Black Queer Youth Drop-In Groups in Toronto

Young people who are both Black and queer or trans can feel pulled between two communities, each of which may overlook a part of who they are. Drop-in programs for this group have been created in Toronto and other Canadian cities to give it a place of its own. Community reports describe how such groups begin, what happens at meetings and what members say about their lives.

The details below describe a general model drawn from such reports, not any group's present schedule.

Origins in secrecy

Programs of this kind have sometimes begun as small initiatives to give a voice to gay, bisexual and trans Black youth. In the beginning, participants may be screened and told where to meet only shortly beforehand, with locations changing from week to week to protect them. Fear of exposure can shape the whole design.

Over time, many such programs settle into an open drop-in format, run through youth-support agencies and hosted at community health centres or similar spaces. They welcome people who are out, curious or still closeted, generally between the mid-teens and about thirty.

What a typical meeting offers

Weekly attendance at such groups is typically described as a dozen to a few dozen people. Facilitators frame the space as a social, low-pressure setting where participants can learn, go on outings, make zines, join workshops and simply relax with peers.

Much of each month tends to focus on practical life skills chosen jointly by members and facilitators. Once a month a group may cook a meal, watch a film with an empowering or anti-oppression theme and spend time together. Sessions often open with a check-in, in which each person introduces themselves and describes their week.

Pressures members described

Participants in such groups are often not out beyond the group, or are open only to a few close friends and immediate relatives. Reports describe members facing narrow expectations about gender and masculinity, and feeling that sexual and gender diversity is overlooked or dismissed in some of the communities around them.

Members have also spoken of racial prejudice, alongside prejudice based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The picture is of people who belong to more than one minority community and sometimes feel unwelcome in each, a situation that scholars discuss under the label intersectionality.

Outreach and long-term effects

Because relatively few openly queer Black youth may be reachable in any one city, such programs have often advertised in publications aimed at the wider queer community, in the hope that curious or privately identifying readers would come across them.

Many members arrive through referrals and stay for years. Friendships formed there often continue outside the room, and some former members go on to become facilitators. Reports commonly cite the supportive, anti-oppressive setting as the most valuable feature, with benefits described as confidence among shy members, awareness among curious ones and freedom of expression among those still hiding.