The Body Politic

The magazine was first published on November 1, 1971, by an informal collective, operating out of the home of Glad Day Bookshop owner Jearld Moldenhauer. Many members of the collective had been associated with the underground publication Guerilla, which had been relatively gay-friendly but alienated some of its LGBT contributors when it altered Moldenhauer's article about the We Demand protest of August 28, 1971. The magazine was ultimately acquitted in both trials, In 1982, Toronto City Councillor Joe Piccininni failed in an attempt to have the magazine barred from the city council's press gallery, following a cover story on the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence which Piccininni deemed disrespectful to Roman Catholicism. In this era, the magazine also became noted for its coverage of the emergence of HIV and AIDS. The magazine ceased publication in 1987, following Pink Triangle Press's launch of the tabloid Xtra! in 1984. ==Legacy==

Xtra! expanded in 1993 to launch sister editions Xtra! West in Vancouver and Capital Xtra! in Ottawa. All three publications remained in print until 2015, when Pink Triangle Press discontinued the print publications, but remain in operation today as the online magazine Daily Xtra. In 2008, The Body Politic was ranked as the 17th most influential magazine in Canadian publishing history by Masthead, the trade magazine of the Canadian magazine publishing industry. Body Politic, a historical play by Nick Green about the magazine and its role in the early gay liberation movement, premiered at Buddies in Bad Times in May 2016, and won the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play in 2017, as well as a performance nomination for Diane Flacks. The magazine's launch is profiled as a key moment in Canadian LGBTQ history in Noam Gonick's 2025 documentary film Parade: Queer Acts of Love and Resistance. ==Contributors==

Writers associated with the magazine included Gerald Hannon, Rick Bébout, Chris Bearchell, Hugh Brewster, Stan Persky, Michael Lynch, Stephen O. Murray, John Greyson, David Rayside, Herbert Spiers, Ian Young, Ed Jackson, Sue Golding, Robin Hardy, Richard Summerbell, Thomas Waugh, John Alan Lee, Tim McCaskell, and Gary Kinsman. ==References==