London, Ontario, Canada - Gay Support

[budhead]

Hi.

I'm from London, Ontario.

I'm just coming to terms with being gay and am trying to find gay support groups or social gatherings here in London.

There was a support group started in the 1970's called the Homophile Association of London Ontario (HALO), but sadly HALO officially disbanded in 2005.

I'm having trouble even getting to chat or know any gay people in London. It's like there's no gays in London, but that can't be true as there is now a Gay Pride Parade in the summer.

I would appreciate any help in finding out where the support groups and social gatherings are in London, please.

[budhead]

Joy, there is some LGBT support here in London at the University of Western Ontario.

I dropped by the university today for their Gay Pride Week displays. I met some very nice people, it was great. They are accepting of adults from the community in going to their Tuesday and Wednesday night meetings. I was concerned they wouldn't want "older men" there, but I felt if they met with me first they'd see that I'm only looking for support. Here's their web site: http://www.pridewestern.ca

The University of Western Ontario also has an excellent LGBT library. Lots of books on the topic and magazines from all over North America. I was their for 3 hours reading books and magazines. You can search for titles online. You can read a book in their lounge area, but you need to be a member of the main university library to sign them out at $100 a year. The better way is ask the London library for the book, as they have a loan deal with the UWO, then it's free, takes a week. Pride Library: http://www.uwo.ca/pridelib/

The London library has some LGBT books of their own, mostly at the Central branch, but not near as many as the Pride library. I got four "Coming Out" books today from the London library. http://www.londonpubliclibrary.ca/

PFLAG is in London. http://www.pflagcanada.ca/en/index-e.asp

The University of Waterloo also has: http://www.glow.uwaterloo.ca I will go to their meetings in a few weeks. It's an hours drive east from London, but beats driving to Toronto.

Things are coming together for me, thanks to EC, The519 in Toronto and now the above support groups.