THE BEST Washgton DC Gay Clubs & Bars (Updated 2023)

Contents:

• TOWN, DC’S LARGT GAY BAR, IS CLOSG. WHAT DO  MEAN?
• THE U STREET CORRIDOR FALLY HAS A GAY CLUB AGA
• LICHT CAFé, D.C.’S NEWT GAY BAR, IS A COZY, ART-FILLED U STREET HIAWAY
• THE BEST WASHGTON DC GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS WASHGTON DC
• WASHGTON DC GAY SNAS
• D.C.'S BT GAY BARS AND HANGOUTS
• WASHGTON GAY MAP
• WHAT DO TOWN’S CLOSG MEAN FOR THE FUTURE OF GAY NIGHTLIFE D.C.?

TOWN, DC’S LARGT GAY BAR, IS CLOSG. WHAT DO  MEAN?

The natn's pal is home to a lively LGBTQ+ nightlife scene wh plenty of gay and lbian bars jt wag for you to jo on the fun. Larry’s Lounge is a gay neighborhood pub, wh always-affordable drks, solid happy hour specials, mouth-waterg pub fare (see: sweet potato tots) and one of the cy’s iendlit pats (you n brg your dog, too! Number Ne to the btlg Logan Circle urty of -founr Ed Bailey, who helped DC’s gay nightlife scene to grow durg his days as a DJ.

Suated right the heart of Adams Man’s btlg 18th Street is Pchers, a gay sports bar, and A League of Her Own, the adjacent bar for lbian and queer women.

RIP Gay BarsCi around the untry and globe have seen many of their most beloved gay and lbian waterg hol close down — often after the area's queer populatn dispers or the owner simply gets priced out. Town, the massive gay dance club Shaw, announced last week that will close next summer after mors to the ntrary. I me out twelve years ago, and like many queer kids DC, I sought out gay bars as a refuge.

THE U STREET CORRIDOR FALLY HAS A GAY CLUB AGA

Yet many of the plac I equented are gone: Phase 1 Barracks Row, Apex Dupont Circle, Ins Fairfax (which wasn’t a gay bar, but hosted a lot of drag shows), not to mentn all of the LGBT clubs Navy Yard that closed to make way for Natnals Park over a ago. When Town opened 2007, the sleek, warehoe-style club seemed out of place at 8th and Florida, far om DC’s tradnal “gayborhood” on 17th Street.

But did lead the gay muny’s shift further east towards Shaw, herg a new generatn of bars, like Dirty Goose, Takoda, and Uproar. Contributors agree that the “gayborhood” isn’t gog anywhere, but won’t look the same the future. Town was the first gay bar I ever vised, but I met my boyiend of the last three years at a (straight) bar.

All that said, I hope that the owners of Town follow the lead of DC Eagle and Secrets, which found new hom so they uld ntue to wele both people at a gay bar for their first time and people who experience every week. Obvly sucks to lose a well-loved place but at the same time…I don't thk the actual activy (whether s gay bar or DIY mic shows) is disappearg necsarily though the landspe is certaly changg. Tracy Loh says ’s no surprise that Town led to other velopment, cg the example of other “gayborhoods.

LICHT CAFé, D.C.’S NEWT GAY BAR, IS A COZY, ART-FILLED U STREET HIAWAY

A lot has been wrten before about the role of gay “pneers” jumpstartg growth property valu by crementally vtg real tate and muni. A muny wh a lot of disvtment but historil charm, gay people are the only on not racist or otherwise prejudiced enough/sperate enough for a place to stake a claim to see the value opportuny and have the risk-tolerance to act on , and so a gayborhood is born.

THE BEST WASHGTON DC GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS WASHGTON DC

Matt Friedman says DC has lost a lot of gay venu, but new on are always takg their place.

At the news of the closg of Town, I joked to some iends that “the gayborhood is everywhere now. Gay bars provid a safe space at a time when was a lot harr to meet other LGBT people. Payton Chung poted out that bs n’t survive on nostalgia alone, quotg Marty Chernoff, then-owner of Tracks, a popular DC gay club the 1980s and 90s.

WASHGTON DC GAY SNAS

Natn was my first gay club and I have fond memori of gog there when I was llege. Maybe isn't a dited gay club as much as a uple nights a week at a club but I thk there is still a need of such a space where gays n be gays and there is no judgment (except maybe about someone's outf). Bunker, a subterranean gay club, opened s massive doors to live DJ sets on Thursday, Febary 23.

In the past three years, all of the cy’s siar clubs have closed, cludg Cobalt, Secrets, DC Eagle, and the largt gay dance club D. In Febary 2016, the Washgton Bla noted an "unual flurry of activy" wh the openg of four new gay bars, the majory of which land the U Street/Shaw/Logan Circle area.

D.C.'S BT GAY BARS AND HANGOUTS

Those spots and more sports bars, dance clubs, and cktail havens are all clud Eater's round up of the District's gay-iendlit bars and hangouts. New gay dive bar Tra opened last year, urty of the team behd Town Danceboutique and Number Ne. 's longt ntuoly operatg gay bars and one of the olst Ain-Amerin gay bars the untry, opened 1957.

Was the 'first gay-owned bar to offer same-sex dancg', sentially breakg the owner ban on dancg. ' Down the street published gay travel guis, gay fictn, physique magaz, and lol newspaper Gay Fom.

WASHGTON GAY MAP

The prs and publisher would be nvicted of obsceny., started at Geetown Lutheran, beme the first place to provi STD unselg to gay men. Others, like and, provid not only gay lerature but ccial space for activism and muny gathergs.

Was one of the first gay dance clubs around South Capol Street, a "relatively isolated lotn, gave a sense of secury that more -town lotns uldn’t.

WHAT DO TOWN’S CLOSG MEAN FOR THE FUTURE OF GAY NIGHTLIFE D.C.?

Barracks Row and Pennsylvania Avenue SE rema a vibrant LGBT scene, but faced harassment om Mar at the Barracks., a gay club that opened 1980, reported six cints by Mar cludg broken wdows, shoutg slurs, threateng patrons, and asslt.

MPD was strongly cricized when, durg a 1987 raid of gay bar, they donned "surgil masks and bber glov" for fear of ntractg AIDS.