a
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thidke it has, something
ari do with the budget’!

WARNING: THE follow-
© ing may contain material
“unsuitable for children and
; perhaps your maiden aunt
: too. Parental discretion
advised. an
“The Fraser, Valley Regional
Library. Board has raised the dust’
by. trying to keep the gay and les- ;
bian paper Xtra West out of its 22,
libraries. ’
The. board banned the free-
distribution Xtra West last fall. It
decided that the personal adver-.

;.tisements at the back of the Paper °

were indecent. |°». '

Homosexual groups protested.
They refused to believe the
board’s rationale that the ads
were indecent by any standards,
hetero or homosexual. : :
Homophobia, they (predictably),

The board’s lawyers advised -
that the ban was probably uncon-
stitutional. So the board banned -
ail iree-distribution publications.
‘;.. Latest:. The board approved
placing sexually explicit: material
(what used to be called filth in-

those bad old days of actual -
Community standards as opposed _
~ to those imposed by Supreme

'. Court judges in Ottawa, remem- =.

“ ber?) out, of the reach of children, ©
~“suntil it inakes a final decision.
- That's scheduled for Wednesday.

"Meanwhile an Ottawa super-
arket has pulled a related paper,
Capitat Xtra, after several cus-

ee

‘Trevor
‘Lautens_

tomer complaints. Homophobia,

its editor (predictably) cried.
Well, publicly, like all mem-

bers. of the writing/publishing

: Caste, I’m against censorship.

Privately, | — a shameless
prude. — find the ads’ repulsive.

* Depraved..I can only look with
. Withering pity —i weigh those
’ words carefully — al anyone So

shrivelled in self-zespect as to -

» rave such demesning activities,
and so self-despising as to adver-

tise or answer advertisements for

-them. |: ih

Aad, rd estimate, so would
sbout 90% of you, dear readers:
- Here are samples from the

ads: :

“Hot horay, funloving, attrac- :

tive, well-hung top sceks uncut

bubblebutted badboy bottom. ...
You-are clean and cleanshaven «-

with firm round buns, ripe for the’
_ licking 2.” .

Chris Johnson’

PR eA L CRAY LOTTERY

oy Et

ECENT PROOF that the band of
’ socialists in Victoria is a government of
a deception comes courtesy of the social-
ists themselves.

Exhibit A: Delivered via the new low in
communications high tech that characterized
the government's Feb. 22 televised town hall

meeting..

Ineptitude and farce were the order of the
evening as staged direct democracy gave way
to inactive toll-free phone lines and indirect
fiscal deception on the state of the province’s
battered economic books.

A report leaked the day of the televised
town hall fiasco outlined the NDP’s irrespon-

sibie inflation of B.C.’s debt, which has been ..

increased $7 billion by the NDP since 1991
and was last seen heading for $27 billion and
beyond.

Exhibit B: The socialists followed their

TRL ESA RRO NR RRE ONCE AROSE MOREL TELA A SEER NPIL EES [LAE DA TR MARA EEE ATA MOTE RIESE LE! AWLP ANS LOR AE RAI AR MSH SIND TT IM OA ERE EO! EO

i
t
1

direct democracy debacle with its Recall and
Initiative Act.

Demanded by 74% of B. C. voters ina 1991
provincial referendum as a viable means to
fire inept MLAs during their terms of office
and to launch grass-roots referendums, the
NDP’s final version of recall and initiative is.
as far from direct democracy as was their ,
television sitcom.

For example, to recall an MLA, 40% of eli-

. gible voters in a riding must sign a recall peti-

tion within a 60-day period — a. virtual
impossibility.

The promoters of any recall action can
spend no more than $25,000 in their cam- |.
paign, and voters must wait until thelr MLA
has served 18 months before any recall action
can be initiated. Another bad joke.

This NDP sitcom of deception. has kong os
since stopped being funny. a

mailbox

. Looking for white guys”
— what racism in the gay
“world! — “25 and under who
“want to be orally serviced while.
‘watching hot pornos. I'm realty
2 good.”

