The Rainbow Lounge: LIVE at Buddies!
5 Apr 2019.  -

Tickets aren’t even on sale yet and Toronto queers are already practicing for The Rainbow Lounge, a piano bar night on June 27th. Join some of Toronto’s most revered artists for a spectacular sing-along evening around the piano. Queer classics, outrageous costumes and a community, come together for a fundraiser that’ll bring two LGBTQI refugees from Iran to safety in Toronto. Generously hosted by Buddies In Bad Times Theatre, The Rainbow Lounge is modelled after NYC’s The Monster, The Duplex and aims to fill the void left from the closure of Statler’s Bar on Church Street. 

This epic evening will help raise the $20,000 needed to bring and our are an English-speaking couple from Iran newcomers. While the details about the newcomers remain confidential (to avoid complicating their safe passage out of Iran), Rainbow Railroad has verified that their horrific circumstances warrant the need for starting a new life in Canada. The Rainbow Lounge is just one of many initiatives organized through Team Unlimited, one of about a dozen Rainbow Railroad Settlement Teams who volunteer to support individual cases all the way through the process. 

It is illegal to be LGBTQI in 70 countries with 10 countries imposing the death penalty, including Iran. Worldwide there are 65.3 million people who are waiting in refugee camps, each will wait an average of sixty months. But for LGBT refugees, this often means facing similar or worse persecution inside the camps themselves. All of this makes fleeing one’s country as difficult as it is dangerous, not to mention costly when you consider even the cheapest housing in Toronto. As the situation worsens in many parts of the world, we need to create meaningful ways for people to come together in support of our brothers and sisters around the globe. 

Accompanying the bohemian-rhapsody-circus are veteran musicians David Ramsden and Stewart Borden who’s pre-determined song lists will be available closer to the show date for anyone wanting to practice up. Hosted by Raymond Helkio and Chris Williamson the queer star studded guests around the piano include David Bateman, Paul Bellini, Philip Cairnes, Rolyn Chambers, Bitch Diva, Brock Hessel, Joe Hume, Peter Lynch, Charlie C. Petch, David Roche and Mark Stenabaugh with more being be announced closer to the show date. With this collection of legends all in one room, expect there to be a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow!