Capturing Toronto’s LGBTQ spaces

Photographer Mitchel Raphael has documented the city’s queer community and Pride events for years, but with COVID-19 taking this month’s events online, he wanted to capture the importance of LGBTQ-oriented spaces within the city, and how many of them are in danger of closing, or have already shuttered due to the pandemic or gentrification.

“As someone who shoots a lot of queer events, I say nine out of 10 (times) I can give you a list of the nights where you can find people like you,” says Raphael, who was also formerly the editor in chief of Fab magazine.

Club 120 (formerly Goodhandy’s), a live performance venue praised for welcoming people of all communities, announced its closure last month. Fly 2.0 closed last year after a 20-year run to make way for a condo. Glad Day Bookshop posted on social media that while Toronto patios can reopen, the shop no longer has a back patio because it had to make way for a condo laneway.

In March, Crews and Tangos worked out a deal with an incoming condo developer whereby the bar and drag venue will continue to exist.

Also in focus within the photo series are the people Raphael says have been vital in shaping the city’s queer community. There’s DJ Blackcat, a longtime fixture in the local ballroom scene, in front of the nowclosed Club 120. Activist, singer, comic and club owner Mandy Goodhandy of Club 120 and 120 Diner.

(“The number of clubs she was involved in and helped create, I think most gay men in the city have gotten laid from all the different things she has done,” says Raphael with a laugh.)

There’s also longtime Buddies in Bad Times Theatre bartender and musician Patricia Wilson; author and artist Rolyn Chambers; Toronto-St. Paul’s New Democrat MPP Jill Andrew, the first Black and queer person to be elected to the Ontario legislature; and her partner Aisha Fairclough. The two are behind Body Confidence Canada, which fights body discrimination.

Raphael also photographed a health-care worker who is now helping with COVID-19, as well as another who works in longterm care.

“Putting this all together as a series is a mix of feelings,” he says.

“You’re scared, angry, the pandemic is showing all the cracks in the system, not just race but also how we treat our elder population,” he says.

In the end, Raphael hopes the photographs will amplify the need to preserve and create spaces for LGBTQ and racialized folks, as well as the people who have been fighting for their communities to be heard for decades.

More of Raphael’s work can be found at MitchelRaphael.com.

Tristin Chanel is an artist, musician and front-line worker at a long-term-care facility. She would have been celebrating Pride on Church Street.

DJ Cozmic Cat is the co-founder and resident DJ of Cherry Bomb, Toronto's iconic, long-running, inclusive party for queer women and friends. While the Pride edition is often at a larger spot, Cozmic Cat’s monthly Cherry Bomb home has been Round Venue, which also houses the Asian Queer party New Ho Queen and the LGBTQ hip-hop bash Big Primpin.

Halal Bae is a Muslim-born North African Queen who uses her performances to celebrate queer culture and, as a dragtavist, critiquing current social constructs and issues. She created Living in Colour, a monthly show celebrating QPOC (Queer People of Colour) talent in Toronto as well as Passion Fruit, an all-gender, queer, safe-sex party. She would have been celebrating Pride at Glad Day Bookshop.

Robin Waley is the assistant manager, co-curricular diversity & equity at the University of Toronto’s faculty of kinesiology and physical education. He also teaches yoga and meditation at wellness studios in the city. He would have been celebrating Pride on Church Street.

MITCHEL RAPHAEL Photographer Mitchel Raphael.