Church and Wellesley

Church and Wellesley is an LGBT-oriented enclave in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is roughly bounded by Gerrard Street to the south, Yonge Street to the west, Charles Street to the north, and Jarvis Street to the east, with the core commercial strip located along Church Street from Wellesley south to Alexander. Though some LGBT-oriented establishments can be found outside this area, the general boundaries of this village have been defined by the Gay Toronto Tourism Guild.

While the neighbourhood is home to the community centre, parks, bars, restaurants, and stores catering to the LGBT community (particularly along Church Street), it is also a historic community with Victorian houses and apartments dating back to the late 19th and early 20th century. Many LGBT people also live in the nearby residential neighbourhoods of The Annex, Cabbagetown, St. James Town, St. Lawrence, Riverdale and the Garden District, and in smaller numbers throughout the city and its suburbs.

Church and Wellesley is home to the annual Pride Toronto celebrations, the largest event of its kind in Canada with over 90 floats and an enthusiastic crowd that numbers in the hundreds of thousands. The main Pride Toronto festival and parade is always on the last weekend in June, although a program of Pride-related events is held throughout the month of June. The Pride Parade takes place on Sunday and runs southward along Yonge Street. The Dyke March is a dyke and lesbian grassroots march that runs on the Saturday afternoon and typically ends in Allan Gardens for a community fair and Dyke Stage entertainment. The trans march and fair open up the weekend, with the trans march taking place the Friday evening. There is also a weekend-long community fair that closes off Wellesley between Yonge and Church and stretches down Church Street to Dundas. The community fair includes tables from a wide variety of groups involved in or associated with queer culture and services.

The 519 Church Street Community Centre is the meeting place for numerous social and political groups and became well known as an LGBT-friendly space. "The 519", as it is most often called, is a city-run community centre that has been adopted locally as the queer community centre, though its programming is not exclusive to LGBT groups and organizations. In 2007, a new wing was opened, and upgrades to the existing spaces were completed in 2009.

Church and Wellesley is also home to the AIDS Memorial, and the Trans Memorial located in Barbara Hall Park, where the names of members of the community who have been lost to AIDS are etched into bronze plaques. A memorial candlelight vigil is held each year at the AIDS Memorial, during Pride Week.

Buddies in Bad Times is a theatre within the enclave dedicated to "the promotion of queer theatrical expression."

A number of alternative names for Church and Wellesley exist in local vernacular, including the Gay Ghetto, the Village, the Gaybourhood or the Gay Village — however, many of these "nicknames" are generic to gay villages across the English speaking world, and are therefore not descriptive of Church and Wellesley specifically, but of gay villages in general. Most people refer to it simply as Church Street or the Village, since most of the LGBT-related establishments in the area are located on that street.

The Church Wellesley Village Business Improvement Area was established October 2002.