Let'z Build a Community for Queer Women
Alex Matveeva

When I was first coming out I found that it was hard to find other queer women around me. I thought there was some secret club you had to belong to in order to know where all the lesbian hangouts were. But as time went on it became clear to me that you just needed to put in the time, make acquaintances where you could and do relentless google searches before you stumble onto something you might like. That's just the reality of things. Church Street always seemed to be male dominated and queer women seemed to be scattered all over the city. On the one hand, it's great, because you can explore any part of the city and are sure to find a queer couple holdings hands, but not so great when you're new on the scene and think that Church Street is where it's at. In fact, that can be very discouraging. Women already have such a hard time coming out as is! On top of having to come out (and sometimes having to keep coming out) and experiencing all the hardships that go along with that you now have to somehow find a way to navigate the labyrinth of the queer scene and hope that one day you'll find a friend. Just one friend would be awesome! Someone to share the experience with or to vent on. And truthfully, as a gay woman, I believe we shouldn't hide from each other!

It's already becoming easier to find your crowd with technology, Facebook events, meetup events and even Reddit. However, Anabel and I, here at Let'z didn't think it was enough. We wanted to make things even easier for women, whether you are fresh on the scene or as stale as MySpace we want to bring the community to you! And we're doing a pretty good job already! We got weekly events with attendance of 20 to 50 people, we've got a website that has resources as well as most queer women events in Toronto. We spend about 4 hours each week trying to find queer events and make it as accessible as we possibly can. We sincerely believe that if the women in the LGBT community stand strong together and feel like they are a part of the community than the LGBT community as a whole, benefits!

We are tired of having to find out about hangouts, parties and board game gatherings through word of mouth. We are tired of having to meet friends at a club like setting and not having other options. We just want a friendly space just for us sometimes, where we can relax and make meaningful connections that are based on interest. That's why we're excited to fix it one step at a time!