No Pride in Gentrification Community Statement

The 519 Community Centre, in partnership with private donors and with the support of the City of Toronto, is pushing to turn Moss Park and John Innes Community Centre into an LGBT-focused Sport and Recreation Centre.

On the surface, the idea of an LGBT-focused sport centre sounds like an important equity initiative that could benefit LGBT people who have been marginalized in sports and recreation. However, the choice of location - at the heart of Toronto’s Downtown East Neighbourhood (DTE) - means that this project will become part of the rapid gentrification of Toronto’s poorest neighbourhood.

According to a City of Toronto staff report, the LGBT-focused Sport and Recreation Centre fits within the larger ‘revitalization’ of George Street and the surrounding neighbourhood. Recently passed by city council, the George Street Revitalization Plan will see the loss of hundreds of  emergency shelter beds as part of the dismantling of Seaton House - the largest men’s shelter in the country - and will push out other programs that poor people in the DTE need. The loss of shelter beds is at a time when homeless shelters across the city are operating beyond capacity and there is an overall lack of sufficient space. For the City, supporting the LGBT-focused Sport and Recreation Centre is the perfect excuse to finally pave over Moss Park and replace John Innes for good.

Supporters of this project see Moss Park and John Innes as empty and unimportant spaces. In a recent article, Matthew Cutler, who at the time was Director of Strategic Partnership Initiatives at The 519 but is now manager of Public Relations and Issue Management at the Parks, Forestry and Recreation Department, described Moss Park as a “blank canvas”. John Innes Community Centre and Moss Park are not empty spaces that can be bulldozed to make way for a high-end sport facility. There is an already existing community of poor and homeless people -- including many LGBT people -- who use this space and this project will displace this community. The loss of the community centre and neighbouring park will be devastating for the DTE community.

These are vital spaces in a neighbourhood that is home to poor and marginalized people, including many LGBT people - people that the city wants to push out to make way for more condos, more so-called development and more profit. Sadly, the 519 management seems willing to let the developers co-opt LGBT issues as yet another excuse for driving poor people out of their community spaces.

We believe that sport and recreation are vital to communities, including LGBT people. We support investing in initiatives that will facilitate queer and trans access to programming across the city, including distinct LGBT programming where needed. We do not need a separate LGBT Sport and Recreation Centre dropped in the middle of the DTE, waving a rainbow flag over the destruction of poor communities that include many LGBT people.

We are here to defend our neighbourhoods and communities. Defend them from the City, the developers and to challenge those in the LGBT community who are participating - knowingly or not - in projects that will drive out poor people from the DTE.  We reject the invoking of LGBT rights to try to prevent opposition to the George Street ‘revitalization’ and the rapid gentrification of the DTE.

To add your name as an individual or organization in support of this statement please contact: queertranscommunitydefence@gmail.com

Signers: 

Organizations: 

Maggie's Sex Worker Action Project
Network for the Elimination of Police Violence
No One Is Illegal

Ontario Civil Liberties Association
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
Ontario Public Interest Research Group Toronto
Ontario Public Interest Research Group York
Put Food In the Budget Campaign
Queer Ontario
Queer Trans Community Defence
Six Degrees Health
Toronto Harm Reduction Workers Union

Individuals: 

