From 1988 until 2001, I lived in the heart of Toronto’s gay village which was, then, in its prime. Gay owned and managed businesses dominated Church Street with new ones opening quickly to take the space occupied by any that failed. It was the period when “The Steps” outside The Second Cup coffee shop became so popular they were elevated to near-cult status and international fame. The village was populated by a homogenous homo population, primarily single males, mostly 25 to 40 years old and mostly renters (there were a couple of new condominium buildings where the gay professionals and couples settled). It was a population that was attracted to the area because of its proximity to all the attractions offered “downtown” in Canada’s largest city, employment within walking distance and.most importantly safety for “out” gay men and women A place where we could go about our business and socialise, free of judgement or threat because of our still-to-be generally accepted sexuality. A place where we could walk home from bars or friends’ homes at any time of the day or night without fear.
Things started to change in the mid-1990s. There were those who blamed the then conservative Ontario government for lack of social services and subsidized housing for an increasing number of people living in the streets and fending, sometimes violently, for themselves. Putting the blame on outsiders allowed village residents to maintain a myth about their own purity of spirit – acceptance, mutual support, community – but resulted in a tolerance of deviant behaviour that began to damage the community. Gay men and woman who might use soft recreational drugs on weekends went easy when serious addicts were drawn to the area and loath to condemn the infiltration of drug dealers, crack houses and the criminality that follows addicts’ need to feed their habits. A community that had suffered for decades at the hands of the police for its “deviant” sexuality was loath to call in the police to deal with drug related crime. The “519 Community Centre”, which in the 1980s was packed every night with every conceivable gay-lesbian interest and activity group, came to be a drop in centre for the homeless and every conceivable self-help/recovery program.
By 2000, in a relationship, solidly connected to gay/lesbian groups and no longer in need of gay bars and coffee shops within walking distance, and seeing the deterioration of the neighbourhood, I relocated to Thornhill. I left behind high-rise living for a large garden, birds singing outside my window in the morning instead of screaming police, ambulance an fire-engine sirens at 3:00m, and suburban neighbours who didn’t think twice about the male couple living next door. “Life in the ‘burbs“ for the past seven years has been completely satisfying – the gay village is only 45 minutes away by public transit when we want it – with never a thought to moving back.
In the past week my old neighbourhood has been in the news. The current issue of xtra, the gay community newspaper, headlines “bashing on Maitland” on the front page and an inside story reports on 3 gay-bashings on my old street in the past month. Unlike some previous reports of violence in the area, these were not all wee-small-hours of the morning incidents; these were broad daylight. Steamworks is replacing its existing surveillance of its entrance and the adjacent alley with infra-red night vision technology.
Yesterday, The Globe and Mail featured the declining gayness of the village in a full page report. The thesis was that increasing numbers of heterosexuals are discovering the low rents and easy accessibility that attracted gays to the village in the 1980s and are populating the rental buildings as well as the hundreds of new condominium suites that are being built in the area. School enrolment is up and couples are planning to raise families in the high-rises. Gay dance clubs are disappearing due to a lack of customers, never to be replaced, and locally, gay owned small businesses are being replaced by chains and franchises.
The “straightening” of the village is attributed in part to the increasing acceptance of gays and lesbians in the broader Canadian society. Frankie and I have observed this trend over the past few years. On the disappearance of the gay dance clubs, we note young gay men and women party with their straight friends and both mix comfortably in the entertainment district south and west of Queen/University. They no longer need a gay village to feel safe expressing their sexuality. Older gay man and woman, like us, are moving away from the village for quieter venues and to escape the physical threats that are becoming more common in the village. Not insignificant has been the normalization of homosexuality. At least in the suburbs of Toronto, most gay men and women can would find themselves totally accepted by their neighbours. In a sign of how things have changed, Frankie observed a few weeks ago, two teenage males making-out on the northbound subway early on a Saturday evening while the other passengers ignored their activity as they would a teenage boy and girl making out ten years ago. By all appearances, having spend an afternoon downtown and too young to be admitted to a gay bar or bathhouse, the boys were on their way home to the suburbs to fulfill their passion.
