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.

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.

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 portion of the neighbourhood bounded by Yonge, Jarvis, Maitland and Carlton Streets was once the estate of Alexander Wood, a merchant and magistrate in Upper Canada who was at the centre of a strange, supposedly sexually related scandal in 1810.

[8][9] The Glad Day Bookshop, for many years the city's only gay oriented bookstore, opened on Yonge Street near Wellesley in the mid-1970s.

[10][11][12] The streets and alleys between Yonge and Bay also became a cruising area frequented by male prostitutes and their clients referred to by the police as "Track two".

George Hislop, a gay businessman and co-owner of one of the raided bathhouses, ran for Toronto City Council with his campaign headquarters located at Church and Wellesley.

In the 1980s, the 519 Church Street Community Centre became the meeting place for numerous social and political groups and became well known as an LGBT friendly space.

A strip of gay bars opened along the street and many LGBT people rented apartments, joined residential co-ops or bought condos close to Church.

As times have changed and Toronto public has become more open to homosexuality, the role of Church and Wellesley as a "sanctuary" for LGBT people has been debated in recent years.

[14] In the 2000s, many privately owned businesses, including This Ain't the Rosedale Library, have been forced to close down or move to other areas due to these rent increases, and much larger corporations, such as Starbucks, The Body Shop, David's Tea, Subway and the Bank of Montreal, have settled on the street in their place.

[14] The residents of the area are now largely middle-aged men with established careers, as the high rents and increasing density of condominium development mean that the majority of gay youth cannot afford to live in the neighbourhood.

Some choose to settle in nearby neighbourhoods such as St. James Town and Cabbagetown, while others no longer feel it necessary to live near the village as they can be open about their sexuality without as much fear of backlash.

The neighbourhood is part of the federal electoral district of Toronto Centre, currently represented in the House of Commons by Marci Ien of the Liberal Party of Canada.

[18] Due to community opposition, in the final report the northern boundary of Toronto Centre was shifted north to Charles Street.

[20] That district's MPPs in the 1970s and 1980s, Margaret Campbell (1973–1981) and Susan Fish (1981–1987), were both among the province's most vocal supporters of LGBT rights initiatives in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario during their terms in office.

The Toronto-based comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall performed a recurring sketch, "The Steps", on their television series in the late 1980s and early 1990s.