The mystique
of le Mystique

Montreal’s oldest gay bar struggles to
survive while reminding patrons of the
city’s queer history

WEATHERING TOUGH TIMES: Steven Wells behind the bar

by MATTHEW HAYS

Entering le Mystique, Montreal’s oldest gay bar, often feels like something of a time warp. Located at 1424 Stanley, near the corner of Ste-Catherine, it’s a low-key, discreet stairwell which stretches down to a dark basement doorway. If you didn’t know it was there, you’d never stumble upon it by chance.

And therein lies a big part of le Mystique’s time warp. When it first opened its doors in 1972, things were radically different for Montreal’s queer community. Le Mystique was always a bar that catered primarily to men, and even though it was located in what was then Montreal’s gay ghetto or village, discretion was something of paramount importance to the clientele. After all, at that point in time, publicity around someone’s non-conformist sexual orientation could lead to job loss, estrangement from family members and even eviction from a rented home. In its 37-year history, le Mystique has seen queers go from a largely marginalized set of communities to much greater mainstream acceptance.

That ’70s show

Aesthetically, le Mystique certainly feels like an anachronism. Those ’70s touches haven’t changed much over the decades. It’s a simple, basic basement pub, with a pool table and some framed photos of past regular patrons on the wall. I first visited le Mystique as an undergraduate Concordia student about 20 years ago, and even then, I was sort of mystified at how the place generated enough business to stay afloat—it often seemed very sparsely populated. But it was downtown and near the campus, one of only a few gay bars (among them the now-defunct Agora) that existed west of the east-of-downtown Village.

The current manager, Steven Wells, confirms that these are tough times for le Mystique. The bar changed hands a few years ago (along with the predominantly straight tavern, the Stanley Pub, upstairs). For the past year, le Mystique has been up for sale, and while there have been some talks with prospective buyers, there have been no finalized deals.

“A lot of younger people meet online now,” Wells says of the Internet’s massive impact upon, among everything else, queer cruising habits. “Since Mystique’s heyday in the ’70s, we’ve had the AIDS crisis, which took a lot of patrons, we’ve had the Village move east, and we’ve also had the smoking ban. These things haven’t helped us. In the past few weeks, Loto-Québec also took out our three loto machines, and that’s hurt us too.”

But if le Mystique seems to be draped in beige, it’s important to keep in mind that appearances can be deceiving. In fact, this bar is hallowed ground, a crucial spot in the city’s queer evolution. In the wee hours of Oct. 21, 1977, police raided several of the gay bars on Stanley, including Truxx and le Mystique. The police used ludicrously heavy-handed tactics, including arriving with guns drawn, and arrested 146 gay men on spurious charges. It is now thought that, beyond homophobia (which obviously played a part), it was part of the municipal government’s plan to continue to harass the city’s gay milieu and the businesses that served them, effectively pushing them away from the downtown core and further east. Since most of the arrests happened at Truxx, the night has since become known as the Truxx Raids.

Enough was enough

The police action prompted a potent counter-reaction, however. It inadvertently helped to galvanize the queer community. Gay men who previously had felt no political connection to being queer began speaking out and protesting. By the very next night, over 2,000 queers blocked the corner of Ste-Catherine and Stanley, effectively paralyzing the downtown core. This drew huge amounts of media attention and put the issues of human rights front and centre. It also empowered Montreal queers, who could sense that history was on their side. Many said they felt that a majority of straight people supported their cause, that enough was enough in terms of police harassment.

By the following December, the effects could be felt. Quebec’s national assembly, then in the hands of the PQ, approved Bill 88, which added sexual orientation to Quebec’s charter of human rights as an illegal basis for discrimination. This made Quebec the first place in North America to have such protection (and it would be quite some time before another province would follow suit). It also led to one of Montreal’s first pride parades, held in 1979.

But given how much time has passed, it’s funny to see just how little has changed inside le Mystique. Its decidedly no-frills aura was increasingly passed over by young club-goers, who opted instead for the glitzier and more populous queer Village that runs along Ste-Catherine from St-Denis to Papineau.

“We had some really fun, crazy parties at le Mystique,” recalls John Banks, who worked as a bartender there on and off from 1981 to 2005.

“We had a Mommie Dearest party there once, around the time the film came out,” Banks says, referring to the notoriously campy 1981 film that starred Faye Dunaway as the famous abusive Hollywood mother, Joan Crawford. “Everyone had to come dressed as either daughter Christina or Joan. There were a lot of Christinas, but of course they were outnumbered by the Joans.” (Banks had his own brush with gay iconhood—he was personal assistant to Marlene Dietrich for close to a decade.)

Since its glory days, le Mystique has gotten occasional notices in the press, not all of it welcome. Some patrons expressed their dissatisfaction to me after reading a 1996 Mirror cover story on Montreal’s “strangest bars.” Le Mystique was listed, and was likened to the scene captured in William Friedkin’s landmark 1970 film The Boys in the Band, which depicted a group of pre-Stonewall gay men who were unhappy, self-hating and often addicted. Not such a flattering analogy, the regulars told me.

Ten years ago, one young club-goer dissed le Mystique with a typically ageist jab. “Le Mystique is an old monument full of old monuments,” he told me.

And Wells says he was forced to complain when an international gay guide described le Mystique as “for men only” and for men “over 50.” “That was just wrong,” he says. “We welcome women and this is a bar for all ages.”

Retro revival

But Wells reports that Mystique has been experiencing a growing comeback in the past scholastic year. Though he doesn’t have an advertising budget, more and more students are returning from both Concordia and McGill campuses. “We are located right between both campuses, and the students really seem to like to come somewhere close, that’s outside of the Village, for a change of pace. We’re seeing more and more students pop in after class for a drink. And both McGill and Concordia’s queer student groups are holding events here.”

Some students report loving le Mystique’s “retro chic,” and respond well to its unpretentious atmosphere. “It’s the last of a dying breed,” says Stu Segal, a film-studies undergrad student at Concordia. “It’s a place where you can get away from your regular hustle and bustle and enjoy a chill drink in a queer bar. It’s a shame more students don’t use this relaxed environment. I make a point to come out after class with friends, and drag our prof along too, to have a few drinks. It feels like le Mystique is this real hidden gem, in the middle of the heart of downtown Montreal.”

“I really hope Mystique can stay open and thrive,” says Wells. “My heart and soul is in this place. And 37 years is a long time. There’s something really incredible about having a drink with friends in a bar that’s a piece of history. To me, it’s important and worthwhile to preserve that.”

LE MYSTIQUE IS HOSTING THE
I WANT YOUR SEX TOO! TRANS
BENEFIT BASH THIS SATURDAY, JULY
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