LGBT gui to Washgton, DC, cludg gay bars and nightlife

Contents:

• WASHGTON DC GAY DISTRICT: DUPONT CIRCLE
• D.C.'S BT GAY BARS AND HANGOUTS
• D.C. NO LONGER HAS A CENTRAL GAY NEIGHBORHOOD. DO THAT MATTER?
• D.C. LAWSU CLAIMS AARP SERVIC ILLEGALLY FIRED GAY MAN
• THE GAY LIFE AT DUPONT CIRCLE
•  DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA LBIAN AND GAY BARS, RTRANTS, LODGG, PRI EVENT, BS MAPS
• THE BT GAY BARS WASHGTON, D.C.
• GAY BARS DUPONT CIRCLE WASHGTON, DC
• THE CREW CLUBWASHGTON DC'S PREMIER GAY SNA & GYM.WASHGTON DCMENULUXURY HOTELSMID-RANGE HOTELSON TODAYBARSDANCE CLUBSSNASGAY MAPSHOPSTHE CREW CLUB
•  DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA LBIAN AND GAY BARS, RTRANTS, LODGG, PRI EVENT, BS MAPS

WASHGTON DC GAY DISTRICT: DUPONT CIRCLE

Like most pals, Washgton DC offers a robt and dynamic gay district which ters to a range of different tast. Rather than one specific gay area, the scene Washgton has most pals, Washgton DC offers a robt and dynamic gay district which ters to a range of different tast.

Rather than one specific gay area, the scene Washgton has dispersed through different neighborhoods of the cy. Most gay life, however, n be found around 17th Street Dupont Circle, and U Street Logan Circle. DCs gayt street is 17th Street, and here you will fd a host of gay spots ready to open their doors.

Word has that this place offers one of the bt gay atmospher town, and s monthly 80s dance party ‘The Breakfast Club Remix’ is a sure fire h wh the lols. A past-time that’s pretty much bee scribed Washgton’s gay scene.

D.C.'S BT GAY BARS AND HANGOUTS

To the north of Logan Circle, U Street has unrgone a massive transformatn, and is now brimmg wh some of the bt gay bars and clubs Washgton. Nellie’s Sports Bar was the first gay venue to open outsi of Dupont Circle, and has reached legendary stat thanks to s popular events cludg trivia and drag bgo.

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!

D.C. NO LONGER HAS A CENTRAL GAY NEIGHBORHOOD. DO THAT MATTER?

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. 's evolvg gayborhood has shifted towards Logan Circle and U Street.

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. 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. New to the Shaw/U Street gay bar scene is Uproar, which buted last year. Read more om our 2016 Gay Issue here.

D.C. LAWSU CLAIMS AARP SERVIC ILLEGALLY FIRED GAY MAN

“I told them I was gay, ” says the 73-year-old Dupont Circle rint, whose closet door me “flyg off” when he was 28. Gay polil groups and bars had taken root; anti-war and civil-rights monstratns abound.

In an age where g out was more dangero than ually is now, when beg openly gay often triggered prejudice and srn, books and newspapers like the Washgton Bla, tablished 1969, played a ccial role creatg muni. Prt mattered, not only as a means of relayg rmatn on gay happengs but also as one of drawg queer folk together. He’d settled on the name after the Internatnal Gay Rights Congrs Edburgh adopted the Greek letter as a symbol of solidary.

THE GAY LIFE AT DUPONT CIRCLE

At the time, “there weren’t many thgs that were gay” the neighborhood, he says. “But people were here and they were gay. ” Other rints were gay-iendly.

 DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA LBIAN AND GAY BARS, RTRANTS, LODGG, PRI EVENT, BS MAPS

P’s, the Fraterny Hoe (later, Omega), Phase 1’s Northwt outpost, and the Last Hurrah (next lled Badlands, and most recently, Apex)—waterg hol that tered to gay men. The ncentratn of queer culture has sttered, however, and some look back on the “gayborhood’s” heyday wh pri and sda. Gay Dupont may not be ad, but ’s slowed down nsirably—as have those who vivified .

THE BT GAY BARS WASHGTON, D.C.

“Gay Pri Day, ” which would eventually bee Capal Pri. In a sign that Dupont was reifyg s reputatn as a queer “ghetto” like the Village New York and Castro San Francis, Gay Pri Day 1979 attracted 10, 000 people and stretched three blocks. Throughout s history, Lambda Risg served as a muny center, renzvo spot, and gossip l for the District’s gay populatn.

GAY BARS DUPONT CIRCLE WASHGTON, DC

Was lettg me know how much he appreciated Lambda Risg bee he knew his 15-year-old son was gay, but didn’t know how to handle that, ” he says. “At one time, might have been the only place you felt fortable gog to to purchase gay books.

There was a certa amount of announcg yourself by gog there: ‘I didn’t know he/she was gay. Donahoe giv queer tours of Dupont upon requt, and says fewer people raise their hands when he asks whether they thk of the neighborhood as “gay central” than the past. “At least one woman who I was iends wh said that any man who lived Dupont Circle was to be nsired gay until proven straight, ” he rells.

As Rick Rosendall, the executive director of the District’s Gay and Lbian Activists Alliance, reunts, rints and around Dupont Circle fought to repeal an anti-sodomy law, a ban on gay domtic partnerships, and the supprsn of queer marriag. But spe the aln of LGBTQ people and alli that had alced, Dupont remaed a zone where privilege and excln actured gay uny. “What has remaed as the face of gay culture D.

THE CREW CLUBWASHGTON DC'S PREMIER GAY SNA & GYM.WASHGTON DCMENULUXURY HOTELSMID-RANGE HOTELSON TODAYBARSDANCE CLUBSSNASGAY MAPSHOPSTHE CREW CLUB

“Young people gaed more rights, more people were accepted their own fai, they didn’t have to go to a ‘gayborhood’ to get that feelg, ” she explas. Wh the last year, at least three gay bars om Dupont to Shaw have supplemented the tun.

The 46-year-old entertament profsnal (who also promot events and performs as a drag queen named Summer Camp) says when he first arrived the District 1998, much of gay men’s nightlife radiated wt of Dupont Circle, near P Street NW. “Sometim might jt be a matter of more tradnal gay spac already beg booked, ” Van Horn says.

 DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA LBIAN AND GAY BARS, RTRANTS, LODGG, PRI EVENT, BS MAPS

You end up wh an LGBT clientele that’s more open to the ia that we don’t have to go to a bar that’s been a gay bar for a very long time s history… [and is] cur to venture farther afield. “Speakg om my own experienc, I’ll look out at the dance floor of the parti I throw—let’s say MIXTAPE specifilly—and tends to be gay, cis, whe men as the majory, ” Van Horn says. In the kd of “crossover” now apparent along the U Street rridor, Ross says she would like to see more rpect for the norms of the queer muny (no homophobic ments or starg, please) as well as a greater unrstandg of D.