Find It On Fourth: Pride Edition
Pride Week is upon us, and now is the perfect time to celebrate the 2SLGBTQIA+ businesses proudly contributing to our effervescent scene here on Fourth Street.
Let’s get the idioms out of the way quick, shall we? Okurrr mamma, let’s werk this queer-friendly Fourth Street tour the house boots down! (If you didn’t understand any of that, we’re deeply sorry).
Anyway, let’s gets walking down the yellow brick road, shall we?
Hoping to look your best for Pride week? Foxy Box Wax Bar is a safe space which has everything you need from genderless booking and full body care, to a commitment to hair removal and waxing services for men, women and non-binary clients under the banner of ‘all people welcome’.
Foxy Box also publicly celebrated Pride Month last year, taking to Instagram to explain: “Here at Foxy Box, we believe everyone deserves to feel confident, comfortable, and celebrated exactly as they are.
“Here's to love, acceptance, self-expression, and being unapologetically you,” they added.
Haven Tattoo
Located beside Pho Daddy on Fourth Street, Haven Tattoo describes itself as “an inclusive, queer, femme, sanctuary: for all bodies and skin tones, neurodivergents, introverts, softies, nerds, freaks, weirdos, night owls and early birds”.
The studio’s owner Heather McLean was involved in Calgary's 2024 Protect Trans Kids Tattoo Fundraiser, which raised money for Skipping Stone's gender-affirming legal fund
Looking for a physiotherapist, chiropractor, massage therapist or occupational therapist to keep you healthy and nimble on the dance floor this Pride? Coven Health Collective provides care for women, men, and people of all gender identities, including trans, non-binary, and gender-diverse individuals. It describes itself as a ‘stigma-free’ practice for ‘everybody’, so you’re sure to feel right at home in this safe space.
Listed on the YYC LGBTQIA2S+ directory, Shelf Life Books has hosted everything from drag performances, queer literary readings, and queer-history programming. Calgary Pride even hosted Pride programming at Shelf Life Books back in 2024, which speaks wonders for their contributions to the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.
Wanna learn more? There’s no better place than a bookstore! Shelf Life hosted Kevin Allen's Our Past Matters: Stories of Gay Calgary - which invited members of the queer community to attend and participate - while the University of Calgary's ‘A Queer Map: A Guide to the LGBTQ+ History of Calgary’ can be found on its illustrious shelves.
Speaking of history, Shelf Life Books’ current location used to be a gay bar called Parkside Continental, which was a mainstay for Calgarians between 1973–1986.
Calgary Sexual & Reproductive Health Clinic
As part of Alberta Health Services' Safeworks program, 2SLGBTQI+ people are given access to sexual-health services including STI testing, HIV prevention, harm-reduction supplies. That, my friend, is where Calgary Sexual & Reproductive Health Clinic comes in.
Whether you’re looking to find out more or access HIV PrEP testing, STI testing/treatment, contraception, pregnancy-options support, HPV vaccination, and other sexual/reproductive health services, AHS has you covered.
Steel Needle
Although they don’t necessarily refer to themselves as a queer-friendly business, Steel Needle prides itself on an atmosphere of comfort, consent, communication, and making clients feel at ease… and that seems like enough to give them a mention on this list.
TD Bank
The first bank in Canada to offer same-sex spousal benefits to employees, TD Bank has more than 30 years of experience supporting the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.
Their efforts for the queer community across Canada include their 2SLGBTQ+ Business Development, TD Ready Commitment - which cites ‘connected communities’ as a pillar of their business model - inclusive workspaces for all members of staff and Pride-themed coins which give all their proceeds to Rainbow Railroad: a charity which helps 2SLGBTQIA+ people facing persecution based on their sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics.
GayCities
Now, there is an incredible directory for 2SLGBTQIA+ businesses throughout Cowtown called GayCities. This directory exists in major cities all over the world, and we’re lucky enough to be a part of it.
Citing Calgary as having “a real-life gay scene” outside of just filming Brokeback Mountain nearby (their words, not ours), they cite Fourth Street Favourites Vin Room and Phil & Sebastian Coffee Roasters as ideal safe spaces for the queer community, alongside Sidewalk Citizen Bakery, which has its Park by Sidewalk Citizen right inside Memorial Park.
Happy Pride, from your friends here on Fourth Street!
