The new gay-lesbian journalists' association had a surprise panelist at its Sunday-afternoon discussion on "covering ourselves."
Members had expected professor Gerald Hannon, Ryerson instructor and award-winning writer for Toronto Life, Saturday Night and the Globe and Mail. Through a freak of timing, they got pedophile defender Gerald Hannon, author of the infamous "Men Loving Boys Loving Men" article that was the subject of (unsuccessful) criminal charges two decades ago.
This event had been arranged weeks ago, long before Heather Bird turned Hannon into national news with her Toronto Sun columns accusing him of promoting intergenerational sex to impressionable 24-year-old students in class.
The journalists' association has been noticeably silent on the Hannon matter, unlike his Ryerson colleagues and students, who have been out-spoken in his defence. "You can't go around firing people because you don't like their views," Don Obe, acting chair of journalism, told the Sun.
Lucky for Hannon that it's Obe who's his boss and not one of his squeamish queer colleagues. There was hardly a mention last Sunday of the controversy that Newsworld had devoted an hour to the night before. Nor has there been any public support from the Nationaf Lesbian and Gay Journalists' Association - Canada.
Board members had talked privately about issuing a statement, but decided not to, co-chair Jessica Pegis says. There's a "fear of the (pedophile) label," she says. "It's not necessarily rational - it's a panic reaction."
Members of the association come from places like the Star, Sun, Financial Post, CBC and Maclean's, where they're trusted and respected. They have no stomach for the "activist" role.
But what could be more crucial to members of the profession - gay or straight - than free speech and a journalism instructor's academic freedom? And what good is a gay journalists' group whose members are so paranoically careerist that they're afraid to speak up for a colleague who's the victim of a witchhunt?
[Return to Chronology / RB / 17/5/97]