Further evidence of how things have changed was offered in the Globe report. Steamworks, perhaps the leading gay bathhouse, has commenced a subway advertising campaign. I noticed the first ads, illustrated with colour photos of the gym, hot tub, etc. and describing the “spa for men”, a few weeks ago. It took a second reading to identify the clues (always open, private relaxation rooms) that are the clue for gay men that this is a bathhouse and not a facial and manicure spa. According to the Globe, the transit commission has received only 4 complaints about the ads. This compares to the “outrage” only 2 or 3 years ago when Pride Day organizers tried to print simple text ads on transit transfer slips and run ads on the information boards in subway stations, both of which were pulled due to the complaints. Now it seems to be a case of “so what?”.
Whether is for the good or not, the ‘hood is changing.
Things started to change in the mid-1990s. There were those who blamed the then conservative Ontario government for lack of social services and subsidized housing for an increasing number of people living in the streets and fending, sometimes violently, for themselves. Putting the blame on outsiders allowed village residents to maintain a myth about their own purity of spirit – acceptance, mutual support, community – but resulted in a tolerance of deviant behaviour that began to damage the community. Gay men and woman who might use soft recreational drugs on weekends went easy when serious addicts were drawn to the area and loath to condemn the infiltration of drug dealers, crack houses and the criminality that follows addicts’ need to feed their habits. A community that had suffered for decades at the hands of the police for its “deviant” sexuality was loath to call in the police to deal with drug related crime. The “519 Community Centre”, which in the 1980s was packed every night with every conceivable gay-lesbian interest and activity group, came to be a drop in centre for the homeless and every conceivable self-help/recovery program.
By 2000, in a relationship, solidly connected to gay/lesbian groups and no longer in need of gay bars and coffee shops within walking distance, and seeing the deterioration of the neighbourhood, I relocated to Thornhill. I left behind high-rise living for a large garden, birds singing outside my window in the morning instead of screaming police, ambulance an fire-engine sirens at 3:00m, and suburban neighbours who didn’t think twice about the male couple living next door. “Life in the ‘burbs“ for the past seven years has been completely satisfying – the gay village is only 45 minutes away by public transit when we want it – with never a thought to moving back.
In the past week my old neighbourhood has been in the news. The current issue of xtra, the gay community newspaper, headlines “bashing on Maitland” on the front page and an inside story reports on 3 gay-bashings on my old street in the past month. Unlike some previous reports of violence in the area, these were not all wee-small-hours of the morning incidents; these were broad daylight. Steamworks is replacing its existing surveillance of its entrance and the adjacent alley with infra-red night vision technology.
Yesterday, The Globe and Mail featured the declining gayness of the village in a full page report. The thesis was that increasing numbers of heterosexuals are discovering the low rents and easy accessibility that attracted gays to the village in the 1980s and are populating the rental buildings as well as the hundreds of new condominium suites that are being built in the area. School enrolment is up and couples are planning to raise families in the high-rises. Gay dance clubs are disappearing due to a lack of customers, never to be replaced, and locally, gay owned small businesses are being replaced by chains and franchises.
The “straightening” of the village is attributed in part to the increasing acceptance of gays and lesbians in the broader Canadian society. Frankie and I have observed this trend over the past few years. On the disappearance of the gay dance clubs, we note young gay men and women party with their straight friends and both mix comfortably in the entertainment district south and west of Queen/University. They no longer need a gay village to feel safe expressing their sexuality. Older gay man and woman, like us, are moving away from the village for quieter venues and to escape the physical threats that are becoming more common in the village. Not insignificant has been the normalization of homosexuality. At least in the suburbs of Toronto, most gay men and women can would find themselves totally accepted by their neighbours. In a sign of how things have changed, Frankie observed a few weeks ago, two teenage males making-out on the northbound subway early on a Saturday evening while the other passengers ignored their activity as they would a teenage boy and girl making out ten years ago. By all appearances, having spend an afternoon downtown and too young to be admitted to a gay bar or bathhouse, the boys were on their way home to the suburbs to fulfill their passion.
Further evidence of how things have changed was offered in the Globe report. Steamworks, perhaps the leading gay bathhouse, has commenced a subway advertising campaign. I noticed the first ads, illustrated with colour photos of the gym, hot tub, etc. and describing the “spa for men”, a few weeks ago. It took a second reading to identify the clues (always open, private relaxation rooms) that are the clue for gay men that this is a bathhouse and not a facial and manicure spa. According to the Globe, the transit commission has received only 4 complaints about the ads. This compares to the “outrage” only 2 or 3 years ago when Pride Day organizers tried to print simple text ads on transit transfer slips and run ads on the information boards in subway stations, both of which were pulled due to the complaints. Now it seems to be a case of “so what?”.
Whether is for the good or not, the ‘hood is changing.
