Here are the best bars and parties for a night of queer debauchery-from shirtless specials to ’90s dance parties and everything in between.
In general, I expect our hopes for our community are the same as many others' hopes-that we are just trying to be a truly better community all the time."ĭespite the rainbow extending to more spaces throughout the District, gay bars will always be the most well-lit beacons for the DC queer community to let their hair down, perhaps for the first time ever. So, our community is not only diverse, but it is also very smart and that makes for a lively, vibrant nightlife. Also, DC is a place where people with ambitious career goals come to pursue things seriously. After the last chord, the crowdwho had paid a few bucks to see acts like Fugazi, Soulside, or 9353spilled out into the dark, nearly deserted streets. “Because our city is such a magnet for people from all over the world, that keeps our community incredibly diverse. Poets, jazz artists, comics, and punk acts jammed on the tiny stage of this club, once the heart of the city’s underground. We have all sorts of people and all sorts of personalities,” says DJ and nightlife entrepreneur, Ed Bailey. "DC’s LGBTQ+ community is truly remarkable.
The question of whether every place can now be considered safe in DC for queer people remains, but an ongoing shift is unmistakable as the LGBTQ+ community has begun to stake out their own space within more traditional watering holes, with outdoor beer garden Dacha, the trendy Takoda, and the bumping nightclub Flash as prime examples. (The old 'gayborhood' on 17th street-places like JR's-seems to be popular with the older generation still.) Again, all of this is based on listening to friends and watching their social media-no personal experience in the last few. Is it such a bad thing though? With each closure comes the inevitable, “where to now?” And the new answer seems to be: everywhere. I'm old and un-hip these days, but my FB feed makes it look like Nellies on U St is pretty popular these days.
Dupont Circle, once defined as the city’s gayborhood, is seemingly hanging on by a thread. other gay and lesbian bars that moved into the area: Johnnie's, a gay bar, opened at 500 Eighth Street SE in 1949 Plus One, the first gay bar in DC to. Over the past few decades, countless openings, promising re-openings, and disappointing closings have taught us to expect the unexpected. Theres a large bar downstairs and a seating area in the loft upstairs. The DC LGBTQ+ community is no stranger to change. JRs is a popular gay bar on Church Street in Washington DC.