Boston’s Bt Gay Bars and Nightclubs - Eater Boston

Contents:

• THE BT GAY BARS BOSTON
• CHECK OUT OUR INSTAGRAM
• THE LGBTIQ+ TRAVEL GUI TO BOSTON: THE BT GAY BARS, DRAG EVENTS AND MORE
• THE 5 BEST MOSW GAY CLUBS & BARSSEE ALL THGS TO DOGAY CLUBS & BARS MOSW
• BOSTON GAY MAP
• BOSTON GAY BARS
• THE LGBTIQ+ TRAVEL GUI TO BOSTON: THE BT GAY BARS, DRAG EVENTS AND MORE

THE BT GAY BARS BOSTON

The bt of Boston’s gay bar scene n be found around the South End, Dorchter, and beyond. The nversatns about Boston’s gay nightlife scene often center around the closgs of cherished tablishments and rapid gentrifitn of once-gay neighborhoods.

Sectns of Dorchter, once the epicenter of Boston’s Irish Catholic workg-class, are now miature gayborhoods — plete wh Sunday tea danc. The Theater District is home to multiple clubs that regularly host big-name DJs and queens om RuPl’s Drag Race (season 15 wner Sasha Colby performed at Legacy this wter), and Back Bay remas filled wh gay-iendly neighborhood hnts. Wh a proud history of supportg gay rights and a large LGBTQ populatn, Boston is unsurprisgly one of the most clive metro areas the untry.

It is te that gay people n feel fortable galavantg anywhere, om Eastie’s wateront to Somerville’s Davis Square. Still, there is a need for gay-specific spac, and a new generatn of social are ensurg that Boston remas a statn for LGBTQ people. Wh Pri Month gettg started, here is a look at the cy’s gay bar scene and all has to offer.

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Legacy, n by Royale Entertament Group, has taken the mantle om Paradise as one of Boston’s most hedonistic gay nightlife statns.

Around for more than 30 years, Club Café is one of the olst gay bars Boston, but you wouldn’t be able to tell om the throngs of Gen Z-ers and lennials who wrap around Columb Avenue on Friday and Saturday nights to get si (pro tip: buy a yearly VIP pass to skip the le. Formerly an old-school vio bar — Trophy Room also ed to host weekly drag bnch — the space is still a gay favore. This upsle cktail lounge opened last fall on Tremont Street, where the Eagle, a gay dive bar staple nearly every major cy, ed to be loted.

In this gay-iendly tablishment, the portns are big and the drks are stiff.

THE LGBTIQ+ TRAVEL GUI TO BOSTON: THE BT GAY BARS, DRAG EVENTS AND MORE

Wh s spac bar and numero high-tops, Harp and Bard has bee a statn for Dorchter gays who want to enjoy a lorful selectn of cktails or chow down on fort food favor like turkey tips and meatloaf. Brian Picci’s Dbar has been a gay favore for years (along wh s siblgs Boston Chops the South End and Dxave Back Bay). Dbar After Dark throws some of the most bacchanalian events on the Boston gay nightlife lendar, attractg hors of pleasure-seekers for s glow party and r Sunday outdoor tea dance.

Blend has bee a go-to spot for Dorchter gays lookg to dance the night away, or tch up wh iends their roomy bar area or outdoor pat.

THE 5 BEST MOSW GAY CLUBS & BARSSEE ALL THGS TO DOGAY CLUBS & BARS MOSW

Blend is hostg a number of events for Pri, notably s “GAYHEM” dance party on Saturday and pop star drag bnch on Sunday.

Legacy is an LGBTQ+ rebrand of the former Guilt nightclub loted the Royale Complex on the oppose se of hosts Rafael Sanchez (Gay Mafia Boston) and Bobby Kelly's events and is open nightly Wednday through Saturday startg at around is also the current home to Boston's monthly LGBTQ+ kk and fetish night, Fascatn, as well as the Boston Drag the events tab for more rmatn about nightly parti. $20 ver, 21+For VIP bottle service, email @ gaymafiaboston. Gay Mafia Boston | LGBTQ Nightlife & Drag Events | Uned Stat.

In fact, Massachetts was the first US state to legalize gay marriage back 2004. To this day, Boston remas one of Ameri’s most LGBTIQ+ iendly ci and has a large queer muny actively shapg the cy's future, ensurg remas one of the world’s foremost gay statns for generatns to e. Loted a small neighborhood that’s smooshed between the Theater District and Chatown, Jacqu is Boston’s olst operatg gay bar and the cy’s premier tablishment for drag shows.

BOSTON GAY MAP

The space is a rtrant durg the early eveng hours and is popular amongst the lols, both gay and straight. It’s filled wh an endls array of gay bars and clubs, and tons of LGBTIQ+-owned rtrants, ns, B&Bs, and more.

In fact, P-town is known as one of the “gayt plac on Earth''. The Boston LbiGay Urban Foundatn is another group that has ntued to put on queer events and offer support to lols after the dissolutn of Boston Pri. But the gradual ductn of LGBTQ+ rights and the social acceptance queer folk have gaed have subsequently dimished the need for the tradnal “gay” social space.

In my adopted hometown, Boston, the distctn between “gay” and “straight” social gatherg venu is slippery. At around the same time the LGBTQ+ rights’ movement was gag steam the 2000s, many of the cy’s gay bars eher closed pletely or morphed to non-queer specific tablishments. In an terview wh Boston Spir 2013, owner and founr Frank Ribdo said he and three other vtors were spired to open a gay-iendly gym bee of the harassment and discrimatn such clientele faced at a nearby Back Bay Racquet Club (Club Cafe is loted between the affluent Back Bay and the South End neighborhood, which the 1980s was a cidly more seedy gay enclave).

BOSTON GAY BARS

It’s piano bar, the Napoleon Room, is a homage to long-gone Boston gay bar and speakeasy, the Napoleon Lounge. Origally found Boston’s South End 1938 by lol nightclub owner Henry Vara, Jacqu’ morphed to a gay bar sometime the 1940s (the club is still owned by the Vara fay).

By the 1960s, beme the only lbian bar the cy and somehow survived moln durg a moral csa by lol policians to purge the South End of s gay tablishments. His own performanc have clud Boston Pri’s Big Gay Home Bar Crawl, an all-Brney Spears show, and a Harry Potter-spired burlque show (he was Molly Weasley).

THE LGBTIQ+ TRAVEL GUI TO BOSTON: THE BT GAY BARS, DRAG EVENTS AND MORE

Explore the many historic and excg statns gay Boston, one of the most LGBT-iendly ci the Uned Stat. From s sential role the Amerin Revolutn to s distctn as the first state to legalize same-sex marriage, gay Boston has a host of attractns that is sure to please any LGBT history buff.

There were queer bars along the ast, but they largely tered to cisgenr gay men. On one night, the Smallmans met a iend at a New Orleans gay bar. Mattson, who has extensively rearched recent chang gay bars, veloped his report om the gay bar listgs the Damron Gui, the longt-nng and only guibook that documents LGBTQ plac the natn.

Overall, he found, gay bars cled by 36. So if you’re lookg at the pal of whe cis gay men vers the pal of whe, Black, brown, Asian, Lata, queer women, the dispary is huge. “When Tanya [the origal owner] me out, was the 1950s, early ’60s, and the bar she ed to go to was always gay men and gay women together bee she told that wasn’t legal.