200 of the Greatt Gay Bars the World

Contents:

• THE 42 BT GAY BARS AMERI
• THE BT GAY CLUBS AMERI
• THE 30 BT GAY BARS NYC
• THE 5 BEST MOSW GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS MOSW

THE 42 BT GAY BARS AMERI

It began s life as a beer-and-we offshoot of the Metropolan Health Club, a gym that opened 1983 to serve the gay ctomers who’d been bullied out of other lol clubs at the height of AIDS hysteria. While you won’t fd any Pri flags at Farraguts, you will undoubtedly hear Cele Dn and Melissa Etheri blarg om the bar’s dty, old jebox and, hontly, isn’t that jt as gay?

A gay gatherg spot sce 1939, and gay bar sce 1963, and the Bar Complex sce the 80s, s unassumg exterr beli a triple-threat treat of lounge, performance space, and a mirrored dance club reportedly moled after Stud 54. If you want to get away om the typil scene at fellow gay bars Olly’s and Gregs Our Place, English Ivy is an ial place to meet iends: mature enough for a proper Ladi Lunch (or bnch or dner. It’s not a gay bar the tradnal sense, but a place where traed pianists play selectns om Broadway shows and all of the drama teachers and mil theater majors of the tri-state area nverge to sg along.

THE BT GAY CLUBS AMERI

It was the se of an early gay-liberatn “sip ” 1966, years before Stonewall, and has been a low-key haven ever sce, wh a diverse clientele, a small menu, classic cktails, and an extensive (and packed) 4:00-7:00 happy hour. The origal was burned down an anti-gay hate-crime a few years back, but the revival has jt opened across the street and is bigger and better, wh a new performance space. CourtyWashgton DC: TraIn a town where n feel like every other bar is crawlg wh Capol Hill staffers lookg to talk shop, Tra is the rare, glorly gay dive where absolutely everyone is wele to jt kick back.

Micky’s WeHo has long been a staple on Wt Hollywood’s strip of gay nightclubs and bars on Santa Moni Boulevard, known for s open-walled two-story buildg where passersby n see the party ragg om the street. Though Sweetwater isn’t officially known as a lbian bar, the humble tablishment has long been the go-to spot for queer women the lol gayborhood, which featur nearly half a dozen gay bars that le Broadway Long Beach. Image: Time Out/D-Free/ShutterstockMove your hips wh the sential gay songs, om unfettable LGBTQ+ anthems to poignant ballads explorg queer lifeThirty days of summer is a pretty paltry amount of time to celebrate the LGBTQ+ muny.

THE 30 BT GAY BARS NYC

And while we’d never balk at an exce to celebrate everythg that Pri stands for, we also believe that any time is the perfect time to crank up the gay songs and let the rabow flag fly. RECOMMENDED:?  The bt party songs ever ma?  The bt karaoke songs?  The bt pop songs of all time?  The bt classic rock songs?  The bt happy songsBt gay songs, rankedImage: Polydor1. ‘I Will Survive’ by Gloria GaynorIt starts off slowly, shroud fear; then the beat kicks , the song builds nfince, and by the end, now backed by a strg sectn, ’s a full-bore dis anthem of self-assurance.

On s betiful face, Gloria Gaynor’s ‘I Will Survive’ is about a woman gettg over the guy who done her wrong; but 1978, as gay liberatn was gatherg steam heated nightclubs around the world, also played like a claratn of hard-won pri (‘I ed to cry / But now I hold my head up high’) and pennce om the hetero norm (‘I’m not that chaed-up ltle person still love wh you’). Rerd at the height of Ameri's AIDS crisis and spired by New York’s unrground gay ball scene (famoly documented the 1991 film Paris Is Burng), Madonna’s ep-hoe–flected 1990 smash mands you to leave the heavy stuff asi—if only for a few mut—and fd salvatn on the dance floor.

‘Over the Rabow’ by Judy GarlandFor generatns who grew up as ‘iends of Dorothy’, yearng to pe to a realm of Technilor urban fantasy, the tac gay natnal anthem was Garland’s wistful ballad om 1939’s The Wizard of Oz (wh a geo melody by Harold Arlen and touchg lyrics by social activist E.Y.

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

But even now that so many closet doors have opened, ‘Over the Rabow’—and don’t you dare ll ‘Somewhere Over the Rabow’ lt someone threaten to revoke your gay rd—still spir pri and reverence.

‘A Ltle Rpect’ by Erasure‘What relign or reason uld drive a man to forsake his lover?’ sgs Andy Bell on this stirrg synth-pop classic — a h for Brish duo Erasure 1988, and a perfect, piquant rponse to the Brish ernment’s outrageoly homophobic Sectn 28 legislatn. Word is that at the time, Bell would troduce the song onstage sayg, ‘When I was a ltle girl, I asked my mummy, ‘Can I be gay when I grow up?’ She replied, ‘Y, if you show a ltle rpect.’’Image: Capol Rerds11.

‘Y.M.C.A.’ by Village PeopleFor any guy who’s ever wanted to be (or sleep wh) a wboy, p or leather-clad biker, the Village People reign supreme as gay-anthem chart toppers.