For almost a century, queer and transgender folks have gathered at Hanlan’s Level Seashore within the Toronto Islands, making it one of many oldest surviving LGBTQ2S+ locations on the earth. That historical past is now being acknowledged in a brand new stamp issued this week by Canada Publish.
The Crown company lately launched a Delight Month marketing campaign honouring 4 historic turning factors within the motion for queer and transgender rights in Canada.
Hanlan’s Level Seashore has been a gathering place for LGBTQ2S+ folks since a minimum of the Nineteen Thirties. It hosted an occasion marketed as “Toronto’s first homosexual picnic” on August 1, 1971, which is taken into account to be the primary large-scale queer celebration in Canadian historical past and the nation’s first Delight celebration.
It was held after LGBTQ2S+ organizations from throughout the nation met to finalize a “We Demand” letter which known as for modifications to federal legal guidelines and insurance policies regarding queer and transgender folks.
Hanlan’s Level Seashore supplied the group on the time with an area to return collectively and lift consciousness about an upcoming a rally on Parliament Hill which occurred later that month and have become a defining second within the combat for queer and transgender rights in Canada.
The location was awarded a commemorative plaque by Heritage Toronto in 2024.
From left to proper: Gerald Hannon and Ed Jackson at Hanlan’s Level Seashore through the Homosexual Days picnic in 1978. (Courtesy of Ed Jackson)
“Over the various many years, there’s virtually no a part of the Canadian queer expertise that hasn’t touched this place indirectly, form, or kind,” Travis Myers with the group Mates of Hanlan’s informed CityNews. “Queer racial justice teams gathered right here within the ’80s and ’90s. HIV/AIDS organizations fundraised right here on the onset of the epidemic. Even queer spiritual teams gathered right here to do communion in secret.”
“Whereas queer historical past can typically really feel frozen in time, Hanlan’s is extremely distinctive in that it’s a place that also exists right now,” he added. “Inside the previous few years, we’ve seen moments the place this seaside, and the group area inside it, has virtually been destroyed by means of ignorance of decisionmakers. By telling the tales of this place loud and proud, no one can use the excuse of ignorance any extra.”
Beachgoers have taken concern with rising anti-queer violence lately, together with ecological disrepair and a now deserted plan by the Metropolis of Toronto to construct a live performance venue alongside the seaside.
Canada Publish has launched a brand new stamp celebrating Hanlan’s Level Seashore. (Canada Publish)
The colorful stamp was illustrated by queer artist Tim Singleton and designed to replicate the historical past of the location. It contains a shirtless man with an Nineteen Seventies-style moustache and chest hair. His arm is wrapped round one other man, suggesting some kind of intimacy.
“Past the plain, the shortline and the skyline, the stamp needed to depict one thing extra intangible: group,” Myers defined. “Because the drafts got here alongside, Tim was capable of convey that to life spectacularly. For anybody who has been to this place within the current or in many years previous, you may really feel your expertise mirrored within the vibrant look of the stamp.”
Hanlan’s Level is one among 4 websites which might be being acknowledged by Canada Publish this Delight Month. The others embrace: Truxx Bar in Montreal, Membership Carousel in Calgary and the third North American Native Homosexual & Lesbian Gathering close to Beausejour, Manitoba.
“Every stamp shines a lightweight on a selected second and site, its significance then and now, and its function in working towards equality and freedom for all,” a spokesperson for Canada Publish stated.
