Gay & Lesbian Travel

Last month I created a new guide to San Diego gay nightlife. This month, I've decided to move across country to our nation's capital, with my latest such guide, on Washington DC's top gay bars.

I've long been impressed with the sheer variety of styles and interests served by DC's gay nightlife scene - here you'll find old-school gay restaurant bars like Annie's Paramount Steak House and Dupont Italian Kitchen; predominantly African-American hangouts like Bachelor's Mill and Lace; throbbing dance bars like Cobalt and Town Danceboutique; and all sorts of other interesting places. Banana Cafe cultivates a Latin scene, Phase 1 is one of the oldest lesbian bars in the world, Freddie's Beach Bar brings camp-drag fun out to the Virginia 'burbs, Nellie's and Number Nine or favorite happy-hour hangouts near Logan Circle and the U Street corridor, Remington's ranks among the nation's most esteemed GLBT country-western bars, and Ziegfeld's/Secrets is justly famous for its all-male nude revues and over-the-top drag shows.

Much of the city's gay bar scene is concentrated around Dupont Circle and Capitol Hill, but you'll find a number of other bars in different neighborhoods. In fact, you'd need a long weekend to try visiting each of these places - I've managed to visit all of the ones I covered on this list over two or three DC visits during the past few years.

This is a great time to visit Washington - the city's hugely attended DC Black Pride is coming up soon, over the weekend of May 24 to May 27. And soon after, Washington DC Gay Pride takes place the weekend of June 8 through June 10. Expect just about all of the bars in this guide to be packed with revelers over these two weekends.

A handful of Gay Pride celebrations have already taken place this year, and several more prominent ones are set for the remaining weekends in May, starting this weekend with the increasingly well-attended Belgium Gay Pride held in that country's charming capital, Brussels, and featuring a Pride Village with different themed communities (Leather, Bears, Latinos, families, and so on); and Northampton Gay Pride, which takes place slightly later than in previous years in the ruggedly beautifully Pioneer Valley of central-western Massachusetts, in a bustling college town that also abounds with fun shopping, hip restaurants, and gay-friendly bars and music clubs.

The following weekend, May 19 and 20, sees the largest such U.S. celebration of the month, the famed Long Beach Gay Pride, which I blogged about recently in relation to the big GLBT party taking place on the city's historic Queen Mary ocean liner. This weekend is also the first time that Oklahoma City Gay Pride will be taking place in May, having moved to a new time this year and forming an entire Pride weekend with the Oklahoma Gay Rodeo Association's annual Great Plains Rodeo, held the following weekend.

Another spring-time event that's smaller than some but has become extremely popular with folks from New York City to Philadelphia to Washington, DC, the friendly and fun New Hope Gay Pride, in the leafy Bucks County, PA town on the Delaware River, holds its celebration on May 19. For links to other Gay Pride Festivals taking place the rest of May (including Dusseldorf, New York's Hudson Valley, and Moscow), check out the spring Pride calendar.

During the week just after Chicago Gay Pride in late June, the legendary Second City Chicago is offering a week-long immersion course at its acclaimed Second City Training Center that aims to teach aspiring comic scribes the fine art of gay humor. This new course, "Writing GLBT Comedy," is led by the head of Second City Training Center's writing program, Andy Eninger, whose developed a following for his work with GayCo Productions--this summer he's also appearing in a cheeky new production, Steamworks! The Musical, at Chicago's Annoyance Theater. Eninger's course runs from June 25 through June 29, 2012, from 10 am until 1 pm each day. This is a pretty cool opportunity to train with the improv-based sketch-comedy company from which such talents as Joan Rivers, John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Chris Farley, Steve Carell, Amy Sedaris, Stephen Colbert, Jack McBrayer, and Tina Fey (to name just a few) have graduated.

For more on Gay Pride weekend in Chicago, read my preview of this hugely popular event. Second City is located in the Old Town Triangle neighborhood, a couple of miles southeast of the city's most celebrated gay neighborhood, Lakeview, and about 5 miles south of hip and GLBT-popular Andersonville - check out our guide to these two lively neighborhoods, as well as the more general Gay Guide to Chicago.

You can view a carefully curated collection of some 200 garments designed by legendary fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent at "Yves Saint Laurent: The Retrospective", running now through July 8 at the highly regarded Denver Art Museum. Saint Laurent, who died in 2008, reached the height of fame during the '60s and '70s, as his daring creations of haute couture dovetailed perfectly with the Sexual Revolution. The designer made up half of one of the most celebrated gay couples of the era, with romantic and business partner Pierre Bergé. This critically acclaimed show at the Denver Art Museum presents designs spanning his entire career, from the late '50s to the early 2000s. If you're in the area this spring, also check out a couple of additional notable exhibitions at the museum: "Focus: Robert Motherwell" is on through May 27; and "Read My Pins: The Madeleine Albright Collection" runs through June 17.

