Gerald Hannon

Gerald Hannon
Gerald Hannon speaking at The Company House on November 3, 2013
Born	July 10, 1944
Occupation	journalist
Nationality	Canadian
Period	1970s-present

Gerald Hannon (born July 10, 1944) is a Canadian journalist whose work has appeared in major Canadian magazines and newspapers.

Hannon gained fame as a result of references to pedophilia in his article "Men Loving Boys Loving Men" (1977), published in the now-defunct The Body Politic. Hannon was acquitted of obscenity charges laid in connection with the article. He was later the subject of media controversy in 1995, when several mainstream journalists attacked Ryerson University for employing him as a journalism instructor while he was simultaneously, and openly, working as a male prostitute.

In 1972, Hannon joined the editorial group that produced the Toronto LGBT magazine The Body Politic, and was one of its most prolific writers.

In the magazine's November 1977 issue, Hannon published an article titled "Men Loving Boys Loving Men", a profile of three men who were having sexual relationships with underage males. The article contained sentences like "Boy-love is not child molestation," which provoked a backlash. That December, Toronto Sun journalist Claire Hoy began publishing columns attacking Hannon and The Body Politic for promoting child abuse.

The magazine's offices were raided by Toronto police on December 30, 1977. Twelve boxes of material, including the magazine's subscription lists, were taken.

On January 5, 1978, the paper and its publishers were charged under section 164 of the Criminal Code with "use of the mails to distribute immoral, indecent or scurrilous material". The case reached trial on January 2, 1979, with prosecution testimony by Hoy and Ken Campbell. In six days of testimony, only one piece of documentary evidence—a copy of the issue containing Hannon's article—was presented to the court.

On February 14, The Body Politic was acquitted of the charges.

On May 31, 1982, the appeal hearing on the criminal charges began, and on June 15, the magazine was acquitted a second time. On July 13, the Crown appealed again. That appeal was rejected.

The Body Politic ceased publication in 1987, a few years after its publisher (now incorporated as Pink Triangle Press) launched the tabloid Xtra!. Hannon became a freelance journalist. He has won three National Magazine Awards as a freelancer, for profiles of Tomson Highway and John Bentley Mays and for a Toronto Life article titled “The Alchemy of Pork Fat”. He also occasionally worked as a sex worker, and was employed as a part-time journalism instructor at Ryerson University.