Halifax gay bar
Gay Halifax
Canada’s charming colonial municipality by the sea holds a secret: despite its petty size, it’s residence to a thriving gay community fuelled by a massive and diverse scholar population, the city’s status as Maritime Canada’s regional hub and, ahem, the city’s largest employer, the Canadian Navy. There’s plenty here in Nova Scotia for the same-sex attracted traveller to relish, and the welcoming Maritime attitude will make you perceive at home right away.
On a summer day, Halifax’s bustling port is where the move is. The pleasant boardwalk features the usual touristy shopping and buskers, but it is a great starting signal for a trip into Halifax’s seafaring history. Historic ships line the harbour, and guided tours can be arranged at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. Down the harbour, you’ll detect the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, the port through which more than a million immigrants entered Canada in the 20th century. Along the stroll, you’re sure to detect some of Canada’s finest uniformed men.
Get wet
Some of the optimal views of the city are from the water. The cheapest option is to take a
All the queer that Halifax has to offer (you’ll be surprised)
Nestled on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, Halifax, Nova Scotia, has always been a draw for LGBTQ2S+ Maritimers who wanted to escape little town life. As the region’s largest city, with a metro population of about 465,000, it offers anonymity (a bit, anyway) and an opportunity to build community.
It’s a pretty great place to escape to. About a two-hour flight from Toronto, and a well-liked U.S. cruise ship destination, Halifax is a scenic port city full of cultural institutions, historic sites, centuries-old buildings, amazing nightlife and a rich LGBTQ2S+ history. Home to many post-secondary institutions, it has a young population that loves to hold a good time.
Those roots date help to just a few years after its founding in 1749 as a military town that grew up around the Halifax Citadel, a star-shaped British fortress sunken into the summit of the area’s extreme point. That fortress is now a national historic site—and has been recognizable as an preceding morning cruising detect for decades. The Halifax Rainbow Encyclopedia, a volunteer-driven online publication that chronicles the LGBTQ2S+ history of the town, notes that in
GayBars
Current Halifax Queer Bars
Current Halifax Queer Friendly Bars
Subject to debate.
History Of Queer Bars In Halifax
There is a history as of 1977 in the 1977-09 issue of TheVoice.
Don't hesitate to add your own stories and info!
- TheStockade, early '70s, approx. 2828 Windsor Avenue near Almon1
- ThePiccadilly, mid '70s.
- PeppermintLounge in the '60s, in the 1800 block of Barrington Street (across from where Scotia Square is now.)
- Cameo or Candlelight Lounge was a hangout possibly starting in the delayed '60s
- TheHeidelberg was a hangout just off Spring Garden in the 1970s.
- NewServiceRestaurant?2
- LobsterTrap Cabaret3
- Two consecutively in the GreenLantern Building on Barrington St in the early 1970s:
- The Turret on Barrington St, from 1975 to 1982. Owned by the homosexual community, GaeGala, moved and renamed:
- Rumours - 1586 Granville St across from the Texpark from 1982 to 1985, then the to 2112 Gottingen from 1987 to January, 1995.
- [[Fantasias?]] in Scotia Square, registered (owned?) by DanielJoseph from May 14, 1990. (had its own entrance off Duke St) which in 1991 was moved and renamed TheStudio
- Three bars, consecutively, at 1537 Barrington, a half a block north
Rumours Cabaret: a new gay exclude for Halifax
Interview by Dan MacKay • Halifax • Originally published 2024-03-15, updated 2024-06-08
June 7, 2024: the bar is open! Wayves writer Kevin Dadouses attended opening night; here's his report!
Social media links for Rumours are at the bottom of this article.
Here's the interview from mid-March, 2024
"On May 1, Rumours Cabaret officially opens as a homosexual, trans, women safe space which is inclusive for everyone," says owner Gerald McCowan.
A couple weeks ago, McCowan announced (via the Facebook group Gays In Halifax) that he'll be opening on Water Street, and Wayves publisher Dan MacKay sat down with him a couple of days later. McCowan immediately took impose of the interview:
"I moved here when I was 18 years old, was a cook in the army for years and when I retired, I went back to school to get Tourism Management and ran a little hospitality company called Metro Hospitality Services," he says. "For a while, I was a bartender at the gay exclude, Buddies, in Edmonton — that was a lot of fun!"
Frankly, this city is a small scary sometimes. We need a space that is our space.
During his time in the military, McCowan exper