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
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