Does Ottawa have a lot of LGBTQ (specifically lesbian/bi women?)

August 27, 2023 2:38 PM

Hello. I am thinking of moving to Ottawa next year, and I was wondering if there are a lot of lesbians or bi women in Ottawa? I know Montreal has a good queer scene but not sure if Ottawa does for lesbians and bi women especially feminine cis women in their late thirties and forties? I hope to find an intelligent, kind, creative, and artsy kind of woman.

But not sure which city would be best? I thought of Toronto and Vancouver but they are both expensive to live. Victoria I hear has a good queer scene as well. Just not sure if Ottawa is the place or not? I am really keen on the literary arts and visual arts and Ottawa is good for that and not far from Montreal—I wasn’t sure if living in an artsy city would help find an artsy/creative woman. I know Ottawa does not have a huge night life like Montreal so I’m not sure if it will be harder.

posted by RearWindow to Human Relations (4 answers total)

Is there a reason Montreal is out? Tbh Ottawa is kind of not it :/ Halifax might be better if Montreal is not an option.
posted by EarnestDeer at 6:36 PM on August 27, 2023

You should try out queer dating apps like Lex or Her and look in that area. I think you can pay to show a certain neighborhood that you are currently not living in on Lex (for this type of reason-- to check out the scene before moving). And you can also specify what you're looking for. Also suggest you go on Instagram and search lgbtq Ottawa and find any events, etc. You could essentially Google that too.
posted by AnyUsernameWillDo at 6:47 PM on August 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

It's true, it's really hard to beat Montreal for cost of living (about 25% less than Ottawa), vibrant arts, and a terrific night life. On the other hand, you would need to learn to navigate a whole new provincial medical and bureaucratic system for disability (per your other asks). And learning French would be helpful, and a bunch of new cultural expectations. Montreal can be A Lot.

Toronto (where I live) has a fantastic queer scene but housing is significantly -- 30% -- more expensive than Ottawa. If you need to stay in Ontario but want to have many of the benefits of Montreal, you may be able to make it work in Toronto with a roomie.

As a queer family we discarded the idea of living in Ottawa despite my partner being employed in the federal civil service. Ottawa is mostly notable for being the federal capital, not for being a hotbed of queer arty liberals. On the other hand, there's a chance you could actually GET a co-op housing slot in Ottawa.

The recommendation to check out the dating apps is solid.
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:08 AM on August 28, 2023 [3 favorites]

They're kind of two questions: yes, Ottawa has a lot of lesbians, bi women and queers, for sure. It's a quite LGBTQ+-friendly city, largely because of the federal public service and quite progressive, generally speaking: the last mayor was a gay man and the other major candidate for the last mayoral election was a non-binary person and they carried a huge chunk of the vote.

But a lot of what is going on here is Very Official Festivals and quite square, to my Vancouver tastes, but it could be that I'm just not going to the right places and I'm on the older and more settled side (I'm bi-woman, maybe queer? I dunno?) and have other lesbian and queer friends who are also settled because we're getting toward middle age or have already hit it. People mostly live in the suburbs and if they do come into downtown for work, they rush back there. I find this a very boring city. Very boring. I moved here when I was 27 and it was like that then and is like that now. Boring.

Maybe there's something under the surface that I'm unaware of, or maybe I'm too old now, but I was also talking to my hairdresser just after the big music festival here (Bluesfest) and she commented that her friend had noted "a lot of lesbians" at the night she recently had gone to (when FLETCHER was playing) so there must be a lot of lesbians hanging out *somewhere*. It's also a fairly big university city, with both UOttawa and Carleton here, so perhaps that's where the lesbians and queers are.

Not sure where you are located, but Hozier is playing CityFolk on September 17th which is certainly going to be THE place to meet the Local Lesbians of Ottawa (since you missed FLETCHER already, ha) and see what's up.
posted by urbanlenny at 4:19 PM on August 28, 2023 [2 favorites]