The city has everything. What it does not have much of is somewhere to make a friend rather than meet a date.
Toronto has one of the largest and most established queer populations of any city in the world. There is history here, infrastructure, one of the biggest Pride events anywhere, and a genuinely enormous number of people.
And a lot of queer people here will still tell you they do not know where to make a friend. The gap is not size. It is that almost all of the infrastructure is built around nightlife and dating.
It works well if you like bars and you are in your twenties. If you do not drink, are past that stage, work early, or simply want a friend rather than a date, it is not aimed at you.
The queer dating infrastructure is excellent and enormous. Looking for friendship inside it means constantly clarifying, which is tiring and sometimes unpleasant.
Queer life is not confined to one neighbourhood any more and has not been for years, which is good. It also means the community you want may be an hour away and you will never bump into it.
Depending on your job, your family, your immigration situation or where you are in your own timeline, putting your face on a queer platform is a real decision. Plenty of people who want community stay out entirely because everything asks for a photograph first.
What actually works. Interest groups that happen to be queer, rather than queer spaces that happen to have an interest. The shared activity carries the conversation, which is far easier than a room whose only theme is identity.
Friends mode is genuinely separate. If you are on Kindred for friends you are not shown to people looking to date, and they are not shown to you. There is nothing romantic in that side of the app.
Nobody sees your face for three days. You are matched on what you like doing, and photos unlock on day 3 for both people at once. If being visible is complicated for you, that is three days of being known for something other than how you look, and the choice of whether to go further.
Your exact location is never shown, only an approximate distance.
Being queer or trans is ordinary here, not a filter or a category. More on this in the queer and trans friendship guide.
Queer sports leagues, community organisations such as The 519, book clubs, choirs, craft nights, volunteering with Pride or community services, and daytime or sober meetups. Interest based groups that happen to be queer generally work better than spaces whose only theme is identity.
Kindred keeps friends and dating in structurally separate pools, so people looking for friendship are never shown to people looking to date. It also hides photos and names for the first three days and never shows an exact location, which matters for anyone whose visibility is complicated.
Trans specific groups and programmes run by community organisations are usually the best starting point, alongside queer sports leagues and volunteering. Mixed queer spaces are not automatically comfortable, and there is no obligation to make one work before looking for somewhere that already is.
Friends mode is completely separate from dating. Join the launch list and you get Kindred free for good, plus three months of Kindred+.
Kindred does not run background checks and does not verify that anyone is who they say they are. No app does, whatever it implies. Meet somewhere public the first few times, tell someone where you are going, sort out your own way home, and never send anyone money. The safety section is honest about exactly what we do and what we cannot do.