Hamilton gay clubs
Hamilton&#;s Ultra Lounge/Martini Bar, a upscale gay martini bar and lounge, opened at Euclid Avenue in December Hamilton&#;s was a &#;sleek, intimate, [and] dimly lit&#; 3-floor multilevel martini and cocktail bar decorated in moody &#;burgundy, black, and brushed aluminum&#; hues. Hamilton&#;s uppermost floor contained the Ultra Lounge, an unwrap &#;loft space&#; with plush seating available throughout. Hamilton&#;s large Martini Bar, located on the ground floor, offered patrons an array of alcoholic mixed drinks and light snacks alongside ample seating. Below the Martini Bar, Hamilton&#;s basement club level boasted a &#;petite but functional gyrate floor, complete with a resident DJ.&#; Though Hamilton&#;s was gay owned (and largely gay operated) from its opening, it wasn&#;t until that the bar began to heavily market toward a predominantly LGBT+ crowd. As its gay patronage increased, Hamilton&#;s began hosting a wider variety of entertainment and events of interest to local LGBT+ community members. Hamilton&#;s frequently hosted local and national live entertainment, drag revues
Stella performing at the Criterion Hotel
Photograph from the collection of Jon Mancinelli
This is the story of one of Hamilton&#;s gay bars, and of the little role it played in the larger &#;coming out&#; of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. But first, what was it like to be non-heterosexual in Newcastle, in the days before consensual sex between men was decriminalised (), and anti discrimination was enshrined in our laws ()?
In the Introduction to &#;Out in the Valley - Hunter gay and lesbian histories&#;, the Editors Jim
Queer Times and Spaces in Downtown Hamilton
Queer Times and Spaces in Downtown Hamilton
From the Nest, Issue 15
by James Diemert
What do I feel when I verb of queer spaces in Hamilton?
The first feeling is bittersweet nostalgia. As an &#;elder millenial'&#;, I&#;ve been witness to some significant shifts in culture and changes in the way we live and combine with each other. My cohort&#;s experience of queer spaces in the develop of the traditional &#;gay bar” took place proximate the end of their heyday.
To many in my age group, and older, these spaces were once the centre of our communities. Although the list of significant cultural, economic, political and social changes that have defined my generations adulthood is exhaustingly long, I would verb that the decline of the gay bar is significant enough to collect a place on that list, and like many of these changes it did not happen in a vacuum, but is deeply intertwined with many of the other significant shifts that have occurred over the past several decades.
My own first experience with gay bars was The Embassy &#; the st
Queer Bars in Hamilton
From the late s to mid s, there was a thriving and growing number of gay bars both in Hamilton and around Canada. In Toronto, for example, there was Saint Charles Tavern where Halloween drag balls took place (Salerno ), and, on Dundas and Elizabeth Streets, there was a lesbian, “women-only” bar in the downstairs of The Continental House hotel (Romanska ). In Calgary, “Backlot” was opened in (and is still thriving) and, as described by CBC, is a “literal hole-in-the-wall” in the middle of Calgary’s Beltline neighbourhood (Easton ), and in the s, Club 70 was Edmonton’s first official gay bar situated in the basement of the Milla Pub (Connolly ). By the s, 80s, and 90s, other kinds of meeting places were emerging for queer folks, like the lesbian-feminist bookstore/café, gay leather bars, and, eventually, commercialized, straight spaces or twirl clubs. Emerging from what some saw as a “closeted” period for queer folks in pre-WWII North America, the bar was something electric, welcoming, or even life-changing.
In downtown Hamilton, according to Saira P