Celebrating Banned Book Week: Little Sister’s Art & Book Emporium tribute

I own a lot of books that were banned – some of them historically banned and now deemed literature.

 

But most of them are in fact porn or erotica collections that I bought every time I walked into Little Sister’s with an extra $40 in my pocket.

 

 

I knew I would gonna buy a book, that it was going to be in that store and that store only and the only placed I looked was the humour section for any comic strip collection at all.

But mostly, it was on the shelf labeled “Banned by Canada Customs”

 

One time, Janine Fuller made fun of me for buying the Complete Wendel and other gay male oriented books. There seemed to be a weird male-female divide that I never mastered.

Most of my experience with Little Sister’s was like anyone else’s could be – as a walk in the door customer. One time I brought a straight pal who was completely blown away that she actually stood in the entranceway and spoke loud enough for the store to go quite as a Debbie Boone Good Two Shoes Looking girl said “Why do you need a whole bookstore instead of just a section in a bookstore?”

 

These was the days before Little Sister’s – like Madwimmin books in Dyke’s To Watch Out For – carried a wide selection of sexual toys.

 

I explained this was a bookstore that catered to a demographic clientele – and look – there was fiction, travel, comics, science fiction and all the mainstream genres – authors you will never see or have heard of in mainstream book stores.

 

Anyway, anyone in Chapters now sees a shelf with gender studies/LGBTQ studies

 

Etecerta in my best King and I. Yul Brenner King Baby

 

But my connection with Little Sister’s is deeper – and not only when they were so often party of the news that was covered by Angles and Xtra! West, that I wrote for journalistically for both and editorially in the former.

 

But even before, on my cusp of coming out – when I was still straight and working for an adult video distribution company that had a large carved out market to rental video mom and pop stores mostly because the chain stores wouldn’t carry porn – as well as to the handful of video porn stores.

 

I was shocked to learn from the heterosexual salesmen about their fears in going to sell porn at Little Sisters because they had safety concerns about being attacked or assaulted going in there and the threats to the location itself. They went and they never had any incidents.

 

I remembering thinking, seriously? this is Canada not the usa….

 

Yet. It happened. Twice at their original location.

 

Little Sister’s legal case against Canada Customs was and remains a community rally point – to the point of beyond burn out for the owners and staff as a condition of employment. Essentially.

 

My next planned to Vancovuer outing is in October, so I am planning to be at Little Sisters at some point, so watch this space for updates. or facebook.

 

 

I have to be careful about what else I say, but I think I can mention.

 

I was in the very first ever group of Canadian Federal Public Servants to march in a Queer Pride Parade. We were from Revenue Canada and Customs.

 

We almost asked to walk behind Little Sister’s but we were so scared to be out at work and scared to be out in the community too.

 

Anyway, that’s a complete enough thought on the subject of book bannings.

 

see also:

 

Little Sister’s loses Jim Deva

Little Sister’s Vs Big Brother

Happy Pride Parade Vancouver

Banned Books Week 2013

 

 

 

Dykewriter Extras:

Screenplay: A Gay In the Life Of

Screenplay: Coffee

3 Day Novel: Why Do Mannequins Have Nipples?

 

WordPress Extra – Nina’s Original Blog

My Communications Problem was solved by Star Trek

The Burnings Continue

 

See also on Youtube:

it starts with burning people…

then you burn books…