Growing LGBT community in Toronto’s west-end

TORONTO – Toronto’s Church-Wellesley neighbourhood is the heart of the city’s LGBT community and all eyes will be on the downtown streets during this weekend Pride Parade.

But there is a new, growing LGBT community in the city’s west-end that some residents have dubbed “Queer West.”

One of those is a strip of Dundas Street West commonly known as Brockton Village, or “Little Portugal”, still shows signs of the old community – but a new identity is emerging.

“Well the community is definitely changing. I’ve been here five years and you really see the demographic shift. Lots of young families coming in, lots of young queer families,” Nupur Gogia, the owner of an organic food store in the neighbourhood said in an interview.

“We all kind of know each other. We see each other here but we also might see each other at pride. So it really is – it feels comfortable.”

Gogia has been in the neighbourhood for approximately five years now and says there is a growing LGBT population in the area, but the sentiment in the community is different than Church-Wellesley.

“And it’s smaller than Church Street so there’s not that anonymity that you have on Church Street where like everybody kind of goes but maybe you don’t know each other so well. Whereas here, the community is small, we all know each other.”

Mathew Cutler of the 519 Community Centre says upwards of 40,000 people live in the 519 catchment area – commonly known as the Church-Wellesley neighbourhood – and the area will likely always be known as the heart of the city’s LGBT community. But he said the city is changing.

“Change is inevitable and I think as our community has changed and our rights have changed and our reality in the city has changed. People have moved out, and they’ve become more comfortable. The whole city is tolerant, which is fabulous,” he said.

And many of those people have moved to “Queer West.”