Spring Prom

Saturday, May 22, 1982
The Concert Hall

Advertisements for GCDC dances, including the handbills and posters you see on this website, were unique pieces of art in their own right. Rob Stout explains that the GCDC would reach out to artistic folks in the lesbian and gay communities to ask if they’d be willing to design a poster related to a specific theme. Inviting a variety of designers meant that GCDC posters were innovative and diverse in style. 

"We had so many people that were very artistic in the gay community. People would suggest different names and I would reach out to them, we would have a general idea of what the theme would be and then people would submit artwork. Then it would go back to a meeting to be voted on as to what was the poster that they chose for that event. The chosen poster would be fully produced and we made a lot of copies. We actually ended up handing these out at every single bar that we could, no matter how cold it got. In the middle of winter, we’d be stuck out there handing these out. And bars were not always that happy to have us out there. Some of them were tolerant, but some of them felt that we were trying to take away their business."

- Rob Stout, GCDC Founder and DJ

Submitted posters would be vetted by a committee of representatives from participating groups and GCDC executive members. Linda Hurst of the Coalition for Gay Rights in Ontario (CGRO) initially designed two posters for this dance in May 1982: one for the theme “Royal Ball” and the other for the theme “Prom Night.” Committee members eventually settled on the theme "Spring Prom” and asked Hurst to alter the poster accordingly. After some back-and-forth, the poster was approved, produced, reproduced, and distributed throughout the city. 

"We’d roll the handbills and hand them out rolled up so they wouldn’t have creases. This way, people could post them on their wall.”

- Chris Lea, GCDC Organiser

By the end of 1982, GCDC was distributing approximately 3,000 leaflets per dance. 

“I did leafleting on behalf of the GCDC at every major bar about two weeks prior to the dance. Reception depended on the bar–when it was one like the St. Charles where there were a lot of people who were closeted, an older group of men who weren’t going to attend the dance, a lot of them wouldn’t take the flyers. If we were at Boots, and many of the other bars, they were gladly taken.”

- Ron Merko, GCDC DJ and Volunteer