Gerald Hannon
(1944 - living) Canada
Writer, activist, prostitute
Hannon was born in small town New Brunswick and raised in small town Ontario, moving to Toronto for his university studies. At the end of 1971, he joined the editorial group that produced the fledging gay liberation magazine The Body Politic, and for most of its fifteen-year life, he was one of its most prolific and controversial writers.
In late 1977, Men Loving Boys Loving Boys brought a police raid and obscenity charges against him and others of the magazine's editorial collective, and considerable criticism (as well as support) from the gay community itself. The legal battle (and accompanying political campaign) was waged for several years, eventually yelding acquital.
After The Body Politic's demise in early 1987, Hannon continued writing freelance. His writing has won him two National Magazine awards and several other nominations. Success also helped secure part-time teaching in journalism at Toronto's Ryerson Polytechnical University, though media inflamed publicity about his Men Loving Boys article, and about his part-time job as a prostitute, led to an ill-thought-out suspension from the uniersity, and eventually to an undisclosed settlement.
Excerpts from: Aldrich R. & Wotherspoon G., Who's Who in Contemporary Gay and Lesbian History, from WWII to Present Day, Routledge, London, 2001
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