Will Toronto’s gay neighbourhood live to see another day?
Contents:
- GAY
- ELEVEN AMAZG PHOTOGRAPHS THAT TELL THE GAY HISTORY OF TORONTO
- LGBTQ / GAY HISTORY CANADA
- BT OLD MAN GAY BAR NEAR ME TORONTO, ONTAR
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.
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. 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.
ELEVEN AMAZG PHOTOGRAPHS THAT TELL THE GAY HISTORY OF TORONTO
* toronto gay bars 1980s *
“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.
LGBTQ / GAY HISTORY CANADA
Learn about the Davie Street Village and the fight for LGBTQ and gay rights across Canada. * 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.
BT OLD MAN GAY BAR NEAR ME TORONTO, ONTAR
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 *
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. “John Burt was good at attractg crowds, ” says Gee Fichna, one of Komrads’ longt-servg weekend doormen; he had also worked for landmark lol gay bars Club Manatee and St.
The 1981 Toronto gay bathhoe raids marked a turng pot the muny’s fight back agast police harassment and other forms of discrimatn.