Spartacus International Gay Guide
The Spartacus International Gay Guide is an international gay travel application and formerly an annually-published guide. It was founded by John D. Stamford in 1970 as a printed guide, before being bought by Bruno Gmünder in 1987 following investigations into Stamford's tax violations and promotion of paedophilia. It was sold to current owners GayGuide UG in 2017, whereupon the guide became digital only, with the printed version ceasing publication.
Content
App
The app lists numerous gay bars, clubs, hotels, saunas, beaches and cruising spots which are indicated on the city map via GPS, with photos and additional information on venues also available. The app provides travellers with the biggest gay event calendar worldwide - offering more than 20,000 gay events. Additionally, there is a pride calendar - featuring more than 800 pride dates all over the world. The sauna- & hotel guides are also featured on both the app and the website, and the travel blog offers gay travellers an insight in gay life worldwide. Next to the worldwide version with free selected content, there are four versions available on Android and iOS: "Europe", "North America", "Latin America, Asia, Africa and Oceania" and "Worldwide".(Former) printed guide
In the printed guide the content was arranged alphabetically by country, and then alphabetically by city, offering short texts in English, German, French, Spanish and Italian. Countries and cities that are major gay travel destinations were described in greater depth. Each country section included a brief summary of the current laws about homosexuality that are applicable to that country and general social attitudes towards gay people. The majority of the contents were listings for businesses that either specifically catered to gay tourists or that were of interest to gay travellers, such as gay bars, gay-friendly hotels, gay saunas, gay-friendly beaches, support groups, and HIV/AIDS hotlines. Later editions of the guide counted more than 1,200 pages with information for approximately 22,000 businesses in 160 countries.The criteria that determined which businesses were included in the listings differed from country to country. In countries or cities with a large number of businesses catering to gay customers, only businesses that were specifically gay - and possibly even only the most noteworthy amongst these - were included; in countries where such businesses are uncommon, those that cater to a general clientele but are "gay friendly" were also included.
History
Stamford years (1970–1986)
The first Spartacus International Gay Guide was published in 1970, with the first and second editions being published by JDS Publications of 46 Preston Street, Brighton, Sussex. The guide was the creation of John D. Stamford, a businessman born in St Helens, Lancashire in 1939; he had apparently trained at one point to be a priest. Peter Burton later said that "When John D. Stamford founded Spartacus there was no gay press and although there were plenty of gay journalists, there was no gay journalism. Those of us who were involved from the very beginning had to find our material and learn to write about it in a style our readers would not have previously encountered."In 1972 Stamford was convicted for sending obscene material in the post. One year previously, he had shifted operations to Amsterdam, Netherlands, reissuing the magazine under his new company Euro-Spartacus. During the following years the magazine grew considerably, both in terms of size and sales figures, and became the most successful travel publication catering to gay men. By the late 1970s, Spartacus was receiving about 12,000 recommendation letters annually and by 1982 was speculated to have sold 250,000 copies. The magazine included translations in French, German, Spanish. The guide included information on gay bars, bookstores, saunas collected from reader tip-offs in various locales.
Spartacus, alongside him, du&ich, DOM and ADAM have been accused in subsequent years of engaging in racial stereotyping and fetishisation of "scantily-clad, non-white youths in exotic settings" and promoting sex tourism for both adults and children. In 1975, the West German law on child pornography only prohibited explicit sexualised images of children under the age of 14. Stamford was also a firm supporter of the Paedophile Information Exchange, a British organisation founded in 1974 that aimed to promote paedophilia as a valid sexuality. As early as the 1976 of the Spartacus Guide, PIE were listed in the Great Britain section. Links with PIE remained close, even as PIE was shut down by the British authorities and its members arrested, and Stamford's support for the organisation and paedophilia more generally became more pronounced in the Guide in the following years:
- 1977 - this edition contained a listing for PIE within the UK section, stating that more information can be gleaned by writing to 'PIE c/o Spartacus',. In the entry for the Philippines the Guide states that "we assure you of a holiday of a lifetime in this tremendous paradise and there are no laws governing homosexuality, sex with boys of all ages is quite legal."
- 1978 - PIE remained listed in the UK section. The guide also contained an offer of holiday information specifically tailored for paedophiles.
