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Fun
and gay games in Montreal
Athletic event in 2006 adds
to the city's reputation as a popular gay destination,
where everyone is an outsider on some level
SOURCE:
Globeandmail.com
By Margaret Webb
Special to The Globe and Mail
Wednesday, August 25, 2004
MONTREAL -- As the world tunes in to the Olympics
in Athens, former host city Montreal is preparing
for its turn in the athletic spotlight as the
host of the world's first Out Games in 2006.
The Olympic-style competition
and cultural festival, running July 29 to Aug
5, is expected to attract about 250,000 gay visitors
and 16,000 competitors from more than 100 countries,
pumping as much as $185-million into the city's
economy. The Out Games, along with the city's
annual pride festival, Divers/Cité -- which this
year attracted almost a million revellers -- show
a city coming of age as a major gay tourism destination.
Indeed, Tourism Montreal now ranks the city as
the eighth most popular gay destination after
a decade of aggressive marketing. Over the next
two years, the city plans to spend nearly $1-million
to entice jet-setting gay partiers.
"For Americans, Montreal is
a cheap trip to Europe," says Mathew Link, editor
of Out Traveler, the Condé Nast of gay travel
magazines. "Montreal's a very artsy cultural city
with that little bit of European flair. What I
like about the gay scene is that it's so integrated.
Everyone's friendly and lighthearted. The city
just has that gay vibe."
When my partner and I headed
to Montreal for this year's Divers/Cité, it was
a trip home, of sorts. When I attended Concordia
University in the early 1990s, Montreal was our
Paris -- inexpensive, artsy, politically charged
-- and offered us a chance to be expats without
leaving home.
Instead of Hemingway, we had
Scott Symon's then-scandalous gay novel Place
d'Armes, and we had plenty of Gertrude Steins
too: Governor-General Award-winning poets Nicole
Brossard and Erin Mouré and novelist Gail Scott,
whose seminal coming-out novel is set in the Plateau
district against the backdrop of the Quiet Revolution.
As a place to come out -- shed an old identity
and try on a new one -- it was perfect. Everyone
in this rich cultural stew is an outsider on some
level: the French vis-à-vis English Canada, and
anglos living in the largest French-speaking city
after Paris. Being gay hardly stirs the surface.
Divers/Cité is the city's foremost
celebration of queer culture. The week-long July
festival is headquartered in the gay village,
which stretches for 15 blocks along St. Catherine
Street, between St. Denis and Papineau. The once-seedy
village has spiffed up considerably since I lived
here and will continue to get sleeker as Montreal
prepares for the Out Games. The strip is now home
to more than 100 thriving gay and lesbian businesses:
bars with rooftop patios, hip multilevel dance
floors, bed and breakfasts in historic digs, upscale
French restaurants and trendy clothing stores.
Though the number of revellers
has exploded in recent years, the 12-year-old
festival has managed to retain its small-town
feel. Nightly, crowds gather together in Parc
Émilie-Gamelin for free outdoor shows: a sexy
Latin fiesta, an inspiring gay cabaret, the spectacular
drag-queen show, Mascara de la Nuit, and the nine-hour-dance-till-you-drop
post-parade concert.
The parade itself crawls along
the roomy René Lévesque Boulevard, which offers
plenty of grassy nooks for picnicking and elbow
room to view the three-hour party. It attracts
everyone from families with young children to
straight couples and queer folks.
Montreal's nightlife is legendary
- where the party often goes well past the city's
3 a.m. last call - and we experienced this during
Divers/Cité, thanks to after-hours clubs such
as Stéréo and special-event all-night dance parties.
This year, for example, we started
our evenings barhopping, taking in the L.A.-style
scene lounge Donatella, the mutlilevel Le Drugstore
(great for people watching), the hip Sky Club
and Unity II, the largest gay bar in the city.
At midnight, when the club scene really heats
up here, we hit Homorama, a funky fetish dance
(more leather than kink) at the Just for Laughs
Museum, and LesboMonde, which bills itself as
the largest lesbian dance party in the world.
It was packed, sweaty and sexy.
But Divers/Cité is far from
the only party in town. The BBCM Foundation, which
raises funds for the fight against HIV-AIDS, hosts
several massive gay circuit parties throughout
the year: the Black and Blue Festival (Oct. 8-12),
Bal des Boys New Years, Red Weekend Valentines
Party (Feb. 10-13), White Ball (March 24-28),
and the Hot and Dry Weekend (May 19-23). The Black
and Blue alone mobilizes about 85,000 volunteers
and international visitors and injects $34-million
into the Montreal economy.
Out Games co-president Mark
Tewksbury, a three-time Olympic medalist in swimming
before retiring, says government support for the
Out Games here -- $5-million from all three levels
-- is unprecedented in the history of gay athletics.
"From a tourism perspective, Canada is leading
the way," he said. "From a perspective of a few
cities like Montreal, Canada is so much more open.
We've moved from tolerance to acceptance to celebration
and that's really special."
Pack your bags
WHERE TO EAT
Area: 1429 Amherst St.; (514) 890-6691.
Restaurant Donatella: 1453 St. Catherine St. E.;
(514) 521-3331.
Holder: 407 McGill St.; (514) 849-0333.
WHERE TO PARTY
Le Drugstore: 1360 St. Catherine St.; (514) 524-1960.
Sky Club: 1474 St. Catherine. St.; (514) 529-6969.
Stéréo: 858 St. Catherine St. E.; (514) 286-0300.
Unity II: 1171 St. Catherine St.; (514) 523-2777.
Sala Rossa: 4848 St. LaurentBlvd.; (514) 284-3804.
Hosts Meow Mix monthly dance parties.
WHERE TO STAY
Auberge Cosy: 1274 St. Catherine St. E.; http://www.aubergecosy.com;
(514) 525-2151.
Alexandre Logan: 1631 Alexandre DeSeve; (514)
598-0555.
Gouverneur Hôtel: 1415 St. Hubert St.; 1-888-910-1111.
MORE INFORMATION
Divers/Cité: (514) 285-4011; http://www.diverscite.org
1st World OutGames Montréal 2006: (514) 252-5858;
http://www.montreal2006.info
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