Gay Archiv - Then and Now: Toronto Nightlife HistoryThen and Now: Toronto Nightlife History

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.

ELEVEN AMAZG PHOTOGRAPHS THAT TELL THE GAY HISTORY OF TORONTO

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.

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

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.

LGBTQ / GAY HISTORY CANADA

Part baret and piano bar, party seedy back room dance club, this place was what gay dreams were ma of. 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.

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

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).

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

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. 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.

GAY TORONTO THE 1970S

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. 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.

TORONTO GAY DISTRICT: THE VILLAGE

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.