Any Other Way: How Toronto Got Queer

This groundbreaking edition, which was shortlisted for the 2017 Toronto Book Award, was co-edited by Jane.

Toronto is home to multiple and thriving queer communities that reflect the dynamism of a global city. Any Other Way is an eclectic and richly illustrated local history that reveals how these individuals and community networks have transformed Toronto from a place of churches and conservative mores into a city that has consistently led the way in queer activism, not just in Canada, but internationally. From the earliest pioneers to the parades, pride and politics of the contemporary era, Any Other Way draws on a range of voices to explore how the residents of queer Toronto have shaped and reshaped one of the world’s most diverse cities.

“This is an extraordinary book, and one of the most important collections of writing by Torontonians ever published. The editors have assembled contributions from members of Toronto’s LGBTQ2S communities, who tell the stories of their lives, often in the face of ostracization, alienation, and abuse. It is impossible to come away from this book without realizing that Toronto is a better city – more human, empathetic, and accepting – because of the people in this book.” – The Toronto Book Award jury

Co-editors: John Lorinc, Stephanie Chambers, Jane Farrow, Maureen Fitzgerald, Ed Jackson, Tim McCaskell, Rebecka Sheffield, Tatum Taylor, Rahim Thawer

Coach House Press, May 2017

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Foreword | Kristyn Wong-Tam

• ‘A New Way of Lovin’’: Queer Toronto Gets Schooled by Jackie Shane | Steven Maynard

ARRIVING

• A Whole Other Story | Faith Nolan

• Agokwe | Art Zoccole

• Take Me Away to Another World | Rebecka Sheffield

• I Was Miss General Idea | Derek McCormack

• Uptown/Downtown: Diary of a Hong Kong Dyke in Nineties Toronto | Karen B. K. Chan

• How Jackie Shane Helped ‘Satisfy My Soul’ | Elaine Gaber-Katz

• Hanna and Saied’s Story | Kamal Al-Solaylee

SPACES

• Kiss and Tell (2013): Church Street Mural Project | Natalie Wood

• Town Squares and Spiritual Hearts | Shawn Micallef

• I Was in Charge of Kitty Litter | Jane Farrow

• Wood-Wellesley and the ‘Mystery Block’ | Mark Osbaldeston

• Wilde and Urban Wilderness: Defining Public Space in Allan Gardens | Tatum Taylor

• Steps to Gentrification | Allison Burgess

• Downtown Friends: Photographs by Pamela Gawn | Jane Farrow

• The Evolving Demographics of Toronto’s Gay Village | Michael Ornstein and Tim McCaskell

• Queer and Cripple in the 6ix | Andrew Gurza

• In the Spirit of Beth: Queering Spiritual Space | Nicole Tanguay

• Cardio-Highs: Winning and Running Away All at Once | Rahim Thawer

• This Space Is Taken | Stephanie Nolen

• The World’s Largest Lesbian Hockey League | Margaret Webb

ORIGINS

• Sex, Scandal, and Punishment in Early Toronto | Ed Jackson and Jarett Henderson

• Alexander Wood: The Invention of a Legend | Ed Jackson

• Six Nights in the Albert Lane, 1917 | Steven Maynard

• Oscar Wilde’s Type (in Toronto) | C. S. Clark

DEMIMONDE

• A Place Like The Continental | Elise Chenier

• Halloween Balls: From Letros to the St. Charles | Christine Sismondo

• Notes on the Gay Bar | Robert Popham

• Tabloid Journalism and the Rise of a Gay Press in Toronto | Donald W. McLeod

• Headline Homophobia Tops Tabloid Treatments! | Christine Sismondo

• Is Your Daughter Safe? Reactionary Reflections on the Suicide of a Pansy | Excerpted from Hush

• Piss in a Bag | Gerald Hannon

• Queenie and Ted | Kate Zieman

• Dyke Fight at the Blue Jay | Cathi Bond

• See: Sex Perverts | Stephanie Chambers

• And the Stars Look Very Different Today | Jennifer Coffey

• Sara Ellen Dunlop and the Music Room: A Memory | John Forbes

EMERGENCE

• Hanlan’s Point | Ed Jackson

• The Brunswick Four: An Oral History | Pat Murphy

• Closing the Spy Holes at the Parkside Tavern | Gerald Hannon

• Jim Egan, Gay Warrior | Donald W. McLeod

• The Homosexual Next Door (1964) | Sidney Katz

• A Bastion of Straight Male Privilege: OCA in the 1970s | Richard Fung

• Get Mad – Play Rock ’n’ Roll | Susan G. Cole

• I Want Her So Much I Feel Sick: An interview with Rough Trade’s Carole Pope | Jane Farrow and John Lorinc

