LGBT Book & Video Blog

VANCOUVER — They've been bombed three times, received death threats and stood before the red-robed justices of the Supreme Court of Canada.

No, Jim Deva and Bruce Smyth are not killers or terrorists.

The soft-spoken Vancouver men sell books.

And in some peoples' eyes, Deva says, that made the gay owners of Little Sister's Book & Art Emporium dangerous.

"Because we were (openly gay) and we were very, very blatant about being open . . . we were threatening to homophobes," Deva says.

Only two years after the store opened in 1983, the owners took on a fight that bolstered and exhausted them, lasting until just last year and challenging Canada's censorship laws.

After 23 years of fighting Canada Customs' seizures of books bound for the gay and lesbian bookshop, the partners have put Little Sister's up for sale.

It's time to do something else, Deva says as he plans to get a choir booked for the store's 25th anniversary celebrations.

"It's probably time to pass on the torch hopefully to some younger, energetic people who are willing to work with our store," he says. "I'm not in a rush. We're going to take our time."

The fight against Customs put the store at the forefront of the battle against censorship in Canada.

Among books seized were Jean Genet's Querelle, Quentin Crisp's The Naked Civil Servant, Joe Orton's Prick Up Your Ears, The Joy of Gay Sex and The Joy of Lesbian Sex.

 See Feisty Vancouver gay bookstore that challenged Canada Customs up ...
The Canadian Press