Under the classification
Homes to Share: “Mt. Pleasant,
with GM couple. ... Gay or ies-
bian N/S.” What, gender discrim-
ination in the gay world! (If you
specified “heterosexual” in an ad

"in this or any other broad-appeal
paper, you’d be hauled before the
courts instantly, of course.)

But why go on? That’s the
kind of stuff Xrra West is trying
to shove down the throats, you
might say, of Fraser Valley resi-
dents. There are pages of such «
ads with this obsession with the
male wee-wee — an organ, I
would say, of only occasional
interest to th: emotionally
mature persc: of either sex. The
unfunny issue is AIDS.

Significautly, the ads trouble’
even 2 contributor to Xtra West.

In the Feb. 23 issue Daniel

dently one of the “bigots”, at a

'’ Fraser Valley Library Board

- Meeting, read aloud “a half
dozen of the more racy personal.
ads which grace the nether parts
of this publication.”

But although Collins -——canl.

safely assume he’s no relation of

Doug of the North Shore News? -

— obviously despises the
woman, he himself is disturbed

a

“Timothy Renshaw ‘

Collins relates that a woman, evi-

Linda Stowart -

at what he calls “the archaic lan-
guage of the ads.”
Are they, he wonders, “the

last bastion of the in-your-face ~-

tactics of a now middle-aged
generation of queers who grew
up getting high on confronta-
tion?” — of which he counts
himself one.

He fondly remembers when

he “experienced a rush at first

seeing our blatant sexuality in
print, back in the days when it
was still a rare treat and a tri- -
umph for queers in print."

But things have changed,
Collins writes. “So what are
anatomically specific personals
still doing here in an otherwise

politically astute queer publica- -

tion, besides spooking the
straights?” . : =

“This agonizing is very inter-

sting — more interesting than

* one Brent Galster’s letter to. the

editor stating that he has been

' “privately lobbying ... The

Vancouver Sun (against Trevor
Lautens) ...” Very brave of you,
Mr. Galster.

So there’s a very small taste
of the paper that the library
board in the Fraser Valley is —
probably hopelessly — trying to
keep from their children. :

Of course we have no such .. *.
‘inhibitions here on the sophisti-
-.eated North Shore. Look at Xtra
West yourself. You can find it in

our West Vancouver and North .

“Vancouver libraries.’-

Peter. eernstrom

Crime fears

unfounded

Dear Editor:

I strongly disagree with the letter”
to the editor written by Mr. and Mrs..:
Simmons.” published © Feb.“ 19: -
“Children need more protection? we

- The implication that we live i in a’
society where crime is committed at:

‘all times is sad. Crime is on the rise,
.but to assume a- “thief”. could “have

broken" into’ the: van “and . kidnaped ;

. those children without their. parents or --

anyone else noticing’ is beyond rea-
son. ;
I think that thosz parents afe teach- 7
ing their own kids responsibility ; and S

; trust even at that tender age::

* Nery. different: would have been: if
they had left the kids alone in a. vacant’
parking area while in the movies. The :.

| Caulfeild plateau is a well. attended.

open area.

If the Simmons - consider the: law
should “protect ‘those children: wh
cannot protect , themselves,” the

‘should also go after those parents that...

at home leave their: children: “unat-"’
tended” while taking a' shower, going.
to ‘the’ bathroom: or. watching: TVs
Kidnaping. could ‘occur ‘at home ‘too. «.
In: my opinion, . those. parents: used :
their. judgment and are‘ not raising
kids ‘afraid to be left alone’for'a cou-
ple of minutes under : safe’ “circum:
stances. ,.” : nee

* Raquel Garcia

North Vancouver, a

Sales & Marketing Director |”, Display Manager

a , “.°"."Classitied Manager:
: 980-0571 (319) = 980-0511 (703).

Comptroller am " Operations Manager Managing Editor ve
986-6222 (202) an

(985-2131 (133) 985-2131 (144)' .- 985-2134 (i 16)

North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an’
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under Schedula 111, Paragraph 111. of the”
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