2026-06-06 • Halifax • Staff
"I can finally share publicly what I've known for months," says Robin Metcalfe in an email to friends, "Canada Post has recognized the Turret as an historic Place of Pride for the 2SLGTBQIA+ communities."
Canada Post has recognized the Turret as an historic Place of Pride for the 2SLGTBQIA+ communities. There will be a launch event in Halifax next week. [details below]
The Turret stamp is one of four. In Canada Post's press release they say, "From bold acts of courage and defiance to community-building movements that inspired generations, the sites and events commemorated by Canada Post’s new four-stamp issue tell the story of Canada’s 2SLGBTQIA+ history. The Places of Pride stamp issue shines a light on the places and events in which Canada’s 2SLGBTQIA+ communities fought for safe spaces and altered the course of human rights in Canada."
The three other stamps in the set remind us of Little Sisters in Vancouver; the 1978 Metamorphosis Festival in Saskatoon which was the first celebration of queer culture in Western Canada; and community centre The 519 in Toronto.
The stamp release is accompanied by a video including a short tour of the The Turret as it is now, guided by Robin including some very helpful context-setting for the time and lots of photos both from Robin's collection and from the Halifax Rainbow Encyclopedia, and of course the logo by Rand Gaynor. In it, Robin says, "[The Turret] represents a moment of empowerment, struggle and resistance by the gay and lesbian community, creating their own space, managing their own space in a way that was answerable to the community it served. The Turret was a place we made together and sustained together."
Here's the video. (3 minutes.)
Historian and author Rebecca Rose says, "I'm so proud (pun fully intended) to finally share this Turret stamp, which I worked on -- and had to keep a secret. The Turret, home to the first community run gay bar in the province, the first gay bookstore, and a very queer health clinic – absolutely deserves national recognition. It also deserves funding from all levels of government in this present day! Thank you to the staff that I worked with at Canada Post for understanding the importance of this space yesterday, today, and forever in Halifax and beyond. Buy them all up so you never have to send a straight mail again!"
The launch event, open to everyone, is at the Turret, 1588 Barrington Street, on Friday morning, 12 June at 9:30 am.
Here's the article about The Turret in the Halifax Rainbow Encyclopedia.
