Gay Toronto the 1970s | UrbanToronto

Contents:

• GAY
• ELEVEN AMAZG PHOTOGRAPHS THAT TELL THE GAY HISTORY OF TORONTO
• WHY OUR HISTORI WH GAY BARS MATTER — AND WHAT THEIR FUTURE MIGHT LOOK LIKE AFTER THE PANMIC
• LGBTQ / GAY HISTORY CANADA
• TOP 5 GAY CLUBS & BARS OLD TORONTOGAY CLUBS & BARS OLD TORONTO
• THE 5 BEST TORONTO GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS TORONTO
• GAY TORONTO THE 1970S
• TORONTO GAY DISTRICT: THE VILLAGE

GAY

Ask any gay person who was clubbg the 80s and 90s and they'll tell you Boots was the place to be. Joseph Street is now a ndo, but was once 500-person pacy gay mec wh a uple of lounge areas and a very, very active dance floor. This Gloucter street nightclub is now closed but is where you uld fd some of Toronto's most big-budget drag shows, big-name circu DJs and a mostly gay, but very welg crowd of dancers over two floors.

Saturdays were the big night here and was a huge h bee as the warehoe scene fad, Joy filled the void for gays, drag queens, scenters and cur straight people. Part baret and piano bar, party seedy back room dance club, this place was what gay dreams were ma of.

ELEVEN AMAZG PHOTOGRAPHS THAT TELL THE GAY HISTORY OF TORONTO

This map of “Gay Toronto” origally appeared The Body Polic, a monthly gay magaze published om 1971 to 1987. “Toronto is so much gayer than thks, ” says Jane Farrow, one of more than 100 ntributors and edors who ntributed to the new anthology Any Other Way: How Toronto Got Queer. Allan Garns was an early hot spot for both gay cisg (the tre provid ver for hookg up) and for surveillance (that’s a policeman pictured next to the central founta).

WHY OUR HISTORI WH GAY BARS MATTER — AND WHAT THEIR FUTURE MIGHT LOOK LIKE AFTER THE PANMIC

The Toronto’s Island beach have been popular statns for the gay muny sce the 1950s, around the time this photo of late activist Philip McLeod ( strip) and his iends was taken. In the early 1960s, major papers like the Toronto Star and the Globe And Mail wouldn’t touch the subject of homosexualy, wh the exceptn of publishg articl that had to do wh hysteria about the queer muny.

LGBTQ / GAY HISTORY CANADA

The story was about the staff at the Kg Edward Hotel tryg to keep patrons of Letros Tavern, a gay bar across the street, om equentg the hotel’s washrooms. Any Other Way speculat that the story, while anti-queer on the surface, actually helped gay men disver where (and where not) to go to meet other men.

TOP 5 GAY CLUBS & BARS OLD TORONTOGAY CLUBS & BARS OLD TORONTO

In the openg lyrics, “Tell her that I’m happy, tell her that I’m gay, ” Shane’s e of the word “gay” was thought to be a subtle nod to the queer scene, as wasn’t yet beg ed a sexual ntext mastream vernacular. But there was still much to march agast 1972—for stance, homosexualy was still nsired ​legal ​grounds for rejectg immigrants. LGBT teams ma possible for queers to reclaim public space, and their rise wh the cy gave Toronto a reputatn as a hub of queer sports, pecially as lol teams formed relatnships wh gay leagu across North Ameri.

Toronto has sce hosted several queer sportg events, cludg the 2000 Gay Softball World Seri. On Febary 5, 1981, police raid a number of Toronto bathho, plac of sanctuary for gay men, and arrted hundreds of people, many of whom hadn’t yet e out to fay or iends.

One of the largt and longt-lastg gay dance clubs Toronto, this Sherbourne Street super-club went through a number of evolutns as spurred the lol mastreamg of gay culture durg the ’80s and ’90s. History: The story of Boots, one of Toronto’s bt-known and longt-lastg gay dance clubs, begs 1980 at the Waldorf Astoria apartment buildg. Bob Harrison De, known simply as “Bob Harrison” durg his DJ days, rells that Boots, like many gay bars of the time, was ially a “stand-and-stare cise bar for men.

THE 5 BEST TORONTO GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS TORONTO

Why was important: Boots opened at a time when gay bars were reasonably plentiful, largely based on or near Yonge Street, but there was not yet a centralized Gay Village. Boots and Bud’s also opened a mere half-year after the Febary 1981 police raids on four gay bathho that rulted over 300 arrts. Large related protts helped spark a strong gay-and-lbian rights movement this cy and beyond.

GAY TORONTO THE 1970S

For years before, bars that were gog unr would ‘go gay’ for the fal months, but gay bars were beg more rpectable, cleaner, and nicer. “Unfortunately, unlike Montreal and Vanuver, gay bars Toronto—other than Stag—didn’t spend money on sound and lights.

Convcg Boots to pay a lightg person was a victory, as was unheard of gay bars Toronto before that, except at Stag and Charly’s [dis atop the St.

TORONTO GAY DISTRICT: THE VILLAGE

Its succs had a profound effect on the few other gay bars, and changed the landspe of gay Toronto those days. He scrib algs wh Rick Stenhoe and his then-new “silent partners who weren’t volved the club or the gay muny. “Everybody was gog there, the tun were hot, and there was a real sense of eedom—pecially sce we were really makg headway wh gay rights then.

“I’m not sure when Rick Stenhoe beme sole owner, but his dream was a boutique gay hotel, ” says Storey. This trend ntued as Matchett and Storey spearhead Boots and Bud’s most radil transformatn yet: to Boots Warehoe, Toronto’s largt gay dance club of the time, and the Kurbash, an unabashed sleaze bar, plete wh a maze, gargoyle glory hol, and a shower. To me, they were and are the generatn of gay men that has fed our strengths and gave digny to our muny.

It really turned me on to the ‘new hoe’ scene, ” says Harris, who observ that by 1994, “hoe—real hoe—was fally beg huge the gay scene.