The Canadian War on Queers: National Security as Sexual Regulation

Gary Kinsman; Patrizia Gentile

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The Canadian War on Queers

National Security as Sexual Regulation

Gary Kinsman and Patrizia Gentile

Language: English

Published/Copyright: 2010

Published by

View more publications by University of British Columbia Press

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About this book

From the 1950s to the late 1990s, agents of the state spied on, interrogated, and harassed gays and lesbians in Canada, employing social ideologies and other practices to construct their targets as threats to society and enemies of the state.

In this path-breaking book, Gary Kinsman and Patrizia Gentile use official security documents and interviews with gays, lesbians, civil servants, and high-ranking officials to disclose not only the acts of state repression that accompanied the Canadian war on queers but also forms of resistance that raised questions about just whose national security was being protected and about national security as an ideological practice. This passionate, personalized account of how the state used the ideology of national security to wage war on its own people offers ways of understanding, and resisting, contemporary conflicts such as the so-called “war on terror.”

Author / Editor information

Gary Kinsman is a professor in the Sociology Department at Laurentian University, Sudbury. Patrizia Gentile is an assistant professor in the Pauline Jewett Institute of Women’s and Gender Studies at Carleton University.

Reviews

An important intervention into mainstream studies of Canadian historiography. --- This account of the surveillance of Canadian lesbians and gays in the name of national security is impressive, at once bone-chilling and inspiring. --- Kinsman and Gentile have taken on an ambitious project both with respect to their topic as well as the scope of more than four decades worth of material. This is an incredibly important piece of work and will be appreciated by those who have a historical interest in national security campaigns and queer history, as well as those who want a history on which to base contemporary resistance to the security campaigns that are still being mounted against many marginalized people today.

Topics

Front Matter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Preface National Security Wars – Then and Now Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xix
Abbreviations Publicly Available Download PDF	xxi
Queering National Security, the Cold War, and Canadian History Surveillance and Resistance Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	1
Queer History and Sociology from Below Resisting National Security Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	27
The Cold War against Queers Social and Historical Contexts Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	53
Spying and Interrogation The Social Relations of National Security Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	115
The Fruit Machine Attempting to Detect Queers Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	168
Queer Resistance and the Security Response Solidarity versus the RCMP Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	191
The Campaign Continues in the 1970s Security Risks and Lesbian Purges in the Military Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	221
“Gay Political Activists” and “Radical Lesbians” Organizing against the National Security State Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	243
Sexual Policing and National Security Sex Scandals, Olympic Clean-Ups, and Cross-Country Organizing Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	302
Continuing Exclusion The Formation of CSIS and “Hard-Core Lesbians” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	336
From Exclusion to Assimilation National Security, the Charter, and Limited Inclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	391
From the Canadian War on Queers to the War on Terror Resisting the Expanding National Security State Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	429
Appendix Index of Interviews Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	459
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	462
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	523
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	546

Publishing information

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

eBook published on:

August 9, 2023

eBook ISBN:

9780774816298

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

Main content:

584

https://doi.org/10.59962/9780774816298

eBook ISBN: 9780774816298

Audience(s) for this book

For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research

The Canadian War on Queers

Overview

About this book

Author / Editor information

Reviews

Topics

Table of contents

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