Dudes (Toronto Gay Bar/1977-1984) vintage soft cell More than just a location

More than just a location

film screenings

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

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

it used the quiet code of a color and a bird—a sly wink to those in the know

Dudes (Toronto Gay Bar/1977-1984) vintage soft cell More than just a locationDudes 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