[LINK] "Straight swingers' club set to open in Club Toronto space"

[rfmcdonald]

There's an odd sort of continuity in all this, from gay bathhouse to straight swingers club. Am I entirely wrong in seeing in this a case of heterosexuals capitalizing on the sexual freedoms won so recently by queers, a reversal of that sort of trajectory?

The home of the old Club Toronto, a 122-year-old historical building and an important community landmark as the site of the 2000 Pussy Palace bathhouse raids, will soon reopen as a swingers’ club.

This fall, the building will launch as the Oasis Aqualounge, catering to “sexually adventurous” straight couples and single women.

New owner Toni Johnson took over after Club Toronto closed its doors this past April. The new space, she says, will be “a day and night club, almost like a resort, where you can have a drink and a bite and lounge by the poolside, socialize and dance.” One of the venue’s most attractive draws is the outdoor pool, which Johnson plans to make a key feature of the new club.

“I’m really excited to be in this neighbourhood,” Johnson says, although she admits the building itself was the bigger draw.

“The establishment is magnificent. It’s one of so few historical places remaining, to see it with the baseboards and trim and stained glass,” she says. “One of the defining things for me was that it has a pool and private courtyard. You just can’t get that kind of thing downtown.”

For Johnson, an entrepreneur whose background is predominantly in the software business, the Oasis Aqualounge is a bit of a departure. “When I decided I wanted to invest in something, this was by no means my first thought,” she says.

“It occurred to me that niche businesses do better since competition isn’t as fierce, and a few years ago I did a lot of research counting heads and speaking to people about what they liked and what they didn’t. And I decided this seems to be the business to be in.”