Dudes (Toronto Gay Bar/1977-1984) vintage soft cell a cult artifact of late-’60s

a cult artifact of late-’60s counterculture

Her voice — revealed when talkies arrived — only deepened the intrigue

film screenings

it offered freedom

when openly gay and lesbian spaces were still illegal and routinely targeted

Dudes (Toronto Gay Bar/1977-1984) vintage soft cell a cult artifact of late-’60sDudes 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