LEGISLATING LOVE
Sage Theatre presents the story of Everett Klippert, the last Canadian to be jailed for his sexuality.
1 Laws of Attraction Though Canada currently enjoys equal marriage rights for all its members of society, that obviously hasn’t always been the case. “It’s kind of shocking to think about how recently we did gain all the rights we have,” says Calgary playwright Natalie Meisner. “It was only in 1969 that the law changed that you couldn’t be arrested for homosexual acts.” Calgarian Everett Klippert was the last Canadian to be jailed over his sexuality after admitting to having consensual sex with other men in 1965.
2 Everett Forever Legislating Love, which Meisner wrote with help from Third Street Theatre and the Calgary Gay History Project, explores Klippert’s controversial imprisonment as well as his life as a kind, simple bus driver. “He was always cracking jokes,” she says. “He wrote his own limericks. He had a smile for everybody, and turned your bus ride into a sightseeing tour.… The only thing that was different about this fellow at all was that he did have consensual relationships with other men and he admitted it.”
3 Truth and Fiction Upon his release from prison in 1971, Klippert led a quiet life until his death in 1996. As such, Meisner had to work with his relatives to piece together his life story. To give it a contemporary feel, she also wrote the character Maxine, a present-day historian who falls in love with a female Métis comedian.
4 Intersectionality and Resilience That Indigenous voices enter the play is no accident. Meisner wanted to focus on themes of intersectionality and resilience. After all, Klippert’s life story wouldn’t have been the same without the work of his lawyer William Wuttunee. “He was the first Indigenous person to pass the bar and become a lawyer in Canada,” Meisner says. “By design or by a quirk of fate he wound up being one of the only lawyers who wanted to take the case.”
5 Prairie Gay Calgary plays a central role in Legislating Love, and not just as Klippert’s birthplace. “We use Chicken on the Way (as a setting) because it’s this place that’s preserved in amber,” Meisner says. “I have my two lesbian characters meeting there.” Aside from its era-less decor, Chicken on the Way also serves as a way of making the play distinctly Calgarian. “I don’t think every gay story has to be in the village in New York,” she adds. “I think this play is particularly prairie gay.” —Josiah Hughes