Immoral, Indecent & Scurrilous [The Making of an Unrepentant Sex Radical]

Jul 20 2022.

by Drew Rowsome -

Gerald at wheel - credit Ed Jackson

I am, at least by reputation, a sex radical: gay activist dating back to the Cretaceous period, defender of pedophiles, defender of (and participant in) sex work, sometimes porn actor and maker, shameless voyeur (no window is safe if my binoculars are at hand), perpetual sourpuss on the subject of gay marriage. I came of age in the 1960s and 1970s, an era when most of those character traits and activities were illegal at worst and shameless at best. Some still are.

Author Gerald Hannon continues in the preface to Immoral, Indecent & Scurrilous [The Making of an Unrepentant Sex Radical], to warn us that this book isn't my whole story. It's not an autobiography; it's an account of my sexual and political awakening and subsequent activism. My goal here is to bring to vivid life some critical moments in the early years of the struggle, sometimes moments that I helped make happen and sometimes moments that happened to me.

Hannon was a journalist who was always a joy to read, and Immoral, Indecent & Scurrilous continues that legacy. An eye for the telling detail, an engaging flow to the prose, and a calculatedly matter-of-fact tone even when describing outrageous or infuriating incidents, keep the pages turning. Like most, perhaps all, gay memoirs, or "not an autobiographies," Hannon begins at the beginning with his youth and his slow, somewhat torturous, coming out process. He captures that feeling of being different, isolated, and the dawning that his sexuality is something to be celebrated and enjoyed rather than be ashamed of. It is well-trodden territory and Hannon even writes "every childhood is a web of ecstasies and terrors. The proportions differ, that is all. I feared particularly to produce yet one more boy-growing-up-in-the-bush story, ur-Canadian." No need to fear. While the story may be familiar, Hannon's singular journey is filled with details that are emotionally resonant and the universality is compounded.

Gerald at podium - accepting National Mag Award

Much of those early years, and into his university days, can be considered ancient history. We can fervently hope that the process is simpler and less angsty for anyone coming out in contemporary times. But that is only because of the work, the activism, that people like Hannon did. By the time he figures it out and becomes an unrepentant sex radical, he is on the forefront of the wave that changed the way the world viewed, and more importantly how we ourselves viewed, gay. Hannon was part of the collective that published the late, great The Body Politic, helped organize the protests against the bathhouse raids, and when his writings and his sex work became scandals, he fought back doggedly and determinedly. It is all fascinating to read. And infuriating to remember just how anti-gay and sex-negative much of the world was. All of it is here and loosely tied into the movements that were burgeoning globally.

Because Hannon made his living as part of the media or teaching journalism, writers and publications play a big role in Immoral, Indecent & Scurrilous. Before social media, newspapers and magazines played a larger role in delivering news and shaping public opinion. It is hard to imagine now that a rag like The Sun could come close to destroying The Body Politic, Ryerson University, the LGBTQ community and Hannon himself. Tragically, that mob mentality lives on in a more dispersed but focused manner on our phones and computers. Hannon's transgressions were his articles on intergenerational sex and his side gig as a prostitute. Again, tragically, either could still lead to destruction today. Hannon uses an oddly self-deprecating while simultaneously self-aggrandizing tone—flawlessly rendered gay speak—describing his purported crimes and the fallout. It works as it normalizes what could easily be played for shock value, but it also makes one question just how accurate his insistence that it all just sort of happened, when there is obvious pride in his role as an instigator.

Three defendants - credit The Body Politic

Hannon was also an impish provocateur, something that is often basic nature for gay men. There is a fair amount of sex and nudity in the pages of Immoral, Indecent and Scurrilous, but it is not there for titillation. That is just how his life was lived. He captures beautifully how liberating it is to get naked in almost any context, and how sexual intimacy can be other than just monogamous binding. Yes, the '70s were hedonistic but the sex, as Hannon describes it, was done for fun, out of friendship, and yes, even for love. That of course leads to the '80s and the AIDS plague. Hannon provides journal entries and day by day stories of what we all went through. It is all the more horrific for his calm journalistic recounting and snippets of gallows humour. It is very real, very painful, and it is something that we need to never forget. 

TO Sun headline - credit Ed Jackson

This is the second memoir, after Brad Fraser's brilliant All the Rage, of a prominent gay figure whose life intersected tangentially with mine. I worked for the ashes that were left after the implosion of The Body Politic (a sordid story uncharacteristically skimmed over) while Hannon was a member of the board. He was a genial presence whenever we crossed paths, and took much more pride in his abilities, and history, as a hustler of a certain age than he admits in the pages of Immoral, Indecent & Scurrilous. His self-deprecation is compounded by rose-coloured glasses, a bright pink, when he describes certain persons that pass through the pages. For the most part he maintains high journalistic standards and only trashes people—Claire Hoy, Barbara Amiel, etc—who really deserve it. Actually deserve worse. This is, alas, not a bitchy gay memoir. It was a heady, difficult time and we were figuring ourselves out while agitating for a place in a world that wanted us erased. And people like Hannon were there to, at great personal cost, make sure we were visible and to point out the foibles and inconsistencies of a homophobic and sex-negative culture.

credit Gerald Hannon

Hannon is unfortunately no longer with us, having departed this mortal coil on his own terms. The latter part of the book feels rushed, that may simply be because at that point he was seriously incapacitated by Parkinson's and pseudobulbar affect. One longs for an expanded version or a second volume. Ever the activist, one can only imagine the incredible interviews, the twinkle in his eyes belying his inability to suffer fools, he would have given in promoting Immoral, Indecent & Scurrilous. But we can be grateful that he left us this not-autobiography, a gift from an elder, that is as entertaining as it is an important historical document.

credit Gerald Hannon