Dudes (Toronto Gay Bar/1977-1984) vintage soft cell film screenings

film screenings

More than just a location

and as a rare place where women who loved women could show up and just be

coded safety

Dudes (Toronto Gay Bar/1977-1984) vintage soft cell film screeningsDudes Toronto, ON (19771984) In the late 1970s, when Torontos gay nightlife was still largely underground, there was a tiny cruising bar tucked away behind the bustle of Yonge Street called Dudes. Opened around 1977 by activist Roger Wilkesa founder of the York University Homophile Associationand his partner David Payne, the bar sat in an alley behind the Parkside Tavern near Yonge and Wellesley, then the center of Torontos gay social life. At the