Robert Maynard [Robert Mish Marsden]
Toronto: Gay Publishing Co., 1965.

Single issue of the pre-Stonewall Canadian gay tabloid, from a short run of only fifteen issues published between 1964 and 1966. This issue marks new owner Robert Mish Marsden’s assumption of full editorial control, under the pseudonym of Robert Maynard, and is the first to appear under the redesigned and expanded title, Gay International. Conceived for large-scale news-stand distribution in the United States, issue twelve introduced an enlarged staff and scope, including the inaugural New York Scene column. Despite ambitious distribution, sales were limited and the publication was under severe financial strain by issue fourteen. A final reinvention followed for the fifteenth issue which was ready for publication upon Marsden’s arrest in January 1966, folding soon thereafter. Gay is recognised as Canada’s first gay tabloid and is among the earliest periodicals internationally to employ the word gay explicitly and unapologetically in its title, marking a decisive shift in pre-Stonewall homosexual print culture.