Getting into swing @ the Lifestele: A Look at the Erotic Rites of Swingers by Terry Gould, published by Random House, $32.95 Bob Mackin Contributing Writer TERRY Gould has built a reputation for expos- ing the world of orga- nized crime to readers of Canadian magazines. The award-winning North Vancouver investigative jour- nalist took a three-year hiatus trom his specialty towrite The Lifestyles 2) Look at the Erotic Rites of Singers, It's a book about an orga- nized Movement, one that Gould admits is contro- versial, Bur, he says, it’s definitely not criminal. The Lifestyle Was 2 project Gould felt obliged to under- take. He exposed the Lower Mainland’s underground swing scene for Vancourer magazine in 1989, bur later realized the article perpetuated the myth of swingers as immoral sex addicts who spread disease, not love. “Ye wasn’t until three vears later when T met some white collar people in the lifestyle that I understood that what I had done was basically what had been done to gays and les- bians in the °59s,” Gould says. He took a deeper look and found local swingers to be part ofa complex global subcul- ture. He also tound swingers to be happily married, well- educated, middle class couples who simply waat to add spice to their relationships. It’s the madern manifesta- tion of an ancient practice, Gould says. Spouse-sharing ‘has been going on since Biblical times and it can be explained through studies in biology, anthropology and sociology. “T really wanted to under- stand all the ‘-ologies’ thar went into making people behave like. that for thousands of years,” he says. “(Swingers are) combining the biological necd to seck long-term partners to raise kids with the biglogical need tor sexual and genetic vanen. You have these paradoxical needs of people and this sub- culture satisfies it tor them.” The amount of swing par- tes and dances is impossible to quantify, In this part of the sontinent, advertised clubs exist in Vancouver and the Fraser Valley. There's a giant resort-like spread called New Horizons just outside Seactle, Most gatherings happen in: secret, since swingers fear both public ridicule and police raids -— like one executed by the Montreal police morality squad agaist a private club called Club L-Orage. The North American Swing Club Association estimates there are three mil- lion swingers in the U.S. and Canada. NASCA is a sub- sidiary of the Litestvles Organization, a Los Angeles- based company formed 24 vears ago to organize the swing Movement. Gould was the first journal- ist given carte blanche to examine LSO and atrend its events, including the annual convention. “They have their own trav- cl industry, there’s several big five-star resorts that cater almost exclusively to the peo- ple in this lifestyle.” The 1996 meeting drew 3,500 people to San Diego. Gould surveyed delegates and found one-third had post- graduate degrees anc 40 per cent were members of a main- stream religion. One-third of American attendees vored Republican. The Lifestyle isn’t Gould’s first book. In 1984 he pub- lished How the Blind Make Love, a work of fiction that “had nothing to do with being blind, nothing to do with making love. “It was about.... how peo- ple pursue things without real- ly knowing why they do them, the blind pursuit of happi- ness.” Gould aad his wite Leslie pursued happiness by flecing the chaos of New York City tor greener pastures in 1971. They had meta veay cartier working as taxi cab drivers. “We both hated New York City and [always wanted to live near snowcapped moun: tains.” says Gould, who was six months shy of an English degree at City University of New York, ‘They found 64 hectares outside Sinithers, B.C. built a log house and raised goats, chickens and ducks. Gould paid the bills asa railroad brakeman and tree taller. He tultiled a longtime ambition to Write novel. Tt was a valu- abie experience, he says, tweach- ing him how to persevere ina solitary endeavour, “You learn how to stick with something, how to basi- cally stay alone in 3 room with something.” In 1986 he returned to college, finished his English degree, gota teaching certiti- cate and moved to the Lower Mainland. He raught fora year at West Vancouver's Sentinel secondary before join- ing upstart V magazine as a senior editor. He quickly established himself as an enter- prising writer in search of juicy true crime stories. Gould, now 49, is a con- tributing editor with Saturday Night magazine. He's back at work on another organized crime story. He'll only say it’s of “national and international” interest. ha NEWS photo Paul McGrath INVESTIGATIVE journalist Terry Goutd first exposed Vancouver’s underground © scene in 1989 for Vancouver magazine. 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