A couple of gay-popular Denver hotels are offering special deals in conjunction with the Saint Laurent Retrospective. The funky Curtis Hotel-A Doubletree by Hilton, which is within easy walking distance of the art museum, has created the "Curtis Couture - Make it Work!" package, which includes accommodations, a bottle of champagne and a fashion mag on arrival, buffet breakfast for two, self or valet parking, and two VIP "break the line" tickets for the Saint Laurent exhibition, all starting at $199, and available through July 8.

A short drive from the museum in the fashionable Cherry Creek retail and entertainment district, a hub of high-end shopping, the elegant JW Marriott Denver at Cherry Creek is offering the "Cherry Creek Couture Getaway". Beginning at $359 per night and also running through July 8, the deal includes accommodations, two VIP tickets to the exhibition, a $100 gift card for shops at Cherry Creek North, free valet parking, and a $25 credit at the on-site restaurant, Second Home Kitchen + Bar. For more ideas on where to stay in Denver, visit my Denver Guide to Gay-Friendly Hotels and B&Bs.

Spring and early summer are beautiful times to visit vibrant Denver, which hosts its huge Denver Gay Pride celebration the weekend of June 16 and 17. Check out my Denver Gay Gallery for advice on gay bars, cool restaurants, and top attractions.

Arguably the capital of LGBT parties and fundraisers, Miami Beach will host the 13th annual Aqua Girl weekend from May 2 through May 6. This five-day blow-out raises enormous amounts of money each year, with 100% of proceeds going to the Aqua Foundation for Women, which funds wellness and rights for lesbians, bisexuals, and transgenders through a variety of grants, scholarships, and other efforts. The party comes on the heels of a busy April for the LGBT community in Miami, which featured Miami Gay Pride as well as the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, the latter event actually wrapping up the same weekend as Aqua Girl (ending on May 6).

Aqua Girl events include a Spotlight Film and After Party on Wednesday, May 2; the Traffic Jam party on May 3 at Dream Nightclub; a Splash Pool Party at the Surfcomber Resort on Friday, May 4; a comic performance by Jessica Kirson on May 4; the Havana Nights party on May 4 at Nikki Beach; the Beach House party during the day of May 5 at the Surfcomber, the Odyssey Party on May 5 at Grand Central in Miami proper; a Brunch Serenade on Sunday, May 6 at the Hotel Victor; the Aqualicious Tea Dance on Sunday; and a closing Afterglow party at Score Nightclub in Miami Beach.

The fab Kimpton Surfcomber Hotel is the host venue for the weekend, and special rates are available there, as well as on American Airlines.

Home to one of the largest Gay Pride events in the country, Long Beach, California has two great new events in store for this year's Pride weekend festivities on May 19 and 20. The legendary ocean liner the Queen Mary, which for many years has been docked permanently in Long Beach as a distinctive hotel, is hosting to GLBT parties. The biggest gathering, the Poseidon party, takes place on the Saturday night (May 19) of Pride weekend in the ship's three-story event space, which has been fashioned out of a former boiler room.

On this night, from 7 pm until 2 am, the Poseidon party revs up with music by DJs Manny Lehman and Scotty K, as well as hot go-go dancers, aerial performers, and a live concert by pop star Amannda, known for her hit "The Only One." Tickets to this party cost $50.

On Sunday morning, the Queen Mary will host a Pride Sunday brunch, with music by DJ Kimberly S, from 9 am until 2 pm - the cost is $24.95, and this includes a buffet meal, and gratis bloody Mary or mimosa.

You can stay on this grand old ship, enjoying the GLBT parties, by booking the Proud Mary Pride Weekend package, which includes two nights' accommodations, and tickets to Saturday's Poseidon party and Sunday's Pride brunch - rates begin at $229, and you can tack Sunday and Monday nights for just $79. Here's more information on the famed Queen Mary.

One of Portland, Oregon's many great assets is its wealth of distinctive, one-of-a-kind lodging options, and one of the favorites here is the stylish, irreverent, and fun Jupiter Hotel, a smartly rehabbed Mid-Century Modern motel just a short walk across the Willamette River from downtown. The Jupiter--with its sleek and affordable rooms and a hip restaurant and live-music venue, the Doug Fir Lounge--has since its inception been a great friend to the LGBT community. Most recently, the hotel went all out in welcoming gay visitors by kicking off its Keep Portland Queer package, which you can book here.

