The Canadian War on Queers: National Security as Sexual Regulation

For nearly fifty years, from the 1950s to the late 1990s, agents of the Canadian state spied on, interrogated, and harassed gays and lesbians.  The RCMP and other enforcement groups developed a range of practices and tools—including the notorious "Fruit Machine"—to identify and present their targets as threats to society.  Drawing of official security documents obtained through civil servants, and high-ranking officials, this extraordinary book reveals acts of state repression and forms of social resistance that raise questions about just whose security was being protected.  Passionate and personalized, The Canadian War on Queers not only explores how the state waged a secret war on its own people but offers ways of understanding, and resisting, contemporary rationales for doing so once again.