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

Contents:

• TOP 5 GAY CLUBS & BARS OLD TORONTOGAY CLUBS & BARS OLD TORONTO
• GAY
• 12 OF THE HOTTT GAY BARS TORONTO FOR STEAMY NIGHTS
• TOP 5 GAY CLUBS & BARS CHURCH AND WELLLEY (THE VILLAGE) (TORONTO)SEE ALL THGS TO DOGAY CLUBS & BARS CHURCH AND WELLLEY (THE VILLAGE)
• THE 5 BEST ONTAR GAY CLUBS & BARSSEE ALL THGS TO DOGAY CLUBS & BARS ONTAR
• THE 5 BEST TORONTO GAY CLUBS & BARSSEE ALL THGS TO DOGAY CLUBS & BARS TORONTO
• TOP 5 GAY CLUBS & BARS DOWNTOWN (TORONTO)SEE ALL THGS TO DOGAY CLUBS & BARS DOWNTOWN
• TOP 5 GAY CLUBS & BARS OLD TORONTOSEE ALL THGS TO DOGAY CLUBS & BARS OLD TORONTO

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

7 plac sorted by traveler favorGay Bars • Dance Clubs & DissGay BarsCabbagetown-South TownWhat travelers are saygRik TFrericton, Canada1, 353 ntributnsWhen we arrived late on a Friday we were entertaed by a uple of drag queens lip syncg - one at a time. Tripadvisor performs checks on mToronto, Canada3 ntributnsThe most fun you n have if you are gay the village (wh your cloth on ?) and the BEST mic.

It is one of the few gay dance bars left Toronto that do not play rap, hip hop, electroni and other circu bar mic. 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.

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Photo by Joan Anrson, urty of the Canadian Lbian & Gay Archiv.

12 OF THE HOTTT GAY BARS TORONTO FOR STEAMY NIGHTS

Wh the help of two rare DJ mix, we revis the early-‘80s Yonge Street club that provid Toronto’s gay muny wh a safe haven and showsed cuttg-edge dance-mic sounds, before the spectre of AIDS brought the party to a close.

By the mid-1960s, both taverns were known to be gay bars. At that pot history, gay nightlife Toronto was still very much unrground.

It was mon for the heterosexual owners of gay bars to be ntemptuo of their clientele.

TOP 5 GAY CLUBS & BARS CHURCH AND WELLLEY (THE VILLAGE) (TORONTO)SEE ALL THGS TO DOGAY CLUBS & BARS CHURCH AND WELLLEY (THE VILLAGE)

Arrts were ma, and the practice ntued throughout the 1970s, even as gay activists anized leafletg mpaigns and lled for boytts of the bar.

Durg the mid-to-late-1970s, Yonge Street was the ma artery of Toronto gay social life ( would shift to Church the mid-1980s). Those lookg to dance uld h a number of spots near Yonge and Wellley, like The Manatee, The Qut, Katra’s, Club David’s, The Maygay (later Charly’s), and Corneli, which sat above biker bar The Gasworks.

THE 5 BEST ONTAR GAY CLUBS & BARSSEE ALL THGS TO DOGAY CLUBS & BARS ONTAR

By 1977, there were even two gay-owned bars the area: The Barn, opened by Janko Naglic at 418 Church, and small cise bar Dus, opened by Roger Wilk, a founr of the York Universy Homophile Associatn, and his partner David Payne an alley jt behd The Parksi. In this edn of her nightlife-history seri, Denise Benson tak back to the after-hours nightclub that helped mobilize Toronto’s gay-rights movement the 1980s. History: In 1980s’ Toronto, street rners and dance clubs still served as sential meetg spots for gays and other margalized muni.

THE 5 BEST TORONTO GAY CLUBS & BARSSEE ALL THGS TO DOGAY CLUBS & BARS TORONTO

On the outer edg of the Church and Wellley-centred gay village, the rner was close to popular homo hnts cludg Yonge Street’s St. Charl Tavern, Trax, and the Parksi Tavern, wh gay dance club Stag above .

TOP 5 GAY CLUBS & BARS DOWNTOWN (TORONTO)SEE ALL THGS TO DOGAY CLUBS & BARS DOWNTOWN

Nearby bathho were plentiful, Queen’s Park was still a major pick-up spot, and easy bar-hoppg meant that gay men had lots of optns even those pre-Grdr days. “The Yonge and Isabella area was really amazgly gay, ” rells event producer Maxwell Blandford, once a key figure adventurome Toronto clubs and now based Miami.

TOP 5 GAY CLUBS & BARS OLD TORONTOSEE ALL THGS TO DOGAY CLUBS & BARS OLD TORONTO

“Many bars, along wh stor like Northbound Leather, were wh a uple of blocks and fed thoands of gay people to that rridor. In this edn of her nightclub-history seri, Denise Benson reviss the most sexcs-ful, celeb-studd gay hoe club of the ‘90s.

Some of the hub’s gay and after-hours history was explored earlier Then & Now piec about fluential 1980s venu Voodoo and Club Z; now, we return durg the ’90s, before the area was transformed by the massive ndo velopment we see today. In the mid-’70s, while big gay dance club The Manatee drew crowds to 11A St.

Joseph, Club David’s brought gay revelers south down the alley, to 16 Phipps, where a gold rendn of Michelangelo’s David prid over the dancefloor. In the ’80s, David was out and mirrors were as the buildg beme new gay club Le Mystique. Ask any gay person who was clubbg the 80s and 90s and they'll tell you Boots was the place to be.