Here's what you get: Book any room (subject to availability and some blackout dates), and you'll receive complimentary overnight parking; a dozen delicious Voodoo Doughnuts; an LGBT brochure from the city's official tourism organization, Travel Portland; a bottle of Bubbly Pink Moscato from Barefoot Wine; a $10 gift certificate to Fantasy for Adults Only (the Bacon Lube looks intriguing...); and complimentary copies of the city's new LGBT newspaper PQ Monthly and the new Pacific Northwest LGBT travel and lifestyle magazine OutCity. (As I'm also the editor of that latter publication, I'll add that our first issue won't be coming out until the end of May.)

Portland has a number of great events coming up this summer, including Pride Northwest (Portland Gay Pride) in mid-June, and Portland Latino Gay Pride in mid-July - here's a preview of these two events.

Everybody's favorite guy-on-guy social app, Grindr, announced its Travel Awards last week during the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association's annual convention in the chic beach resort of Florianopolis, Brazil. I attended this conference and spent a few days checking out the sights in this gay-friendly city that's still a bit under the radar among many North American travelers - I'll be writing more about the trip in future blogs.

As for the Grindr awards, if you use this app, you may recall being asked in recent months if you'd be willing to take a quick poll on gayest destinations. The awards are based on these results, and they're as follows:

Gayest U.S. City: New York

Gayest International City: London

Best U.S. Gay Beach: Miami

Best International Gay Beach: Rio de Janeiro

Best U.S. Gay Resort: Palm Springs, Calif.

U.S. City With the Best Gay Festivals: San Francisco

International City With the Best Gay Festivals: Sydney

Hottest U.S. Grindr Guys: Los Angeles

Hottest International Grindr Guys: Tel Aviv

So there you have it. I can't find fault with any of these choices, although the one city here I've not yet been to is Tel Aviv (I've met plenty of hot guys from Tel Aviv, so this certainly sounds plausible. If you'd have voted differently, be sure to watch for the chance next year to participate in the 2012 Grindr poll.

It's one of the most storied feats of structural engineering in the world, and on May 27, 2012, the familiarly orange suspension bridge that spans the 6,700-foot-wide strait near the mouth of San Francisco Bay will be feted with a huge two-day 75th anniversary celebration. The event takes place throughout Memorial Day Weekend on the city side of the bridge, with activity all along the waterfront between Fort Point (directly beneath the bridge) to Pier 39. Key venues during the soaring celebration include Fisherman's Wharf, Ghirardelli Square, Fort Mason Center, and the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. It'll be a great time to visit San Francisco, as the air of festivity will extend throughout the city, right into favorite GLBT neighborhoods like the Castro, the Mission, and SoMa.

The weekend is just part of a full year of news and openings related to the Golden Gate Bridge, including a new Bridge Pavilion interpretive center and museum, a major revamp of the Bridge Cafe, and the unveiling of new guided tours of the bridge. For the first time ever, night tours are being offered.

For more on what to see and do while in town, check out our Gay Guide to San Francisco as well as our extensive San Francisco Gay Nightlife Guide.

One of the most comprehensive and ambitious aviation projects in recent times, the much-anticipated Berlin Brandenburg Airport will open just southeast of this vibrant city on June 3, 2012, on the site of the formerly East German Schönefeld airport. Both it and the metro region's other current airport, Tegel, will close permanently. The old Tempelhof airport, on the edge of the hip and gay-popular Kreuzberg district (a short walk from the Berlin Gay Museum), ceased operations in 2008. Berlin has lacked a truly world-class international airport like the country's largest, Frankfurt, which is also the third-busiest in Europe. Brandenburg Airport will immediately boost foreign tourism to Berlin, which over the past decade has come rival London and Paris as the most popular GLBT cities in Europe.

The sleek, eco-conscious, Bauhaus-inspired design of the many buildings that make up Brandenburg Airport, which is anchored by a six-story central terminal that's expected to handle more than 27 million passengers per year, with capacity to expand considerably over time - the terminal will serve both domestic and international flights. For just around 3 Euros and in just under a half hour, passengers will be able to travel by train from the terminal to central Berlin. The airport will act as a hub for Lufthansa and Air Berlin, the latter providing direct flights to the U.S. cities of Los Angeles, Miami, and New York City (there will also be service on United to Newark).

It happens that Brandenburg will be opening just before two of the city's key gay events, the annual Lesbisch-Schwules Stadtfest (Lesbian and Gay City Festival), which takes place June 16 and 17; and Berlin Gay Pride Parade, aka Christopher Street Day, which is slated for June 23, followed by the Berlin Pride Festival over the weekend of June 24 through 26. Here's a preview of these two events, which are centered primarily around the Berlin's lively Schoneberg neighborhood. Also be sure to check out the useful gay travel site produced by the Berlin Tourist Office, and read my article on Berlin's gay scene.