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A number of alternative names for Church and Wellesley exist in local vernacular, including the Gay Ghetto, the Village or the Gay Village, the Gaybourhood, Gayland, Boystown, and Gay and Wellesley, however many of these "nicknames" are generic to gay villages across North America, and are therefore not descriptive of Church and Wellesley specifically, but of gay villages in general. Some people refer to it simply as Church Street, since most of the gay-related establishments in the area are located on that street.
Church and Wellesley is home to the annual Toronto Pride celebrations, the largest event of its kind in Canada with over 90 floats and an enthusiastic crowd of nearly 800,000 people. The Pride Parade runs southward along Yonge Street.
While the neighbourhood is home to bars, restaurants, and stores catering to the gay and lesbian community (particularly along Church Street), it is also an historic community with Victorian houses and apartments dating back to the late 19th and early 20th century. Church and Wellesley is also home to the AIDS Memorial, located in Cawthra Park, where the names of members of the community that 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.
"The Steps", in front of the Second Cup coffee shop on the south-west corner of Church and Wellesley, was an infamous communal stoop. It had often been packed with people chatting, flirting, and drinking coffee. Indeed, the Steps were parodied by the Kids in the Hall, who themselves were from Toronto.
The Steps' significance as a social gathering spot has diminished in recent years in part because the business association of the neighbouring Yonge Street commercial strip has hired private security to patrol its streets. Some homeless youth and street kids migrated from Yonge Street to nearby Church Street as a result. Some people saw these youth as 'undesirable'. Their upwardly mobile gay clientele began to move on when they found the relocated street culture incompatible with their own.
This migration caused a backlash from Church Street business owners who threatened to remove the Steps and other loitering areas altogether.In April 2004, the property owner expanded the retail space of the shops to the street front, due to the backlash mentioned above. However, this created further controversy, as the expansion meant that the shops in that building were no longer wheelchair-accessible.
In the summer of 2004, the business association launched a pilot project. Every Sunday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. throughout the summer, two blocks of Church Street, from Wellesley south to Alexander, were closed to traffic to encourage more pedestrian activity. The business association also sponsored a Church Street Fetish Fair in August.