End of an era: Moncton's only LGBTQ bar closes after 23 years
Elizabeth Fraser | CBC News | Posted: September 10, 2018 6:01 PM | Last Updated: September 11, 2018
Triangles Night Club is set to close Sept. 29
Over the years, Stella Fougere can still remember people screaming "faggot" and throwing eggs outside Triangles, the only gay bar in Moncton.
For 23 years, Fougere co-owned the nightclub on 234 St. George St., with Evie Lane. The couple met 37 years ago at the establishment previously known as La Cave à Pape.
"Coming out back then was not an easy thing at all," said Fougere.
Now more than two decades later, they announced in a Facebook post that the bar would be closing. The bar will be putting on its last drag show at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 29. A dance party will follow at 11 p.m.
- Group works to establish permanent space for LGBTQ youth in Fredericton
- Controversial 'anti-LGBTQ therapy' group plans retreat in Rothesay
- History of LGBT community in New Brunswick being compiled
"The bar business as a whole has changed and certainly being gay in this day and age is the biggest and most welcome change of all," Fougere said in the post.
"It is time for us to retire and turn the page, but it will be a sad day for us, as well as the staff. Many have met their partners here, and made lifelong friends."
At the nightclub, they served the LGBTQ community. The couple listened to countless stories of the challenges of being in a relationship.
"We've had a lot of people cry on our shoulders," Lane said. "They fight with their girlfriend, they fight with their boyfriend."
But the business owners can also remember the struggles people in the LGBTQ community went through to be accepted, and Triangles was considered a safe place for many.
They said people would call the bar late at night crying that they were yelled at for being gay. One person was even beaten with a baseball bat.
Acrimony and violence
"A very close friend … a girl walked out of the bar one night and a guy walked up and punched her in the face," Lane said.
They're happy about changes for the LGBTQ community since then, but they said a younger generation doesn't quite understand how difficult it was to come out years ago.
"Growing up in the '70s and '80s, there was a lot of acrimony and violence against gays," Lane said.
"People were killed and are still being killed in places because of that."
An ever-changing business
Meanwhile, the bar business has changed "drastically" and it's time for them to move on, Lane said.
People don't have to go out anymore to meet people. Instead, they can find people online, on chat lines and in special interest groups.
"Bars in Moncton, they open, they close with such regularity you can barely keep up," she said.
The co-owners are planning to sell the business and hoping the buyer will create a new LGBTQ bar, where people can meet in person instead of online.
"Your support and loyalty has meant the world to us and is appreciated beyond words," Fougere said of the clientele.