Rites (magazine)
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Founder |
|
---|---|
First issue | 1984 |
Final issue | 1992 |
Company | Rites Publishing |
Country | Canada |
Based in | Toronto, Ontario |
Language | English |
Rites was a Canadian magazine, published for
Founding
The magazine was published in
Membership
Over its almost eight years of operation, additional Rites collective members included (in the order in which they joined): Mary Louise Adams, Stuart Blackley, Susan Wilkes, Scott Ferguson, Celest Natale, Doug Stewart, Ruthann Tucker, Robert Champagne, Becki Ross, Michael Nicholson, Shawn Syms, Mark Michaud, Anne Vespry, Rebecca Frank, Regan McClure, Lynn Iding and Rachel Aitcheson.[citation needed]
Issues
A total of 76 issues of Rites were published – from Vol. 1 No. 1 (May 1984) to Vol. 8 No. 6 (January/February 1992). Rites was published 10 times a year, until Vol. 8 No. 4 (September/October 1991) when the frequency of publication changed to six times a year.[citation needed]
Two thousand copies of each issue were printed and distributed through paid subscriptions and distribution to retail outlets across Canada and the United States. The readership of Rites was 60 per cent lesbian and lesbian/gay-positive women, and 40 per cent gay and lesbian/gay-positive men.[citation needed]
Subjects
An expressly political magazine, Rites was published to further lesbian and gay liberation, feminism, and progressive social change. The Rites collective saw the magazine as part of building an active lesbian and gay liberation movement. Rites was committed to cross-Canada coverage and the equal involvement of lesbians and gay men in all aspects of the magazine's production.
Rites explored the interconnections between the lesbian and gay liberation movement, the
Rites rejected the sexual libertarian politics commonly asserted by other lesbian and gay publications that it saw as failing to challenge sexist and racist forms of social power underlying the experiences of women, lesbians, and gays of colour.
Rites' news group
Rites' news group – an extensive network of volunteer news correspondents across Canada – produced news articles and shorter news briefs covering, amongst other issues: the
Rites also contributed extensively to Canadian news coverage of the AIDS crisis, including reporting on activism at the 1989 Montreal International AIDS Conference and publishing "Talking Politics: Diary of an AIDS Activist", a regular column by George Smith, who was also a founder of Toronto's Right to Privacy Committee. Rites was a vital early source of information on AIDS treatment, publishing Sean Hosein's regular column "AIDS Treatment Update" from September 1987 onwards.
Other areas of interest
In addition to news coverage, Rites was a forum to examine the rites and rituals of lesbian and gay culture and published new works of lesbian and gay fiction, poetry, photography and visual arts. Writers published in Rites included: Michael Riordan,
Rites also published extensive cultural reviews of plays, movies and books, including Peter McGehee's "In My Opinion", a regular cultural review column. A number of occasional columns, "Lesbiantics", "Fairy Tales", and "No Regrets", explored personal experiences and opinions. Scott McArthur and David Adler wrote a ground-breaking column on disability issues in the lesbian and gay community.
Social status
Rites was an important forum for the publication of Canadian lesbian and
Other special supplements published in Rites over its history included features on families, youth, lesbians and gays of colour, lesbian and gay survivors of
In Vol. 7 No. 8 (January/February 1991) Rites published "Queer Entries", a comprehensive index to its first six volumes (from May 1984 to April 1990). Rites was also indexed in the
Disbandment
Rites Publishing ceased operation in April 1992, citing a shrinking volunteer workforce and growing debts caused by escalating costs and declining revenues.
Collections of Rites can be found in a number of public libraries in Canada, as well as at the
See also
References
- The Body Politic, Vol. 102 (April 1984).