Dances with Werewolves

Saturday, October 26, 1991
The Concert Hall

“The dances sort of died off, the crowds died off, and at the end fewer people were coming. We ended up, I think, with the Pride and the Halloween dances as being the major last two events. At the same time, the Masonic Temple was going through all kinds of problems financially and with management… So, we got out, I think, just before they closed it all down and then the building was sold.”

- Rob Stout, GCDC Organiser

The participants with whom we spoke for this project suggest a variety of reasons for the GCDC shutting down in 1991. For one thing, more dance spaces and bars were being opened to serve LGBTQ2+ clientele in Toronto. Second, changes to management at the Masonic Temple made collaboration with the venue difficult. Finally, people were tired: the activists and organisers who sustained the GCDC had been doing so for a decade. They did this work in the face of sustained homophobia, the ongoing HIV/AIDS crisis, 

“The hot spot always changes, it never stays the same hotspot forever. It’s just the way it is, people want to be in the new hot spot.”

- Rob Stout, GCDC Organiser