Halifax LGBTQ2S bar ‘Rumours’ at risk of closing due to rising costs

Rumours Cabaret, a Halifax bar serving the LGBTQ2S community, says it may have only two months to secure a new lease and find the money to stay open.

Owners Gerald McCowan and Jose Chiu said the lease beginning in November would increase their monthly costs by about C$6,000, bringing rent and related costs to roughly C$18,000 before taxes. Security, DJs, payroll, garbage collection, repairs and other operating expenses would come on top of that.

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It’s not a bar, it’s a community space for everybody and everyone. Straight people, gay people, trans people, doesn’t matter.

The couple has launched a GoFundMe campaign, despite not wanting to ask the public for financial help. “It’s hard for us to make this decision that we went on GoFundMe to get support from the community because we don’t want to close the bar, we want to keep the doors open,” Chiu said.

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It’s hard for us to make this decision that we went on GoFundMe to get support from the community because we don’t want to close the bar, we want to keep the doors open.

McCowan financed the bar’s 2024 opening with money from a Veterans Affairs Canada settlement. The venue revived the Rumours name, which had been associated with a Halifax bar on Gottingen Street before it closed in the 1990s.

The owners said the closure of ARIS Bar and Nightclub in Moncton showed how queer-friendly spaces are disappearing. Teri Appleby, owner of Halifax’s Stardust Bar and Kitchen, said venues like Rumours have historically served as places of “communion, places of protest, places of joy.” The Downtown Halifax Business Commission also expressed support, describing the name as part of the city’s LGBTQ+ history. The campaign raised more than C$4,000 in less than a day, but McCowan said relocating could cost tens of thousands of dollars.

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There’s definitely a need for these places that have historically served as places of communion, places of protest, places of joy.