Mary Louise Adams
Dawna Tracey Armstrong
Maureen Aslin
Graeme Bacques
Beverly Bain
Heather Bain
Xaviier Blake
Aruna Boodram
Karen Boyles, Concordia University
Marque Brill
Deborah Brock, Sociology, York University
Valentina Capurri
Smadar Carmon
Deborah Cowen, Assoc Professor Dep of Geography & Planning UofT
Roxanne Danielson
Sonny Dhoot, PhD Candidate, Women and Gender Studies Institute, UofT.
OmiSoore H. Dryden
Brian Dubourdieu
Sheila L. Cavanagh, Assoc Professor at York University
Kami Chisholm, Artist in Residence Osgoode Law School York University
John Clarke, OCAP Organizer
Mark Connery
Dia Da Costa
Kat Dearham
Dashiel Dwyer
Cara Fabre
Leeanne Farnell
Sue Ferguson
Pat Fifield
Marty Fink
Maureen FitzGerald
Wendy Forrest
Craig Fortier, Assistant Professor Social Development Studies at University of Waterloo
Erica Franklin
Will Gaydos
Iamia Gibson
Sue Goldstein
Rachele Gottardi, OPIRG Toronto Board Member
Amy Gottlieb, Teacher and Artist
Liz Green
Jessica Hales
Mary Jean Hande
Jinthana Haritaworn
David Herzig
Roger Hollander
JP Hornick
Richerd Hudler, Chair, Queer Ontario
Emily Irwin
Nancy Irwin
Prabha Khosla
Kate Klein
Natalie Kouri-Towe
Danielle Koyama
Gary Kinsman
A.W. Lee
Helen Lenskyj
Terah Li. K
Poe Liberado
Jenna MacKay
Jamie Magnusson
Mitchell Mahon
Tim McCaskell
Liz McLean
Jon McPhedran Waitzer
Sofia Mesa
Harmony Montes
Dianne Moore
Nick Mule
Ander Negrazis
Richard Nelder
Sarah Noonan
Emmet O'Reilly
Kelly O'Sullivan, Chair CUPE Ontario Health Care Workers
Dawn Onishenko
Stacey Papernick
Sarah Peek
Carolyn Pitchot
Matthew Popoff
Sarah Prowse
Oliver Roberts
Herman Rosenfeld
Alan Sears
Jordan Silverman
Robin Silverman
Kristen Smith, Assistant Professor at the School of Social Work, Ryerson University
Tony Souza
Sarah Switzer
Shannon Taylor
Robert Teixeira
Brook Thorndycraft
Nishant Upadhyah
Lise Vaugeois
Rinaldo Walcott
Don Weitz
Anna Willats
Lindsay Williams
John Wilson, Treasurer at Queer Ontario
Mel Willson
AJ Withers
Lesley Wood
Cynthia Wright
Joan Yang
Errol Young

WAVING A RAINBOW FLAG OVER POOR COMMUNITIES

By Helen Jefferson Lenskyj

NOW Magazine, October 26

After the recent near-miss Olympic bid, housing and anti-poverty activists are monitoring a new $100 million LGBTQ-focused sport and recreation centre proposed for Moss Park and the current site of the John Innes Community Centre, which could be part of a plan to boost the chances of a future bid.

The city and the 519 Church Street Community Centre began working on the project described in a staff report as “a new recreation facility... focused on inclusion in sport that would become home to Toronto’s LGBT sport community,” in 2012. A private donor has committed up to one-third of the capital costs.

The initial vote at city council in 2013 saw only two dissenting voices, although a few councillors raised concerns about financing, queue-jumping other projects and a possible precedent for minority groups who might want their own facilities. A councillor who asked if people had reported being turned away from city community centres because of sexual orientation was told this had not happened. 

Councillors were assured that private donations, foundations and corporate contributions would cover most of the costs, some 66 per cent.The remainder would be covered by municipal, provincial and federal governments.

Several councillors supported the project on the basis it was a positive step toward inclusiveness in sport and recreation, not to mention a generous donation that should not be turned away. On the issue of whether its LGBTQ-focus amounted to “special treatment,” it was noted that some community centres already serve specific cultural and linguistic groups – although most of these are located in neighbourhoods with a concentration of a particular ethnic group, unlike the sites suggested for the LGBTQ sport centre.

Originally, a location at St. Lawrence and Eastern was proposed for the project, but that was rejected over environmental concerns and, more importantly, because it would not accommodate an ice surface, pool or outdoor field. These were features that the 519 was seeking, since one of the goals was to address the growing needs of more than 40 LGBTQ sport leagues. 

It was acknowledged that these leagues are now “dominated by gay men in their 20s and 30s,” but supporters claimed that a designated LGBTQ facility would allow more flexible programming and opportunities for women, youth and older participants, as well as for straight people. 

Terminology has become significant: now the centre is often described as LGBTQ-focused to correct inaccurate assumptions that non-gays would be excluded.

