JuryRoom

The Jury Room

Owner Al Keith

In the 1970s, The Jury Room, a bar on the corner of Argyle & Prince, was a gay hangout; in 1977 they decided to exclude this "undesirable" clientele.

Lynn Murphy

People whom the management decided were gay, were not served, and were told to leave. About 30 people set up a picket line in front of their door; it may have been only one night. I was dating a young prof at St Mary's at that point and he asked me, "What do you want to do tonight? Movie? Restaurant?" I said, "I'd really like to go on the protest," so we did. Note good quality straight guy becoming an ally : St Mary's has seen the light now, but it was not very gay-friendly then, and as a prof without tenure he was running a risk by joining this protest. All the participants were invited back to The Turret afterwards, the first time I was ever there. You can ask Chris Shepherd, he was one of the first ones kicked out, and may remember more.

Lynn describes the experience in this storytelling session.

Chris Aucoin

The research I did for the Pride history mag a few years back tells me it was May, 1977 that GAE began the sit-ins and picketing in response to people getting barred. 1

Reg Giles

Do a search on the Chronicle Herald archives ... it was in the paper.

-Lynn Murphy- Well, sort of... about a week after the protest one of the columnists(was his name Basil something?) made a very brief mention of it. I was very scornful about this, but an older and wiser member of the community told me,"He has probably spent the entire time fighting to be allowed to make any mention of it at all!"

Paul Leblanc

Have to share a thought from the past, which came back to me after reading article in the July 21, 2012 ChronicleHerald which mentioned a first this year: the St. Mary's football team will lead the pre-Dykes vs Divas baseball game warm-up.

I clearly remember, while sitting in The Jury Room, in the old Carleton Hotel having a drink when the barman asked two St Mary's football players sitting next to me if he could hire the team to help "get rid of the "fucking faggots."

I had just recently moved to the City and was obvoiusly very alarmed hearing this. Sharing this mainly for younger gay folk who sometimes take their freedom today for granted. Remember those freedoms! a lot are the result of the prides around the world. Get involved there is still work to be done.

RandyKennedy

One day I went to the Jury Room with a couple of friends and after about 1/2 an hour we were told we had to leave " Because we are gay" Well that evening I got dressed in drag wearing a leopard print dress and went back . I got in no problem and even the bouncer sent me over drinks . There were a few of the Preppy Gay crowd there who got quite a chuckle out watching the scenario unfold and they never ratted me out . I stayed til almost closing time before I left after a free night of drinking and partying with the straight boys.2

Ca. 1977 article, journal unknown, suggesting a kiss-in

The 4th Estate Article

The April 28, 1977 issue of The 4th Estate has an article by AmyZierler?: Jury Room expels gays -- protests planned. Here is a link to the article in the NovaScotiaArchives; here's a local copy.

ChrisShepherd, who is not gay, but spent the night in jail for protesting what he calls 'guilt by association'" RobinMetcalfe, secretary of the Gay Alliance For Equality says Thursday's incident is the first of its proportion in the metro area in recent years.

The article also mentions BobStout, former director of the GayLine.

This page is part of the HistoryProject.