Sex abounds in T.O.
Flourishing swingers scene gets T.O. council hot & bothered
By JENNY YUEN, SUN MEDIA
Inside Club Wicked's "exhibitionist room" a tanned blond wearing aviator shades and a tight, cropped police uniform straddles her husband.
A dim bulb in the sconce lamp over the bed bathes her in red, wraps around her curves. The humidity of the place smells of scented lube and sweat. The pounding bass from Euro Dance music is leaking from invisible speakers. It almost overpowers the screams and whimpers. Almost.
The blond smiles slyly at the two-way mirror, at the towel-clad couples in the other room who are watching.
LATEST TARGET
A curious couple peeks through beads on the doorway. "Can we play?" they ask, and wait for a nod before hopping onto the bed.
Beside them, a window overlooking the traffic and bustle along Queen St. W.
Swingers are the latest target of Toronto council.
"We're not into legislating morality between consenting adults," insists Etobicoke-Lakeshore Councillor Peter Milczyn. "It's when you're creating those establishments in residential communities then it's set up as a conflict."
At a council meeting in June, 33 city councillors voted in favour of a motion to close two Etobicoke swinger clubs -- Club Hers and Menage a Quatre.
The two clubs are part of this city's flourishing swingers scene. From clubs to cruises to condo parties, Toronto has become a swinger's destination, eclipsing Montreal as Canada's swingers capital, those in the scene suggest.
Busloads of American swingers travel here, because it is legal in this country for consenting adults to practice open, explicit sex acts within the relatively public confines of a club.
However, the same city fathers who preach diversity, who embrace immigrants, multiculturalism, Toronto's large and well-established lesbian and gay community have difficulty with swingers.
Etobicoke-North Councillor Rob Ford, who supported the motion to close the clubs, said he doesn't feel swingers clubs reflect what Toronto stands for, even if they do attract tourism. Yet, it was only last year when the city invested $150,000 for racy ads as part of their Live With Culture campaign to boost tourism.
"Families and people like that," Ford said this week. "They're the ones who bring the money to the city."
"Toronto being sex capital of the world wouldn't bode too well with tourists in general," he said.
This fall, the city manager will begin work in consultation with the police, planning department, public health, fire services and municipal licensing and standards to oust the swinger clubs.
"I don't think our staff know what's going on here and I want to find out and get these shut down," local Councillor Mark Grimes previously told the Sun. "I'm hearing from the community that single men are getting out of cabs, there's prostitutes loitering around the area, they're picking them up and going into these clubs."
'GLORY HOLE'
There is certainly a lot going on inside the clubs.
On a Saturday night at Wicked, it looks like a scene from the movie Eyes Wide Shut, but without the masks.
Husbands and wives begin kissing wildly and hands start to wander. Some change partners and others opt for the anonymity of "glory hole" booths. On the top floor, a hallway fan buzzes to dry off the sweat. There is chatter on the patio where towelled and naked bodies go for a post-sex cigarette. There isn't even a tinge of pushiness in the air as the couples walk hand-in-hand and climb into bed with four other couples too busy to notice their presence. Between the moans of ecstasy, you can hear fiendish giggles.
But "Toronto the Good" has always struggled with morality issues. City and law enforcement officials have at various times over past decades cracked down on strip clubs, massage parlours, prostitution and public sex, particularly the kind practised by gay men and lesbians.
Most infamously, however, Toronto is known for the gay bathhouse raids in 1981 that saw police swarm into clubs where gay men were having open, consensual sex.
As much as the gay community was outraged by the "Gestapo" police, as gay rights activist George Hislop referred to them at the time, the public was equally shocked.
HEATED DEBATE
The raids prompted heated debate and self-examination about human rights and tolerance and the protests that erupted in response to the raids eventually gave way to Toronto's Pride Parade that sees the mayor, police chief and councillors participate.
"You look at the very few raids that have been done in places and so-called bathhouses in recent years so obviously there's a much more permissive attitude on the part of politicians. The public interest groups that support these places are much more vocal and politically connected," said Staff-Sgt. Al Verwey of 13 Division. "There is generally an attitude that if the public isn't complaining about it very loudly, the police aren't going to enforce it very rigorously."
There is some irony, then, in the city's current confrontation with swingers clubs.
"People always get bent out of shape when heterosexuals want to have sex, and I don't get that," said Peter Bochove, owner of gay bathhouse Excess Spa on Carlton St. and an activist in the 1981 raids. "If everyone going into this club knows exactly what they're going into and kids aren't walking by giant signs, then no one's being harmed."
Elizabeth Abbott, a celibacy history research associate at University of Toronto, describes Toronto as a "formerly repressed city" where the 1970s finally happened and many immigrants moved in.
People are gravitating towards swinging, Abbott notes, because there is too much stress on staying with one person and the element of curiosity is overpowering.
"The city isn't suspicious anymore, it rigorously loves diversity," she said. "We're a changed culture where it's now seen as wrong to criticize different lifestyles."
And the bottom line: Swingers clubs are legal.