Expanding on these themes, backers identified a long list of benefits and opportunities, including local economic development, student placements, training and employment, social enterprise businesses, sport literacy programs, tourism, sport hosting opportunities and even programs for those “traumatized by sport.” Overall, the centre would serve as a research laboratory for designing best practices for inclusive sport. 

But the proposal is raising important questions about the links between sport mega-events and downtown gentrification in the Downtown East area – specifically the George Street Revitalization project. 

To the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP), Queer Ontario and Queer Trans Community Defence, the project is being viewed as part of a broader agenda to reduce shelter beds in prime-real-estate neighbourhoods. 

The George Street plan proposes to turn Seaton House, a 540-bed men’s shelter, into a long-term care home, leaving only 100 emergency shelter beds. Fudger House, a long-term home with a long and successful record of serving the local LGBT population, will also be closed. Many LGBT seniors have expressed concerns that new staff at the repurposed Seaton House, unlike those at Fudger House, will have limited skills or experience working with LGBT residents. 

All these changes would be implemented at a time when Toronto has failed to meet council’s 2013 target of a maximum 90 per cent occupancy rate of shelter beds, that has hovered around 95 per cent, in large part as a result of a loss of about 200 beds in the previous eight months.

Sport organized by and for Toronto’s LGBT community has a long history, and with a few exceptions, most groups welcome all gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans and “gay-friendly” participants. The movement started in 1972 with the Judy Garland Memorial Bowling League, one of the oldest LGBT sports clubs in North America, followed in 1975 by the Cabbagetown Group Softball League for gay, lesbian and straight players. The Out and Out Social Club, organized in 1980, offers cycling, skiing, hiking, camping, yoga, baseball and other social activities to more than 700 members. 

The 1980s and 90s saw the birth of dozens of new LGBT sports organizations in Toronto, including Frontrunners, a club for competitive and recreational runners, and, in 1984, the Notso Amazon Softball League, offering recreational softball for lesbians, queer-positive women and trans people. With more than 500 members, the Toronto Spartans Volleyball League, also started in 1984, has a program of recreational and competitive volleyball open to all. The Pink Turf Soccer League, operating since 1987, offers recreational soccer for lesbians and lesbian-positive women, and the Downtown Swim Club (masters age group) is open to lesbians, gay men and gay-positive people at all levels.

In short, Toronto has pioneered an extensive network of recreational sports organizations that provide relatively safe venues for LGBTQ and gay-friendly participants. None of these operates in a designated LGBT facility, and many use Parks and Recreation’s public parks, arenas, pools and community centres. 

It’s also important to recognize the many positive changes in policies, programs and societal attitudes since the 1980s. In view of the last three decades of social change, it’s been suggested that events like the Gay Games are no longer as vital to LGBTQ sports as they were when first organized in 1982. 

In the discourse surrounding the proposed LGBT sport centre, it’s also vital to acknowledge that Parks and Recreation, the Toronto District School Board, the University of Toronto and other institutions have long been addressing the sport and recreational preferences and needs of women and ethnic and sexual minorities, ranging from all-gender washrooms and change rooms to activities geared to specific groups under-represented in existing programs.

As early as 1985, the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women and Sport tackled the problem of homophobia in women’s sport and recreation, and it has continued to work on this issue. And on the question of promoting acceptance of trans and other LGBT participants through public education campaigns, U of T’s Change Room Project sets a good example for others to follow.

Supporters of the LGBTQ-focused sport centre claim it would be the first of its kind, a “groundbreaking” project, “a beacon to the rest of the country and the world,” a model of “international best practice for LGBT engagement in recreation” and “a transformational facility.”

Certainly, sport can have a transformational effect on an individual, but reliance on “sport as transformation” rhetoric ignores the reality of the Downtown East residents’ lives.

To suggest that all the current users of Moss Park would feel welcomed in this proposed centre is unrealistic at best. As Queer Trans Community Defence states, “We do not need a separate -LGBTQ sport and recreation centre... waving a rainbow flag over the destruction of poor communities that include many queer and trans people.” There’s no pride in gentrification.   

Helen Jefferson Lenskyj, professor emerita, University of Toronto, has published extensively on women, sport, sexuality and the Olympic industry.