Berto_Tony_201307_PhD .pdf - University of Guelph

212
Harvey's intimate descriptions and forthright manner suggest that he is confident in
his sexuality, unashamed and unlikely to be coerced. He appears to know and enjoy a
variety of gay sexual practices, and to be assertive in his sexual choices. This agency makes
it difficult for a reader to believe that he could be coerced into any sexual practice against
his choosing. Grignard’s presentation of Harvey acts to contest social orthodoxies and
theatrical characterisations of disease whereby youth are coerced, converted or infected in
homosexual practice instead of "naturally" becoming heterosexual.
Harvey's sexual descriptions might strike some as verging on being pornographic.
Sexually explicit texts in Canada are regulated by legal constraints which are dependent on
the explicitness of the text, the site of text’s exposition, and various other contextual
circumstances. Explicit representations of gay sexuality have been considered by some in
the gay community to mean differently than do equally explicit heterosexual
representations, and thus ought to be considered by a different set of constraints. Gay legal
and cultural workers, such as EGALE (Equality for Gays and Lesbians Everywhere) and
LEAF (Women's Legal Education and Action Fund) have argued that explicit imagery of
gay sexuality serves a vital purpose in gay culture. In the 2000 obscenity trial of the
Vancouver bookstore Little Sisters, the interveners LEAF and EGALE
contend[ed] that homosexual erotica plays an important role in providing a
positive self-image to gays and lesbians, who may feel isolated and rejected
in the heterosexual mainstream. Erotica provides a positive celebration of
what it means to be gay or lesbian . . . Erotica, they contend[ed], plays a
different role in a gay and lesbian community than it does in a heterosexual
community . . . Gays and lesbian are defined by their sexuality and are