A Guide For the Naïve Homosexual
Page 48
Vancouver


Vancouver, British Columbia

Cruising Places

Crystal Pool 1971-03 1490 Beach. The park areas surrounding the pool are Vancouver’s main cruising grounds. They are active every night of the week even in pouring rain and furious blizzards. They are quite safe — at least from the getting beat up or robbed point of view.

Crystal Pool parking lot 1971-03 1490 Beach. Young gays meet here in summer. Get out of their cars, run around, get back into different cars and then drive off.

English Bay boathouse men’s washroom 1971-03 is active during the day.

Stanley Park 1971-03 in the evening. Lee’s trail is well used. It is not all that safe however and punks patrol the trails. In the summer months gays take over certain portions of the southern beaches.

White Lunch 1971-03 808 Granville is a dive where hustlers hang out.

Wreck Beach 1971-03 at UBC (University of British Columbia) behind place Vanier. Go down the well-worn trail and turn left at the bottom. Walk along the beach for a long time. Eventually you will get to Vancouver’s nude sunbathing beach. Saturday and Sunday afternoons are most active — with lots of carrying on in the nearby bushes. The place has toned down recently due to a lot of publicity.

Steam Baths

Dino’s Vancouver Turkish baths 1971-03 744 West Hastings

Drake Steam Baths 1971-03 636 Drake

Richards Street Service Club 1971-03 1169 Richard’s Street is a private club which means they can screen the clientele and there are doors with locks on the rooms you rent. When you go for the first time, if the doorman hassles you, tell him you are gay and want to join. Membership is $1 per year. The entrance fee is $2.50 week nights and $3.50 Friday and Saturday. It has gone downhill recently as the are no longer as selective about their clientele.

Nuwest Steam Bath 1971-03 533 Front Street in New Westminster has colour T.V. and an admission of $2.00. It is known for being somewhat wilder than the other baths.

Taurus Spa 1971-03 1233 Hornby is Vancouver’s newest steam bath and it has gone out after a strictly gay clientele. The first time you go it costs $5.00 and $2.50 thereafter.

Bars

Blue Note Cabaret 1971-03 200 drag queens go here each weekend to rob drunk sailors.

Castle Hotel Bar 1971-03 750 Granville is a very small bar. But it is strictly gay. Most of the young guys go there early in the evening and then head off to one of the clubs when it closes at midnight. The waiters have recently been hassling the more obvious gays. There are a few straights early in the day, but by mid afternoon the gays pretty well take over.

The Gastown Inn 1971-03 not to be confused with the Gastown Saloon is the place where the hip young generation congregates. The atmosphere reflects the ambisexual attitudes of most young people today.

The Nelson Place 1971-03 1006 Granville street is the new name for The Belmont which burned down in the summer of 1970. The crowd is about 50-50 gay and straight. It is a huge pub with friendly staff.

Vanport Hotel Bar 1971-03 is the main lesbian hangout in Vancouver. It is not recommended as the crowd is quite rough with a lot of pot users and heroin addicts.

The August 1971-03 opens at 4:30 P.M. And it is the only licenced gay cabaret in Vancouver. 20 to 70 people will show up for happy hour from 5:00 P.M. To 7:00 P.M. when drinks are cheaper eg. mighballs reduced from 75¢ to 50¢. These people will leave and another crowd of 100 people come later (if they come after 9:00 P.M. They must pay $1 cover charge) for the drag shows. The Friday night show starts at 11:15 and runs for 30 minutes, then there is a 15 minute break followed by another 30 minutes of show. The shows are almost exclusively miming songs to records sometimes with elaborate stage effects such as a snow machine, a fog machine and a huge swing that swoops out over the audience. The Saturday night show runs for 45 minutes. Meals are available at all times the club is open with a specialty each night. Costs are reasonable (baron of beef $1.50. Because of LCB regulations they must have everybody out by 2:30 A.M. on a weekday and 1:30 on a Saturday. The crowd is older businessmen and couples. No women are allowed in. Underage males will be admitted but they will not be served liquor.


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