A new documentary is shining a light on Everett KlippertSA国际影视传媒檚 story one year before the 50th anniversary of the decriminalization of homosexuality in Canada SA国际影视传媒� an event in which Klippert played a central role and a story that played out in the NWT.
SA国际影视传媒淚tSA国际影视传媒檚 really important that EverettSA国际影视传媒檚 story not be forgotten,SA国际影视传媒� says Kevin Allen, a Calgary-based researcher and the host of Gross Indecency: The Everett Klippert Story, produced by TELUS STORYHIVE.
Allen started the Calgary Gay History Project in 2012 to chart the history of the citySA国际影视传媒檚 gay community and quickly ran into the story, with which he was then unfamiliar, of a man raised in the city who would become the last person jailed for homosexuality in Canada.
Klippert, a bus driver in Calgary, was jailed for four years in the early 1960s for SA国际影视传媒済ross indecency.SA国际影视传媒�
After his release in 1964, he found work as a mechanicSA国际影视传媒檚 helper at Pine Point. In 1965, he was questioned by during an arson investigation in 1965. While he was cleared of involvement in the fire, they arrested and charged him with four counts of gross indecency after he admitted to being gay.
SA国际影视传媒淗e always thought honesty was the best policy when dealing with the state and the state had it in for him,SA国际影视传媒� says Allen.
Klippert, by all accounts a kind and caring man, could perhaps be faulted for a bit of naivete, says Allen.
Klippert pleaded guilty to all four counts, and was given three years on each to be served at the same time. NWT Justice J.H. Sissons soon after declared Klippert a dangerous sexual offender, a designation that carried with it the equivalent of life in prison.
After an appeal to the Supreme Court was rejected, then NDP leader Tommy Douglas brought up KlippertSA国际影视传媒檚 story in the House of Commons in outrage. Almost immediately, the process began to decriminalize homosexuality in Canada. Then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau would famously declare, SA国际影视传媒淭hereSA国际影视传媒檚 no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation.SA国际影视传媒�
While homosexuality would be decriminalized in 1969, Klippert would languish in prison until 1971.
AllenSA国际影视传媒檚 research into Klippert helped Calgary playwright Natalie Meisner stage Legislating Love: The Everett Klippert Story in the city this spring, and when filmmaker Laura OSA国际影视传媒橤rady decided to pursue a documentary on Klippert, she twisted AllenSA国际影视传媒檚 arm to play a central part of it on camera.
SA国际影视传媒淲e're very fortunate in the fact that it's had a great reception and we've had a lot of national interest in it in the press from Vancouver to Ontario,SA国际影视传媒� says OSA国际影视传媒橤rady, adding that it won Best Alberta Short at this yearSA国际影视传媒檚 Calgary Film Festival.
AllenSA国际影视传媒檚 happy with the reception the film has gotten, and with the reception his research and blogs on Klippert have gotten SA国际影视传媒� and the people whoSA国际影视传媒檝e reached out to him because of it.
Earlier this year, KlippertSA国际影视传媒檚 former boss Robert (Bob) Johnson, 93, got in touch with Allen to talk about Klippert and what the folks at Pine Point thought of him.
According to Allen, Johnson told him, SA国际影视传媒淓verybody loved Everett. He was such a damn nice guy.SA国际影视传媒� When the local officer, to whom Klippert had lent his car multiple times, told Johnson heSA国际影视传媒檇 have to arrest Klippert, Johnson told him, SA国际影视传媒淭hat is the dumbest thing I have ever heard,SA国际影视传媒� and when Klippert was in court, a group of Pine Point residents showed up to support him.
Klippert died in 1996, and was given a posthumous pardon in 2016. Gross Indecency: The Everett Klippert Story is viewable on YouTube.
