’s four years into the new century and gays and lesbians have most of the rights and privileges of their straight friends – not all of them, but in Calgary it seems having some rights is enough. Gay activism in Calgary is described as "underground," "leaderless," and "non-existent" by the handful of activists left in the city, and it’s not as if there isn’t need for it.
Same-sex marriage is constantly in the public eye here and in the U.S., Premier Ralph Klein’s cabinet is on record as saying they will invoke the notwithstanding clause in the constitution if the federal government agrees to enshrine same-sex marriage in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Adoption rights and women’s issues are still a sore spot in the community and then, of course, there was the police raid of Calgary’s bathhouse of two years ago. But none of these issues have captured the attention of the local gay and lesbian community for more than a few months.
For the first time in Canada in years, a bathhouse, Goliath’s, was raided and the keepers and patrons were charged in 2002 with keeping or being in a bawdy house. The law under which they are charged was designed decades ago to shut down places of prostitution. The trial itself is still dragging on and the gay community across Canada was shocked and angered by the raid, recalling the decades of harassment and public censure by the police in the past. The raid mobilized groups across the nation, but, after a brief spasm of protest, Calgary’s gay community walked away from the raid and the defendants. Appeals for help with a defence fund for the defendants have fallen almost completely on deaf ears.
Stephen Lock, western Canada’s representative for EGALE (Equality for Gays and Lesbians Everywhere), describes the local gay activist community as suffering from exhaustion.
"Membership in political activist groups in Calgary is almost nil," he says. "The Goliath’s raid should have galvanized the community, instead it has become a dead issue in Calgary. It holds a higher profile in Toronto and Vancouver than where it happened."
When a public meeting was held to organize a response to the raid there were immediate elements of opposition because of what Goliath’s is – a place where gay men go to have sex. "There was a fairly vocal core from the very beginning that bathhouses represent all the negative stereotypes about the gay community and protestations of: ‘I don’t know anyone that goes to these places,’" Lock says. "There was this element of people there that wanted to police people’s sexual expression.
"Everywhere across Canada there was reaction, but in Calgary none of the 70 gay and lesbian organizations that exist in Alberta came forward to help. One group, a predominately heterosexual BDSM (Bondage and Discipline, Dominance and Submission, and Sadomasochism) organization immediately recognized the implications of the raid and came forward with a substantial contribution to the defence fund. A few of the gay organizations were very vocal on the ‘political’ nature of the raid and said they could not get involved, but offered not even token support for what was happening."
Gay activism on every level seems to be struggling. The University of Calgary's GLASS (Gay and Lesbian Association of Staff and Students) representative Ed Lee feels that the problem is one of a sense of isolation.
"There is not a huge amount of people who seem to want to get informed and advocate for real change. Those people who do feel strongly about gay and lesbian issues believe they don’t know of anyone else who wants to get involved," Lee says. "It is sometimes very difficult breaking down the seeming wall of indifference in the Calgary gay community and we end up working in tandem with various other campus organizations to reach out and get our message across.
"The conservative nature of the Calgary culture seems to make people complacent, a blaming the victim mentality: ‘If they can’t handle it, then too bad for them.’"
Shelagh Anderson, publisher of Canada’s only national online lesbian news website, Desiremag.com, which will soon be distributed as a print magazine, agrees with Lee and Lock’s assessment.
"I think the whole activist community has gone underground," Anderson says. "The previous generation has done so much to push the envelope that the rest of the community seem to have gone to sleep here in Calgary. The major reason why a magazine like Desire exists is that women’s voices are virtually invisible in the community."
Anderson believes that visibility, above all, is the only way for the community to become politically aware.
"There are always issues that people need to be aware of, it’s just seems there is a lack of focus, we lack leadership on these issues." "There is too much isolation among the willing and these are issues that are too important to let go without a fight." |
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