RESISTING, SHARING, ORGANIZING

• Worlds in Collision | Rupert Raj

• A Literary Breakthrough: Glad Day’s Origins | Jearld Moldenhauer

• George Hislop: The Unofficial Gay Mayor | Gerald Hannon

• Co-operative Living Happens in the Kitchen! | Dennis Findlay

• The Fallout of a Murder | Ed Jackson

• The Raid on The Body Politic | Ed Jackson

• That Collective House on Dewson Street | Debbie Douglas

• From St. Helens Avenue to Dewson Street | Makeda Silvera

• Out of the Cold the Thousands Came | Philip McLeod

• An Unsurpassed Rabble-Rouser: Chris Bearchell | Gillian Rodgerson

• ‘Friend of the Court’: Legal Resistance at Old City Hall | Tom Hooper

• An Experiment in Alternative Living: Washington Avenue | Diana Meredith

• Speaking Up for the Gay Community, 1979 | John Sewell

• Turning the Page | Kyle Rae

TORONTO CITY COUNCIL MOTIONS: THREE TENTATIVE STEPS TOWARDS RECOGNITION

• Seized by the Cause: Glad Day and the Canada Customs Battle | Elle Flanders

• Theatre as Settlement: Buddies in Bad Times | Sky Gilbert

• Black Friday … With and Without the Question Mark | Alec Butler

• Disengagement Is No Longer an Option: David Rayside | Rebecka Sheffield

• No-Cop Zone? Reflections on the Pussy Palace Raid | Chanelle Gallant

• Marvellous Grounds: QTBIPOC Counter-Archiving against Imperfect Erasures | Jin Haritaworn, Ghaida Moussa, and Syrus Marcus Ware, with Alvis Choi, Amandeep Kaur Panag, and Rio Rodriguez

• The Invisible Visibles and CelebrAsian | Vince Ha and Mezart Daulet

• Mississauga Meet-up: Queer Organizing in the 905 | Anu Radha Verma

EPIDEMIC

• Life with Dad and ‘the Aunties’ | Stefan Lynch

• ‘Avoir le cul entre deux chaises’ | Yvette Perreault

• AIDS ACTION NOW! and the Aerosolized Pentamidine Trial | Tim McCaskell

• Cry | Michael Lynch

SCENES

• Our People: Janis Cole and Holly Dale in the 1970s | Jon Davies

• KillJoy’s Kastle: Allyson Mitchell’s Vision | Jane Farrow

• Vazaleen’s Tawny Le Sabre | Alexander McClelland

• Ball Culture | Kurt Mungal, photos by Alejandro Santiago

• Yellow Boots on Queer West | John Greyson

• Desh Pardesh: A Cultural Festival with Attitude | Sharon Fernandez

• Red Spot Nights | Michèle Pearson Clarke

• Lengua Latina: Queer Palabras en Toronto | janet romero-leiva and Karleen Pendleton Jiménez

• Hidden Cameras and Their Gay Church Folk | Sarah Liss

SEX

• Route of Heroes | Keith Cole

• Guess What … That Hand on Your Shoulder Could Be a Cop’s | The Body Politic

• Desire Lines | Jake Tobin Garrett

• Under a Queer Blue Sky | Sly Sarkisova

• Chalking It Up to Experience | Andrew Zealley

• Towel Service | Monica Noy

• The First Rule of Pussy Palace | Fiona MacCool

• International Ms Leather 2000 Comes to Toronto | Hilary Cellini Cook and Karleen Pendleton Jiménez

• Geographies of Gay Sex in the Digital Age | Mathew Gagné

RIGHTS AND RITES

• It Seemed Like a Gay Wedding To Me | Bob Gallagher

• ‘Why Do You Go There?’: Struggle, Faith, and Love at the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto | David K. Seitz

• From Banns to DOMA | John Lorinc

• City of Love at the Castle on the Hill | Maureen FitzGerald and Mariana Valverde

• LGBTQ2S Parenting: Some Milestones | Rachel Epstein

• ‘We Are Your Children Too!’: How Toronto’s Children’s Aid Society Learned to Support Queer Youth | John McCullagh

• Building the Unity Mosque | El-Farouk Khaki

PRIDE

• Pride: A Political History | Tim McCaskell

• Toronto’s Unrecognized First Dyke March | Amy Gottlieb

• The Only Time Gay Asians Led the Pride Parade | Alan Li

• The Encounter of a Brown, Trini, Carib, Callaloo Dyke with Police at Pride 1999 | leZlie Lee Kam

• Blackness Yes! Blockorama: Making Black Queer Diasporic Space in Toronto Pride | R. Cassandra Lord in conversation with Jamea Zuberi

• Pride Is Hot and Red and Political | Rachel Epstein

CONCLUSION

• Did Toronto Get Queer? | Tatum Taylor and Rahim Thawer