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dipping sauce: spicy with blue cheese, teriyaki & bbq with ranch

breaded round steak strips served with fries. The clientele is as diverse as Portland gets, all ages and bodies mingling under the spinning disco ball or squeezed into booths.

Featured Events: fresh paint amateur drag, women crush wednesdays, thursday trivia

Low-Key Venues

Darcelle XV Showplace

Est.

1967 | old town

In its late namesake’s absence, Darcelle’s family runs the historic Old Town club Darcelle XV Showplace, and resident castmate-turned-city-treasure Poison Waters reigns as the club’s emcee and grande dame.

Featured Events: sunday afternoon jazz, Sister Bingo

Eagle Portland

Est.

2007 | piedmont

Eagle Portland isn’t related to the other gay leather bars called Eagle found across the country, but it might as well be. Part cocktail bar and part dance club, it’s an approachable introduction to LGBTQ+ nightlife, which is why it’s most Portlanders’ first gay bar. When they have the space and budget, Judy on Duty also pulls off some impressive art installations, like the shiny black cars parked on the dance floor during the annual Time-Based Art Festival.

Twirl

various locations

This monthly North Portland daytime disco usually roosts at the World Famous Kenton Club but also pops up at the Get Down.

Even resident straights are welcome for an infusion of brunch, drag, and board games. ranch, bleu cheese, honey dejon, chipotle, ketchup, mustard, tarter, bbq, teriyaki.

gay bars portland

Known as one of the most LGBTQ+-friendly cities in the United States, Portland embraces our community, providing a haven for individuals of all identities and orientations.

As the third-person narrative unfolds, the allure of Portland's LGBTQ+ scene comes to life. It's a breath of fresh air—literally—in the heart of the city to tranquil moments at the Portland Japanese Garden, LGBTQ+ travelers can immerse themselves in the serenity of the Pacific Northwest.

Rainbow flags adorn the streets, proudly signaling a community that thrives on acceptance and celebration. Quirky neighborhoods like the Pearl District, Hawthorne, and Alberta Arts District pulse with a palpable energy, reflecting the city's progressive mindset. Long before Darcelle set the Guinness World Record as the world’s oldest drag queen, long before former Portland Monthly editors Fiona McCann and Eden Dawn joined the team that shattered Guinness’s longest continuous drag show world record, audiences relied on Darcelle’s for stiff drinks and drag revues that defied Portland’s homophobic legal code more than 50 years ago.

 

Tours & Experiences in Portland

11 Wine Bars for Every Kind of Vibe

Portland’s gay bars are more than just hangouts. After a change in management a few years back, the newest in Portland’s modest collection of mostly male queer strip clubs feels infused with fresh energy.

1981 | old town

Portland’s longest-running male strip club started life amid a string of ’60s gay clubs, one of them in the building that now houses McMenamins’ Crystal Hotel. Check out some of the top gay bars in Portland - Darcelle XV Showplace, Crush, and Bye and Bye.

Portland's commitment to LGBTQ+ rights and advocacy is exemplified by an array of events throughout the year.

Dancers of all experiences and expressions shake whatever they got. Its current home, White Owl Social Club, has a wide-open patio perfect for mingling and smoking. 1979 | downtown

Scandals, “Portland’s gay Cheers,” is the last queer vestige of the city’s long-gone Vaseline Alley and sits next door to the ghost of forever-famous queer diner the Roxy, which devastatingly shuttered in 2022.

This one directly traces its lineage to the ’80s club Flossie’s, which had multiple addresses but moved to Old Town in 2018 and set up shop as a street-level bar with a basement strip club.