Portland gay bars open

LGBTQ+ Nightlife

A bartender makes sparks at Local Lounge.

You'll find plenty of LGBTQ+-friendly places to call on when the sun goes down in Portland.

3 min read

Note: This section was produced in collaboration with , formerly known as PQ Monthly.

Portland has no shortage of LGBTQ-owned and queer-friendly bars and clubs. Whether you’re looking for a safe space to enjoy a relaxing night with friends, a high-energy dance party or a drag show, Portland delivers.

North Portland

Florida Room is both queer-friendly and dog-friendly. Enjoy a drink with your favorite two-legged and four-legged friends on one of their two patios.

Eagle Portland is Portland’s leather bar and home base for the Oregon Bears. Guests who wear a leather harness, vest, chaps, or full drag with “significant effort,” get in free on Friday or Saturday nights.

Downtown and The Pearl District

Scandalscalls itself, “Portland’s Gay ‘Cheers.'” The relaxed vibe makes it a great place to rendezvous with friends, or meet new ones. During warmer months, grab a seat outside and watch the summ

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Portland’s gay bars are more than just hangouts. Most of the city’s dozen-plus queer bars opened in eras hostile to the queer community. The city’s oldest surviving bars were havens in an openly homophobic era, while its newest venues join a chorus of voices against an increasingly transphobic national climate. The entire LGBTQ+ community should, in the best bars, feel safe and free to let loose, have fun, and maybe nibble on something tasty, on menu or off.

Not all queer gatherings have a permanent home, so we’ve assembled a rundown of the city’s robust scene of recurring pop-up parties alongside our favorite brick-and-mortar establishments. From leather bars to drag dens to lesbian parties to trans cabaret revues to Portland’s “gay Cheers,” there’s always somewhere where everyone’s glad you came.

Jump to: Upbeat Clubs / Low-Key Venues / Strip Clubs / Recurring Queer Parties

Upbeat Clubs

CC Slaughters

Est. | old town

Though technically on the outskirts of Ancient Town’s Entertainment District, CC’s is very much at the center

In , Local Lounge—the iconic (if nondescript) gay bar at Northeast Martin Luther King and Fremont known for regular karaoke, drag shows, and dance parties—shut its doors, joining the growing list of beloved queer spaces in Portland that have closed in recent years (Embers, Rebel Rebel, and the Roxy, to identify a few).

However, just in the nick of time for Pride Month festivities, the new gay bar is set to uncover on Friday June 30, under the new name of Back 2 Earth. The website promises a “new queer personality, vibe, and aesthetic,” with local DJs and performers.

Back 2 Earth will occupy the same brick and mortar as the now-defunct Local Lounge, though it will now be operated by Dan Henderson, who also owns the Eagle Portland, a bear and leather bar on North Lombard.

With a rainbow-hued astronaut on their unused signage, Back 2 Earth looks to be decidedly more space-themed than its former incarnation’s classic dive decor. How the bar’s interior has been remodeled or designed to fit the unused galactic mood remains to be seen, but a post on their Instagram boasts a “killer visual and audi

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The Silverado is obviously and stridently a gay bar. Rainbow tassels line the kitchen, attractive men in snug underwear sling drinks, and posters of shirtless guys adorn the walls. Also, after nine at night male strippers perform in the Silverado’s basement.

The Silverado was established over four decades ago and today is one of Portland’s longest-standing gay bars. It’s now in its third or fourth location, depending on how you count.

“It started as Flossie’s, which was up on Burnside where the Fred Meyer is now,” says Trevor Wion, the Silverado’s bar manager of nearly 25 years. He says that Flossie’s was “the same as what we are now, which is a very queer bar, but much quieter. I don’t think they started having dancers until ’”

According to Wion, sometime in the early ’90s the owner of Flossie’s surprised everyone by announcing that the bar was suddenly moving to what is now Harvey Milk Street.

“Everyone picked something up. There was a procession of bar stools, records, and bottles o