“Meet Me Under the Clock” explores a little-known time in Toronto’s LGBTQ history when an underground Halloween tradition became an annual confrontation between an invisible gay community and a fascinated, often hateful public. “Meet Me Under the Clock” tells the story of Halloween at the St Charles Tavern, a Yonge Street gay bar, throughout the 1970s. Each year, thousands of straight spectators would gather to throw eggs and jeer at the men attending the bar’s annual drag party. This unknown Toronto history highlights the role that LGBTQ spaces play in providing sanctuary and community, the complicated relationship between the LGBTQ community and the police, and the subversive power of drag. This is the third in a series of shadow-puppet videos uncovering little-known moments from Toronto’s LGBTQ history. Watch drag queens and early queer activists band together, battling hate, violence and stigma, to fight for safety, respect and the right to be fabulous!
