Toronto's first gay sports bar has permanently closed

Contents:

• GAY BARS ARE DISAPPEARG
• AS GAY BARS TORONTO DISAPPEARED, A LLIEVILLE BAR REIMAGED THEIR SPACE TO BE CLIVE TO ALL
• ONTAR'S ONLY GAY BAR NORTH OF TORONTO VOWS TO PERSEVERE UNR COVID
• GAY TORONTO
• TORONTO GAY BARS & CLUBS
• 12 OF THE HOTTT GAY BARS TORONTO FOR STEAMY NIGHTS
• THE 5 BEST TORONTO GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS TORONTO

GAY BARS ARE DISAPPEARG

Read more om the Queer Spac Project Beaver was a shaphifter of a gay bar, one that has been transformed to a hnted mpground, a sorory stalked by a crazed killer, and a cubicled office for circ clowns, among other thgs. It lived the cy’s Wt End, away om the Gay Village where more mastream styl of drag are ually available. Revenue pletely dropped off durg quarante, and for an off-kilter gay bar tryg to survive one of the world’s most expensive ci, that’s a killer.

When she found the venue 2008, she was an awkward gay teen wh “green emo bangs down to my ch” and, naturally, didn’t f at the bars The Village, Toronto’s mastream gay mec. Toronto's first gay sports bar has permanently closed. Toronto's first gay sports bar has sadly closed permanently, quietly slippg out of existence durg the panmic.

Not only were they Toronto's first gay sports bar, they were also the first Canada to have a "Frost Rail, " a strip on the bar vered a th layer of ost where you uld keep your drk ld. Named after a group of lbians who fought for regnn the ’70s femist movement, Lavenr Menace isn’t the typil Village gay bar.

AS GAY BARS TORONTO DISAPPEARED, A LLIEVILLE BAR REIMAGED THEIR SPACE TO BE CLIVE TO ALL

Walkg over to you start to hear a distant thumpg, but 's when you pull back that impossibly heavy curta, that a scene om an '80s gay cisg flick reveals self. Flashg lights, stals steel dancefloor, and a crowd of gay men and women wh their hands and r the air.

"From what I see on Facebook, people feel lost, like gay refuge, " Sgh lghgly says. )"The retro nights were a big thg bee Boots [old gay bar on Sherbourne Street] had jt closed their retro nights when I tookover when I saw there was a niche for a more mature crowd and market, " Sgh says.

ONTAR'S ONLY GAY BAR NORTH OF TORONTO VOWS TO PERSEVERE UNR COVID

" Sgh adapted to the tim and had nights for Drag Kgs, Queens, dtry nights, TICOT evengs, Miss Gay Toronto and legendary Pri parkg lot parti the back of the bar. "Especially gay men don't need to go out to gay bars anymore to meet people.

Back the day gay bars were the only plac you uld go meet people. After years of stg abandoned on Church Street, the buildg that once hoed one of Toronto's most inic gay nightclubs uld soon transform to somethg far ls excg: the base of a ndo. Known as the "grandaddy" of Toronto's gay bar scene, The Barn rose to promence the 1980s, beg one of the cy's bt known hubs for the gay muny until the murr, still unsolved, of s owner Janko Naglic  2004.

That mural was the succsor of The Barn's gay wboy mural, a Molson Canadian classic. The herage buildg was home to the inic gay nightclub The Barn for s.

GAY TORONTO

Fzrovia's proposal acknowledg the Village as "the LGBTQ2S centre of the cy", along wh The Barn's impact on Toronto's gay history. Intensifitn Toronto's gay village has sparked fears around the erasure and mercializatn. Gay bars, the cultural hubs that have long fed the LGBTQ2S+ muny and have been host to many of s greatt victori, are closg at an alarmg rate.

In England, half of London’s gay bars closed between 2006 and 2017.

But memorializg the venu, the project, which lnched December 2020, also livers a nuanced and necsary acunt of the state of gay bars today: the soc-culturally important stutns are creasgly beg victims of an enomy that favours gentrifitn over prervatn.

TORONTO GAY BARS & CLUBS

Meet Mark Tara, host of a ‘ltle gay rad show’ servg up a b of everythg. Prervatnists are mpaigng to enshre some gay bars as historilly signifint spac. New York Cy’s famo Stonewall Inn, where rts 1969 set motn the morn gay rights movement, was signated a U.

And Royal Vxhall Tavern, one of the Uned Kgdom’s olst gay venu, was named a protected se by the herage mistry 2015. To be queer a gay bar is to be the majory for a few fleetg hours, a fantastil reprieve om the suffotg hegemony of heterosexualy that domat life outsi their walls.

12 OF THE HOTTT GAY BARS TORONTO FOR STEAMY NIGHTS

Every gay bar that clos is a massive blow to the liberatn of queer and trans people, the kd of liberatn that I and so many others uld never have achieved whout the spac.

After remiscg on the tim that they have vised other ci and had a gay bar to go to, they wanted to create somethg siar Toronto. Popular Toronto gay bar sudnly clos.

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

This is the obscure Wnie the Pooh quote wh which popular gay bar Statler's chose to bid farewell to the Church Wellley muny, posted to their Facebook page on the night of January 2, 2019. Gay bars have quickly bee a sualty of the COVID-19 panmic.

"We do feel that rponsibily to the gay muny, " said Brisebois. "Social spac and bars have actually been very important to two spir, queer and trans muni, for lbian and gay muni particular, this is one of the spac that queer muni started to e together and regnize themselv the 50s, 60s and 70s, " said Jen Johnson, chair of the Women, Genr and Sexualy Studi partment at Lrentian Universy.

Cute spots around the cy that are queer-owned, queer-n or jt queer are barely any gay bars left Toronto.