This famous, queer beach in Canada could disappear unless urgent action is taken
Have you ever enjoyed Hanlan’s Point beach on Toronto Island?
Mark
Campaigners and queer beach lovers in Canada are calling for local officials to move swiftly to help save a much-loved Toronto bathing spot. Without major investment, it might soon vanish.
Hanlan’s Point Beach, on Toronto Island, is believed to be the world’s oldest naturist beach. It’s a designation dating back to 1894. Over the course of the 20th century, it also became a very popular hangout with the local gay community.
In fact, on August 1, 1971, Hanlan’s Point was the site of Canada’s first Pride.
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Most visitors reach Hanlan’s Point by taking a 10-15 minute ferry ride from Toronto’s Jack Layton Ferry Terminal. Once you reach the island, it’s then a 10-minute walk to the beach. A 600-meter rainbow path, known as The Long Walk to Equality, guides the way.
In the summer months, the beach become packed with members of the LGBTQ+ community.
Erosion
The challenges now facing Hanlan’s Point are due to erosion. Sadly, much of this is down to human action. In 1959, construction began on the Leslie Street Spit. Campaigners believe this altered the water flow on this part of Lake Ontario.
David Jubb is co-founder of the Friends of Hanlan’s group. According to him, the Spit, “starved the beach of its annual, natural sandbar renourishment. It’s just being eaten away, year by year.”
“In the last decade alone, Hanlan’s lost 75% of its historic queer space.”
Compare the images below to see what we mean. The first was taken in 2017, while the Instagram post is more recent.
As a result, the actual site of Canada’s first Pride is now underwater.
“Two beach towels laid out lengthwise is the width of the sand from the dune fence to the water,” confirms Jubb. “It’s standing room only on weekends.”
“Very few spaces like this in Canada”
Work to tackle the issue was slow to commence, and has not kept up with the rising water levels. The situation has worsened considerably in recent months.
A few weeks ago, the city had to close the southern portion of the beach due to erosion. Anyone heading to Hanlan’s Point Beach this summer faces squeezing into an even smaller area.
Travis Myers, another co-founder of Friends of Hanlan’s, told CityNews last week the “beach has been decimated.”
He says the city needs to move quickly to dump new sand on the shore.
“For the queer community, losing this space would be horrible. This is a come-as-you-are, free-to-access space. There are very few spaces like this in Canada and around the world where people can come find their community,” he said.
“We’ve been alerting the staff who work on the island. We’ve been alerting council for years to please bring sand here. It’s insulting to the community, especially as we head into Pride month.”
“Sad to see such an iconic Toronto beach change so dramatically”
Netami Stuart, a senior project manager with the City of Toronto, told CityNews that the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority transported 50,000 tons of sand on the beach at the southern end of Hanlan’s Point Beach between 2021 and 2023. She agrees that more needs to be done, but officials are first undertaking studies to decide upon the best course of action.
Campaigners welcome the new sand, but say it’s a course of action that should have begun at least a decade ago. And much more is required now.
“Hundreds of coastal cities around the world figure out how to bring in sand every year for their beaches,” Jubb told GayCities. “It’s almost a standard of practice in some cities in North America and Europe and Asia to bring in sand annually for their beaches. Miami is a great example. Miami’s beaches are almost all artificial.
“For some reason, Toronto’s never thought about this because it has the privilege of being on a very large lake and so it doesn’t have the same type of tides and currents,” says Jubb.
“Unique sense of freedom and community”
Users of the beach share this sense of urgency.
“Hanlan’s Beach has always been one of my favorite summer destinations – a place where I could relax with my partner and friends and enjoy the unique sense of freedom and community it offers,” local Toronto resident Rahil Hudda (below) told GayCities.
“This year, it was disappointing to see how much of the newer LGBTQ+ beach area had been lost to erosion. It’s sad to see such an iconic Toronto beach change so dramatically, and it has definitely affected my excitement about returning this summer.”
The urgent need for sand
In late May, Deputy Mayor Ausma Malik, the councilor who represents Toronto Island, authored a motion to address the erosion. It demands that all relevant parties develop a shoreline restoration program to start in 2027.
Before that, it requests that more sand is added urgently to the disappearing beach, especially in the wake of the closure of the southern section. The motion was passed.
However, Friends of Hanlan’s Beach fear this doesn’t go far enough. Jubb says the motion lacked hard deadlines. He urges Toronto’s progressive Mayor, Olivia Chow, to prioritize tackling the erosion issue.
“The mayor’s been asleep at the wheel. And when the mayor’s not there to empower staff and get them moving, then nothing happens. It’s crunch time. We do need a lot of internal barriers of the city bypassed, things like procurement rules,” says Jubb.
“It’s all the more gut-wrenching to see this happen during the FIFA World Cup. The city of Toronto, like many cities in North America, bent over backwards for FIFA.”
Toronto has spent millions of dollars and also enacted emergency-style administrative overrides to accommodate the tournament. Jubb would like to see the same sense of urgency applied to Hanlan’s Point.
GayCities has contacted the Mayor’s office for comment.
Capri Contreras, co-founder of queer community group Lez Beach, shares Jubb’s feelings. The group holds gatherings on the beach for the sapphic and trans communities. Contreras believes such gatherings may be the first to be squeezed out as space disappears.
“It is about queer joy, but it is also about reclaiming a queer space for our community that often gets pushed out,” Contreras told Toronto Today, “I just don’t know if the city is ever going to understand that or respect that.”
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