The last gay bar in St. John's has closed. Now, the 2SLGBTQ+ community is making its own safe spaces
Queer spaces still important, say organizers
St. John's is without an official gay bar this Pride month — but a patchwork of queer-run events are creating safe nighttime spaces for the 2SLGBTQ+ community anyway.
Hanya Eid is part of a group called the Queer Picnic, which organizes both all ages and 19+ events for women and gender-diverse people.
"We want people to really immerse themselves. It's kind of like a fun, sexy, playful environment type thing," she said in an interview with CBC Radio's The St. John's Morning Show. "But at the forefront of that is, like, everyone's safety and comfort."
The group's Lavender Lounge dance parties bring together iconic queer media, from films like Jennifer's Body to musicians like Britney Spears and Chappell Roan.
Eid said the events are open to everyone, but are specifically focused on people who identify as FLINTA — female, lesbian, intersex, non-binary, transgender and agender — and who may have felt out of place, even at 2SLGBTQ+ events.
"We celebrate everyone, but we also, you know, celebrate and honour the challenges that people face," she said. "You know, female-identifying or non-binary and trans people within the queer community."
Velvet shuts its doors
For decades in Canada, bars served as gathering places for 2SLGBTQ+ people who couldn't be themselves in public for fear of reprisal. Raids on gay bars in cities like Toronto and Montreal served as catalysts for 2SLGBTQ+ rights movements.
Eddy St. Coeur, chair of St. John's Pride, said even today, queer bars still serve as important spaces — especially for vulnerable or questioning members of the 2SLGBTQ+ community.
"If you were downtown and you wanted to go be in [the] community, there were known spaces that were designated as safe, queer, welcoming spaces that truly lived up to that, and people would gravitate toward it," he said. "The problem now is that we don't have that anymore."
For over a decade, Velvet Club and Lounge largely served as a focal point for the city's 2SLGBTQ+ scene. That came to an end last November, after local drag queen Tara Nova criticized the bar's pay for drag artists in comments made on Canada's Drag Race.
Though the venue did increase performer pay, it ultimately closed in February.
Lee Hurley, a Memorial University student and reporter for The Muse, wrote a story about the 2SLGBTQ+ community's reaction to the closure.
Hurley said they spoke with some transgender and non-binary people who weren't sorry to see the bar close. But they also heard from some 2SLGBTQ+ people who felt like they could be themselves at the bar.
"They were super devastated because that kind of seemed like their only safe space," Hurley said.
Local music fills gap
Without an official 2SLGBTQ+ bar, some members of the queer community are gravitating to different sections of the local music scene.
Hurley said they attend queer-friendly indie rock and punk shows.
"It's kind of like a little hidden queer nightlife in itself, I suppose," they said.
Shauna Gilpin and Jenesta Power have been holding queer-friendly techno parties under the label Lavi Seks, the name of their now-closed bar.
Gilpin said a Lavi Seks event is all about the music and the people.
"The music is why people are coming, like music and connection," she said. "People meet on the dance floor, you know? It's like a community."
Power said the duo, who both identify as queer, are creating their own safe space.
"If you can kind of inspire some other queer kids that are, you know, from around the bay like I am, to say, like, 'hey, I can be myself. I can start something and kind of be successful at it within a small community,' you know, that's a win for me," Power said.
Drag performers adapt
For years, Velvet served as the main place to find drag performances in St. John's.
But according to Lukus Oram-Feltham — who performs as Tara Nova — drag artists have quickly adapted, performing at other venues which don't specifically cater to the 2SLGBTQ+ community.
"People don't realize sometimes that, like, a queer space isn't just a spot that has a rainbow flag on it necessarily. A queer space is what you make it," he said.
Still, Oram-Feltham believes 2SLGBTQ+ specific spaces are still important, especially for people who identify as transgender, non-binary or gender-non conforming.
"These queer spaces are a place where they can go and feel, like absolutely accepted and not have to worry about being criticized about the way that they look or the way that they present," he said.
"That's what I believe a queer space is, a space where we can all just go in and be comfortably ourselves."
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