Flourishing swingers scene gets T.O. council hot & bothered
By JENNY YUEN, SUN MEDIA
Inside Club Wicked's "exhibitionist room" a tanned blond wearing aviator shades and a tight, cropped police uniform straddles her husband.
A dim bulb in the sconce lamp over the bed bathes her in red, wraps around her curves. The humidity of the place smells of scented lube and sweat. The pounding bass from Euro Dance music is leaking from invisible speakers. It almost overpowers the screams and whimpers. Almost.
The blond smiles slyly at the two-way mirror, at the towel-clad couples in the other room who are watching.
LATEST TARGET
A curious couple peeks through beads on the doorway. "Can we play?" they ask, and wait for a nod before hopping onto the bed.
Beside them, a window overlooking the traffic and bustle along Queen St. W.
Swingers are the latest target of Toronto council.
"We're not into legislating morality between consenting adults," insists Etobicoke-Lakeshore Councillor Peter Milczyn. "It's when you're creating those establishments in residential communities then it's set up as a conflict."
At a council meeting in June, 33 city councillors voted in favour of a motion to close two Etobicoke swinger clubs -- Club Hers and Menage a Quatre.
The two clubs are part of this city's flourishing swingers scene. From clubs to cruises to condo parties, Toronto has become a swinger's destination, eclipsing Montreal as Canada's swingers capital, those in the scene suggest.
Busloads of American swingers travel here, because it is legal in this country for consenting adults to practice open, explicit sex acts within the relatively public confines of a club.
However, the same city fathers who preach diversity, who embrace immigrants, multiculturalism, Toronto's large and well-established lesbian and gay community have difficulty with swingers.
Etobicoke-North Councillor Rob Ford, who supported the motion to close the clubs, said he doesn't feel swingers clubs reflect what Toronto stands for, even if they do attract tourism. Yet, it was only last year when the city invested $150,000 for racy ads as part of their Live With Culture campaign to boost tourism.
"Families and people like that," Ford said this week. "They're the ones who bring the money to the city."
"Toronto being sex capital of the world wouldn't bode too well with tourists in general," he said.
This fall, the city manager will begin work in consultation with the police, planning department, public health, fire services and municipal licensing and standards to oust the swinger clubs.
"I don't think our staff know what's going on here and I want to find out and get these shut down," local Councillor Mark Grimes previously told the Sun. "I'm hearing from the community that single men are getting out of cabs, there's prostitutes loitering around the area, they're picking them up and going into these clubs."
'GLORY HOLE'
There is certainly a lot going on inside the clubs.
On a Saturday night at Wicked, it looks like a scene from the movie Eyes Wide Shut, but without the masks.
Husbands and wives begin kissing wildly and hands start to wander. Some change partners and others opt for the anonymity of "glory hole" booths. On the top floor, a hallway fan buzzes to dry off the sweat. There is chatter on the patio where towelled and naked bodies go for a post-sex cigarette. There isn't even a tinge of pushiness in the air as the couples walk hand-in-hand and climb into bed with four other couples too busy to notice their presence. Between the moans of ecstasy, you can hear fiendish giggles.
But "Toronto the Good" has always struggled with morality issues. City and law enforcement officials have at various times over past decades cracked down on strip clubs, massage parlours, prostitution and public sex, particularly the kind practised by gay men and lesbians.
Most infamously, however, Toronto is known for the gay bathhouse raids in 1981 that saw police swarm into clubs where gay men were having open, consensual sex.
As much as the gay community was outraged by the "Gestapo" police, as gay rights activist George Hislop referred to them at the time, the public was equally shocked.
HEATED DEBATE
The raids prompted heated debate and self-examination about human rights and tolerance and the protests that erupted in response to the raids eventually gave way to Toronto's Pride Parade that sees the mayor, police chief and councillors participate.
"You look at the very few raids that have been done in places and so-called bathhouses in recent years so obviously there's a much more permissive attitude on the part of politicians. The public interest groups that support these places are much more vocal and politically connected," said Staff-Sgt. Al Verwey of 13 Division. "There is generally an attitude that if the public isn't complaining about it very loudly, the police aren't going to enforce it very rigorously."
There is some irony, then, in the city's current confrontation with swingers clubs.
"People always get bent out of shape when heterosexuals want to have sex, and I don't get that," said Peter Bochove, owner of gay bathhouse Excess Spa on Carlton St. and an activist in the 1981 raids. "If everyone going into this club knows exactly what they're going into and kids aren't walking by giant signs, then no one's being harmed."
Elizabeth Abbott, a celibacy history research associate at University of Toronto, describes Toronto as a "formerly repressed city" where the 1970s finally happened and many immigrants moved in.
People are gravitating towards swinging, Abbott notes, because there is too much stress on staying with one person and the element of curiosity is overpowering.
"The city isn't suspicious anymore, it rigorously loves diversity," she said. "We're a changed culture where it's now seen as wrong to criticize different lifestyles."
And the bottom line: Swingers clubs are legal.
