Choice Cafe

Choice Cafe is based at Wigston Young People's Centre
It is the only cafe/group in the Leicestershire aimed at young people who Gay, Lesbian or Bisexual.

We run loads of events, weekly activities and more, so for more info:

e-mail Neil or Paddy at: thechoicecafe@btconnect.com

Choice Café in Toronto Canada

Back in December 2006, 3 young people who attend Choice Café at Wigston Young People's Centre found out that they had been successful in a bid to the Youth Opportunities Fund to arrange a piece of global youth work in Canada.

The theme of the visit would be..

‘Is Canada a more tolerant and forward thinking Country for Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual people to live in, than the UK’

Over the months of Jan and Feb, the group worked really hard to build up an e-mail relationship with a gay school in Toronto, the school was a unique opportunity to look at something completely different that does not exist in the UK.

On March 29th 2007, the group set out for Toronto Canada, full of excitement at what lay ahead in Canada.

Our first port of call on the first day was the gay ‘triangle program’ school, based just outside the main city area. To our surprise the school was very small, with only 20 students, and 4 teaching staff. Most of the young people who attended the school had been suffered severe homophobic bullying in their previous schools, and the Triangle Program offered them a safe space to explore their feelings and emotions, as well as completing their secondary education.

The young people and staff made us really welcome, and some great discussions around the differences and similarities between the UK and Canada took place.

One of the key areas of group discussion was on the subject of school-based homophobia, and the challenge that young gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people have in mainstream school.

Interestingly these issues were the same for the Canadian young people as they were for our group. This really showed that issues are not always just local or national, but can also be international, and sometimes need a combined approach to resolve.

Our time with our Canadian hosts in Toronto, was an education and enlightening experience for both young people and staff, and I think we all left feeling that we had shared valuable experiences of growing up and living as a gay, bi, lesbian or transgender person. It also made many of us realise how proud we were of our sexuality.

The differences between the UK and Canada were not as great as we had imagined, and we actually returned home thinking how lucky we were to live in such a gay friendly country, although there is still a huge way to go, and as both groups discussed,

‘Discrimination will not be over in Canada or the UK until gay men and women can walk hand in hand with their partners in every street and area, without the fear of abuse and homophobia’

We also had a great time exploring Toronto, and even had a day trip to Niagara Falls, which everyone thought was amazing.

We would like to thank CYCLE for making this piece of global youth work a reality, we are now hoping that our new Canadian friends will be able to visit the UK in the coming year.