- 1979 - PIE remained listed in the UK entry, noting that "due to police, press and general public harassment PIE has apparently gone underground. Its last known address was PIE, PO Box 318, London, SE3 8QD but there is strong suggestion that mail to that address is intercepted by the police or postal authorities, and it is therefore advisable not to write. It is known that police raided the homes of some PIE members and that they seized records including the mailing lists. PIE's magazine - Magpie - unexpectedly appeared in December 1978, several months late and much improved, but that could be a last-ditch stand against the evil pressures bearing on PIE. Spartacus sympathises with the paedophile problem and is continuously working to offer safe and reliable support for paedophiles, but we feel obliged to warn our paedophile readers around the world of the serious dangers which they risk in the UK - even by mail or association. Paedophile readers of this Guide are invited to write to Spartacus - we will try to at least partially fill the gap left by the problems imposed on PIE and other paedophile groups." The Guide also repeated the Filipino claim from edition 7. The 1979 Guide also contained an advert for Spartacus' PAN magazine, 'a magazine about boy-love', below which is stated "it has long been our position here at Spartacus that paedophiles are, in most of the Western World, a deeply misunderstood, disgracefully persecuted minority who need all the assistance the gay community can give them. We have designed PAN not only to help the boy-lover better understand himself, but to educate non-paedophiles on the realities of this form of sexuality, as it relates to both the paedophile and the child."
- 1980 - the UK section again listed PIE, stating that "the Thatcher government is spending enormous sums to eliminate this organisation from the face of the earth and jail everyone connected with it. The big show trial of PIE executive committee members should get underway next winter in the Old Bailey. Police have possession of the organisation's mailing list and are regularly raiding private residences of members. As a result, PIE has more or less gone underground. Anyone contacting this organisation should carefully think out beforehand his position vis-à-vis confrontation with the authorities. British paedophile readers of this Guide are invited to write to Spartacus. Our boy-love magazine PAN is a serious, English-language, non-pornographic magazine which has never had any difficulties with UK Customs and will be of interest to those who received Magpie, the magazine/newsletter PIE used to publish. We will try at least partially to fill the gap opened by the savage persecution of British paedophile organisations." The back of the magazine contained an advert for Spartacus' Holiday Help Portfolios; it is stated that "for boy-lovers we have prepared a special Paedophile Vacations Holiday Help Portfolio which gives a global overview of the situation with respect to paedophilia, age of consent, police practices etc. in every country the travelling boy-lover is likely to visit."
- 1981 - PIE was again listed in the UK section, reiterating Spartacus' opposition to their "savage persecution" and "the big show trial" of PIE members then underway. The advert for the Paedophile Vacations Holiday Help Portfolio was repeated, as was an advert for PAN magazine. This edition also contained an advert for PIE member Tom O'Carroll's book .
- 1982 - in Stamford's introductory letter he attacks "the disgraceful prosecution of PIE in England, culminating in Tom O'Carroll's being thrown into solitary confinement." The edition contained an advert for PIE, and re-printed the adverts for Spartacus' Paedophile Vacations Holiday Help Portfolios and PAN magazine.
- 1983 - the adverts for PIEand the Paedophile Vacations Holiday Help Portfolios remain. The edition also features a colour section promoting Spartacus' Coltsfoot Press, a "publisher of fiction and scientific books about friendship, love and sexual relations between men and boys", which published titles such as An Asian Minor and Bom-Crioulo - the black man and the cabin boy, as well as O'Carroll's Paedophilia: A Radical Case and Panthologies - stories about boy-love. The PIE advert appeared for the final time in the 1984, though the Coltsfoot Press advert remained in both the 1984 and 1985 Guides.
Bruno Gmünder Verlag (1986–2017)
Bruno Gmünder began re-publishing the Spartacus International Gay Guide from 1987 onward. However it appears that Stamford remained involved with the magazine, with the Guide being edited by 'Bruno Gmünder & John D. Stamford' and containing an introductory letter from Stamford up until the 1993/94 Guide. The pro-paedophilia content was significantly reduced though not eliminated altogether; for example, the advert for Spartacus' Paedophile Vacations Holiday Help Portfolios remained in the guide up until the 1989 edition, and the 1992/93 warns that in the Philippines "paedophiles however are not tolerated, and are well advised to stay away from the Philippines if they are planning an over-indulgent vacation surrounded by smooth, Philippines boys." Furthermore, a listing for a Copenhagen-based 'Paedophile Group' remained in the Guide right up until the 1994/95 edition.Stamford's name was dropped from the Guide as of the 1994/95 edition, against a background of greater police action against paedophiles in the Netherlands and Belgium, prompting editor Helmut Ladwig in his opening preface to explicitly condemn paedophilia and any suggestion that Spartacus supported such activities. A similar defence was included in the 97/98 edition. However no mention was made of the known links between Stamford and paedophile rings, and Spartacus' promotion of PIE and paedophilia for many years.
In November 1994 John D. Stamford went on trial at a local court in Turnhout, Belgium for 'offending public morals and publicising sexual exploitation', however the case was then referred to a higher court in early 1995. The charges, which were brought by four Belgian children's rights organisations, were that the Spartacus Guide and the associated Spartacus Club had provided information enabling paedophiles to find children for sex in countries such as the Philippines, Thailand and Brazil. Stamford denied the charges, stating that they were motivated by homophobia. Stamford died of a heart attack later that year whilst still in custody awaiting trial. Bruno Gmünder continued publishing the Spartacus International Gay Guide annually, now shorn of all references to Stamford or paedophilia, until 2017.