Se of legendary Toronto gay bar may soon be topped by massive tower

toronto gay bars 1980s

Will Toronto’s gay neighbourhood live to see another day?

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GAY

After years of stg abandoned on Church Street, the buildg that once hoed one of Toronto's most inic gay nightclubs uld soon transform i... * toronto gay bars 1980s *

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.

ELEVEN AMAZG PHOTOGRAPHS THAT TELL THE GAY HISTORY OF TORONTO

* toronto gay bars 1980s *

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. 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.

LGBTQ / GAY HISTORY CANADA

Learn about the Davie Street Village and the fight for LGBTQ and gay rights across Canada. * toronto gay bars 1980s *

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. 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.

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Toronto’s Gay Communy Dance Commtee fund lbian and gay liberatn anizg an unkd era that ma muny work not only difficult, but creasgly necsary. * toronto gay bars 1980s *

That club gave way to notorly tough gay-and-straight dance club Oz, which boasted entrance hallways signed to look like yellow brick roads. “Komrads, wh s shy, stals-steel dancefloor, hi-tech sound and lightg—cludg pk and purple neon lights—was a h, and the talk of Toronto’s gay muny when opened Augt of 1985. Why was important: Open seven nights a week, wh a fé servg food om the afternoon onwards, Komrads was a safe and well-mataed club that red about s gay clientele.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* TORONTO GAY BARS 1980S

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

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