Exploring the Gay Side of Brooklyn and Queens

Although Manhattan is truly one of the world's great centers of gay culture and nightlife, it's just one of New York City's five boroughs, and many LGBT visitors are surprised to learn just how much there is to see and do in outside Manhattan. It's true that as gay culture goes, the small and somewhat isolated borough of Staten Island has less to see and do. The Bronx couldn't be called a gay mecca either, although it does host a well-attended Gay Pride celebration each June. Queens, however, has developed a substantial gay scene in recent years, with many members of the community living in such up-and-coming and ethnically diverse neighborhoods as Long Island City, Astoria, and Jackson Heights - in the latter, you'll find many of the borough's gay bars.

The New York City borough that has a cohesive gay community and a caliber of gay-friendly businesses that rival or surpass all but a handful of large U.S. cities is Brooklyn, which is blessed with a number of cool neighborhoods - Park Slope (well-known for its sizable lesbian contigent), Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens (it's the first neighborhood I lived in when I moved to New York City fresh from college in 1991, and this bustling Little Italy has become ever trendier every year since), Williamsburg, Fort Greene, and more. Even if you spend most of your next vacation in Manhattan, be sure to budget at least some of your time in the Outer Boroughs, especially Brooklyn. You may come away pleasantly surprised.

Here are my latest About.com gay guides, the first on Manhattan, and the other more broadly on New York City, with links to major attractions throughout the five boroughs, a full gay calendar of events, and brief neighborhood descriptions of Brooklyn Heights, Park Slope, Cobble Hill, and Carroll Gardens.