The Gladstone Hotel is an historic hotel with beautiful artist-designed guest rooms, that allow you to sleep-in-a-work-of-art. The entire venue is focused around their relationship to the arts community, with plenty of queer programming, such as Same-Sex Weddings and Pride at the Gaystone, a Gay Country party. There’s also the annual That’s So Gay Exhibition, and there have been several Queer Slow Dances held there as well. Every Wednesday there’s Music Bingo in the Melody Bar, while Life Drawing Classes occur on the second floor. The Gladstone has a live screening of RuPaul’s Drag Race:Season 10 every Thursday in the Melody Bar and every Friday and Saturday there’s Fameless Karaoke with rotating hosts. Essentially, the place never sleeps.

If you were a grumpy heterosexual couple from Wisconsin you wouldn’t last five minutes in the Gladstone. You would pack your bags and run to a Niagara Falls groupon deal. With this in mind I did an online scan to determine if out-of-town hotel goers could actually miss the #Gaystone hashtags in advance. The answer: Yes!

Online reviews @ bookings.com mentioned art, some said cool vibe and friendly staff. Out of hundreds of reviews only one said “Queer supportive.” Yet the only negatives were a few people who slept in a room where they could hear “partying” downstairs until 3 am. LOL! So the whole place is a completely different experience for heterosexual art lovers who leave rave reviews about the decor, the funkiness, the friendly staff and the gallery ambiance, without mentioning anything Queer or Gay. They are coming for something else. The vibe, the location, the boutique aspect, the vintage elevator. But without them the Gladstone would not be a hotel.

One review called it quirky. Vibrant with excellent service. From the number of reviews I read I now know everything about staying there, and I hope you’ll join me. A great place to take a date. Some rooms have showers that are too small to have sex in. Some people were kept wide awake by the intense symbolism hidden in the art in their rooms and couldn’t understand it, but they still had an amazing breakfast and would come again. Some people wore earplugs. So these thrilled reviewers are important revenue, and if they don’t mention its been taken over entirely by Queer artists then consider it a business secret.

Spring 2018 events include The Grow Op 2018 Artists Talk followed by an art show, Cosmic Ray’s Blues Jam Residency every Tuesday night, Humpback Yoga every Wednesday, and a new monthly event, Gaymes with Drag Queens.

Remember, be inclusive to the overnight guests, and if they don’t see what you see, don’t tell!

About the Author

SK Dyment has been a cartoonist and illustrator for many years and has been published in over two dozen Canadian indy magazines and journals. SK loves sketching passing interpretations of intriguing people in pen-and-ink, and is often seen attending various activist-oriented events around Toronto. He is also available for quick illustrations of all sorts as well as more serious forms of illustration. SK Dyment maintains a website @ www.graphicrecording.ca