PRIDE AT THE GAYSTONE
Named after Gladstone Avenue, the Gladstone Hotel is Toronto’s oldest continuously operating hotel. Home to Shameless Karaoke and the annual LGBTQ arts festival known as Pride at the Gaystone, the hotel has quickly become the quintessential party destination for the LGBTQ community.
Toronto native Christina Zeidler is Chief Alchemist and Proprietor of the Gladstone Hotel. Ziedler says that Pride at the Gaystone was created in an effort to unify LGBTQ Pride celebrations in the city.
Since 2003, the hotel has been a haven for members of the LGBTQ community in west-end Toronto, beginning with their Hump Day Bump parties.
“While we’ve been doing arts-related LGBTQ programming ever since, our Pride programming really jumped off starting in 2010 with the launch of the 10×10 Photography Exhibition and That’s So Gay (TSG), our contemporary queer art exhibition,” Ziedler tells The Outport. “10×10 showcases the breathtaking portraiture of 10 amazing LQBTQ photographers each year. There are 100 faces that paint the landscape of the queer community across Canada — you really need to see it to believe it!”
Gladstone resident drag queen Miss Fluffy Soufflé (or Kaleb Robertson, as he is known without makeup) created Pride at the Gaystone in 2012 which was aimed at uniting the queer arts community The Gladstone heartthrob has been a curator of Pride celebrations at the hotel ever since.
“There are many celebrations on Church Street, but as Toronto’s West gets more and more queer, there was a need to create a centralized hub that could attract people from the queer community in this area of the city and beyond!”
The Gladstone wasn’t always the renowned backdrop for the LGBT community that it is now. Zeidler remembers the hotel as quite rundown and unkempt when she started; it took a lot of hard work to get the Gladstone to the point at which it stands today.
“Revitalizing the hotel was not just a “bricks-and-mortar” job. In bringing the hotel back to life, it was also important to make sure we brought people with us. That meant continuing to employ the original staff of the hotel; rehousing the bachelors who rented here in other residences around the city. This ethic, I think, is the most queer thing about the hotel. Queers understand the importance of making a community better for everyone. Ultimately, it meant completely revitalizing and “cleaning up” the hotel, but maintaining its soul along the way,” says Zeidler.
Since becoming a fixture in the LGBT, business at the Gladstone has been booming. It has become a place where guests can feel comfortable regardless of who they are and where they come from. The clientele enthusiastically and unconditionally embraces the concept of “different” and makes for a space that is safe, alive, and inviting.
Zeidler considers it crucial for the Gladstone to be an openly-inclusive business, especially considering the diversity of Toronto.
“It is very, very, very – multiply that by one hundred – important to me. When I first took over the Gladstone, I had to alter its company culture and turn it into an inclusive space; not just for members of the LGBTQ community, but for all walks of life.”
From June 16th to 25thof this year, the Gladstone Hotel will be hosting its third annual Pride at the Gaystone event series.
The celebration is known for highlighting the arts and culture of Toronto as well as the city’s diverse LGBTQ performance community.
Zeidler told The Outport what first-timers can expect from Pride at the Gaystone.
“Without giving too many surprises away, first-time participants can expect everything from drag queens to burlesque, social commentary to art installations, the most shameless of Shameless Karaoke, a 90s video dance party, cabaret, music, drinking, and the list goes on! It’s ten days—we’ve got a lot up our sleeves this year!”
For readers travelling to Toronto, Zeidler says a stay at the Gladstone would be more than worth your while.
“We have 37 stunning artist-designed rooms to choose from; everything from food-themed Surreal Gourmet Room—designed by Food Network star Bob Blumer, nonetheless—to the sexy Parlour of Twilight; the Drag Wallpaper Room, which is an ode to The Dumbbells who used to entertain the troops during World War I, to the stunning Tower Suite with a private roof-top deck.
“Add to that the Pride at the Gaystone programming, the Gladstone Café, the Melody Bar, the fact that we’re in the heart of what Vogue dubbed the second-coolest neighbourhood in the world…Do I really need to keep convincing y’all?”
Visit www.gladstonehotel.com to view the Pride Week lineup and to book your accommodations!
“Gladstone Hotel. Sexy. Political. Proud.”
