Sex With Neighbors: Canada and Canadians in the U.S. Homophile Press

This article examines U.S. homophile magazine contributions from and representations of Canada from 1953 to 1964. Drawing on 240 articles, letters, and other items that were published in ONE, Mattachine Review, and The Ladder, the essay first reviews Canadian-authored materials and then shows that U.S. gay and lesbian movement periodicals depicted Canada as more sexually conservative than the United States in three ways and more sexually liberal in one way. The magazines presented Canada as more sexually conservative in its failure to develop an organized gay and lesbian movement, its policies and practices of sexual censorship, and its opposition to progressive homosexual law reform. They portrayed Canada as more sexually liberal in the ways that its mainstream media covered homosexuality. The essay argues that U.S. homophile representations of Canada participated in the ongoing construction and reconstruction of U.S. nationalism. In demonstrating that the magazines generally represented Canada as more sexually conservative than the United States in the years from 1953 to 1964, the essay also shows that more recent depictions of Canada as more sexually liberal are relatively new.