Up ahead of you, you should see a black sign with rainbow colours and the letter Q on it. Walk toward that sign. On Friday and Saturday nights, loud dance music can be heard blaring from this building. It’s home to Regina’s only gay bar, Q Nightclub and Lounge. It’s not unusual for a Canadian city the size of Regina to have a gay bar, but what is unique is that this bar is member owned and operated. The organization that runs Q goes by the name of “Gay and Lesbian Community of Regina” or GLCR for short. It was incorporated in 1972 as a non-profit. Brian Gladwell is a longtime member of Regina’s queer community. He remembers when the city’s gay bar wasn’t this visible. In fact, it was so invisible in the 70s that Regina’s first gay bar was hidden away in a house. BRIAN: The first time I went to the gay bar, it was quite an interesting experience. I was living in Fort Qu’Appelle at the time. I called some crisis line and it took a few calls and they finally said yes, there’s this club and here’s the phone number. So I phoned up and I had to be vetted before they would give me the address of the club, so I had to meet one of their members, and then he took me to the club and introduced me around. It was in a converted house at that time on Smith Street. Well, it was fun. You went in the back door and you paid your admission fee there and then there was a bar area and you brought your own. So if you brought beer, you gave it to the bartender, and he gave you tokens for the number of beer you brought, or if it was a bottle, he’d put your name on it. EVIE: On a good night, about 50 to 60 people could be found there. Mingling, drinking and dancing. The house was located at 2241 Smith Street and it was owned by the GLCR. It has since been demolished and is currently a parking lot. Brian estimates that only about ¼ of the membership back then was publicly out. Around 1980, the community sold the house and moved into a commercial space across the street from where you’re standing. Turn now to face Broad Street. See that parking lot on the corner across the street? That’s where Regina’s gay bar was during the early 80s. The GLCR then moved to the Warehouse District before landing here in its current location – where it’s been for the past 15 to 20 years. I, myself, remember going to the gay bar in the late 90s and early 2000s, and it would be packed with queer people seeking refuge from bars that were hostile to us. Today, queer people are more accepted in society, and with online dating, the number of gay bars in North America has been declining. Brian says that Q has been impacted by these trends as well. BRIAN: You can go dance somewhere else, you can go feel comfortable, feel at home, somewhere else, perhaps more so, and at least you can get something to eat and you might like the music better. And in some ways that reflects a great success on our part that we don’t have to segregate ourselves off into another area, but there’s a culture there that’s at danger of being lost too and I think it’s a culture that was a good culture and one that there really is a loss if it’s gone. EVIE: But not everyone has reached that level of acceptance in the broader society. Some transgender and non-binary and two-spirit folks are still in need of safe spaces, and they don’t always find that safety at the gay bar. For Brian, though, the GLCR has been a place of community. BRIAN: I really like that relaxed feeling. You know, when you come here, you’re home. In many ways, traditionally you’re home because you’re safe. But you’re also home because you’re with friends and your chosen family as well. Volunteers work behind the bar. We’ve had members get married there, we’ve had people just throw a baby shower, we’ve had memorial services. You know a long time ago a lot of gays were rejected by their families and Christmas is a particularly difficult time so we’ve always made a point of being open Christmas Day and having dinner. And there wouldn’t be necessarily a lot of people there but it would sure feel nice.
Music: It feels good to be alive too by Loyalty Freak Music from the freemusicarchive.org
EVIE: Thank you so much for listening and thank you to all of the people who generously agreed to share their stories with us. Funding for this project was provided by Congress Community Connections, the University of Regina Women's and Gender Studies Department and the UR Pride Centre for Sexual and Gender Diversity. Special thanks to Dr. Claire Carter for helping to conceptualize the tour, secure funding and for providing feedback.
