THE 5 BEST Washgton Gay Clubs & Bars (Updated 2023)

Contents:

• THE 5 BEST WASHGTON GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS WASHGTON
• WASHGTON DC GAY DISTRICT: DUPONT CIRCLE
• THE NUMBER OF GAY BARS HAS DWDLED. A NEW GENERATN PLANS TO BRG THEM BACK.
• D.C.'S BT GAY BARS AND HANGOUTS
• THE BT GAY BARS WASHGTON, D.C.
• LICHT CAFé, D.C.’S NEWT GAY BAR, IS A COZY, ART-FILLED U STREET HIAWAY
• GAY SPOKANE TRAVEL GUI
• THE GAY WAY: HISTORY OF LBIAN BARS SOUTHEAST WASHGTON, D.C.
• A YEAR GAY BARS

THE 5 BEST WASHGTON GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS WASHGTON

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.

WASHGTON DC GAY DISTRICT: DUPONT CIRCLE

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. The teenage spect and several others had emerged om the nvenience store and engaged Sibley g profani and homophobic ephets. A group of men killed him for beg gay.

7 plac sorted by traveler favorGay Bars • Dance Clubs & DissGay Bars • Dance Clubs & DissWhat travelers are saygIt's not the bt bar on the is often a ver is very bar, many bars, even a dance floor. The Buck is attached to the Global next door were one si is gay the other not so much. SieNampa, ID70 ntributnsThis is the first gay bar I've ever been to where ppl were the vib almost seemed hostile.

THE NUMBER OF GAY BARS HAS DWDLED. A NEW GENERATN PLANS TO BRG THEM BACK.

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.

D.C.'S BT GAY BARS AND HANGOUTS

A past-time that’s pretty much bee scribed Washgton’s gay scene. 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 BT GAY BARS WASHGTON, D.C.

Bounce closed 2017, and hundreds of other gay bars have shut down, too. A group is planng a lbian and queer “clubhoe” Los Angel, and an “old-school gay girl” Norfolk plans to reopen the lbian bar she found four s ago. Pike and McDaniel know openg a bar durg a panmic may be risky, but they say they’ve learned one thg om years of visg and workg other queer tablishments: If they want to survive, they first have to build a better and more clive than a barThe gay bar was long the ma, and sometim only, space where queer people uld gather.

A few opened quietly the early 1930s, then after World War II, hundreds more began servg gay men and women. About 200 of those tered to, like Hershee Bar Norfolk, opened when their stat had laws that prohibed bar owners om employg gay people or creatg gatherg spots for them.

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

She mentored foster children whose parents had kicked them out, and every Thanksgivg, she threw a dner for people whose fai didn’t accept 1987, Norfolk had four or five gay bars, and the number natnwi peaked at more than 1, 700.

Many stayed open through the 1990s, but the early 2000s, hundreds of gay bars started to close. Those servg lbians and people of lor were h all gay bar listgs cled by 37 percent between 2007 and 2019, the number of queer bars servg people of lor cled by 59 percent, and bars for lbians cled by 52 percent, Mattson Francis lost the Lexgton Club, and Rubyu Jungle shut s doors New Orleans. Still, Mattson has found two prevailg factors — the rise of datg apps and a growg acceptance of gay people.

“Gay bars were never jt hookup plac, but they were plac to meet other LGBTQ+ people, and now that you n meet them om your bedroom or while you’re wag for the b, that has taken away some of gay bars’ monopoly on beg the place where you fd other LGBTQ+ folks, ” he bars are also no longer the only place some queer people, pecially Whe and cisgenr men, feel safe.

GAY SPOKANE TRAVEL GUI

“I thk this is highly uneven, ” Mattson said, “but for gay, Whe, middle-class people like myself, any bar feels like a gay bar if you show up wh six iends.

THE GAY WAY: HISTORY OF LBIAN BARS SOUTHEAST WASHGTON, D.C.

”Mattson has terviewed 120 bar owners 35 stat for a forthg book lled “Who Needs Gay Bars? For some bar owners, Mattson found, that’s jt enomics, but for a new generatn, “lbian” and “gay” don’t pture their full and fluid inti. ”A fay-oriented spacePike and McDaniel have spent the past 20 years workg gay and lbian spac.

Pike did secury for Nellie’s Sports Bar, and McDaniel bartend at APEX, Cobalt and other gay bars before workg alongsi Pike at A League of Her Own (ALOHO) Adams was one of jt 21 lbian bars left the untry when Pike and McDaniel worked there, but durg the early days of the ronavis panmic, the uple cid they wanted to create a new spot, one they owned. As You Are won’t have secury guards; stead, Pike is trag a fleet of “safety managers” — a change Pike hop will attract applints who are ls ncerned wh actg tough and more terted creatg a safe atmosphere for and McDaniel know that some people thk the gay bar era is over, that spac like theirs are no longer need, but people who say that tend to have more privilege, McDaniel said.

“He was clearly homophobic, ” Pike said. “My experience of tryg to fd safe space here the Stat, and parg wh trips back to vis fay Mexi, has probably rmed my fervor for creatg a space where you are able to jt exist regardls of how or where you were born, who you want to love and how you intify, ” Castellanos, the owner of Hershee Bar Norfolk, nsirs herself an “old-school gay girl, ” but she’s rootg for the next generatn of queer bar owners. 's evolvg gayborhood has shifted towards Logan Circle and U Street.

A YEAR GAY BARS

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.