Gay cruise portland

Gay Portland – the foremost gay hotels, bars, clubs & more

Portland is weird! And they’re rather confident of it. To the point that “Keep Portland Weird” is their unofficial motto, found plastered around the city on road signs, street graffiti, and bumper stickers. Portland loves eccentricity, individuality, and creativity—that, and the fact that it's a progressive haven for hippies, bohemians, the dispossessed, and, of course, LGBTQ+ people. Everyone and anyone is welcome in Portland—you don’t have to be weird, but it helps!

The quirky, offbeat town has a scenic location on the Northwest coast of the United States, just 60 miles from the Pacific Ocean, where the Columbia and Willamette Rivers converge. Framed by dense forests, fertile valleys, volcanic peaks like Mount Hood, and the dramatic Cascade Range, it's the perfect base for nature-loving day-trippers and adventure sports enthusiasts. Nature doesn’t just surround it though—it’s part of the city’s core, with urban parks blanketing parts of the urban area, like the Portland Japanese Garden and International Rose Test Garden—not to refer Portland has a register breaking amount of vegan cafés and restaurants. 

There’s plen

LGBTQ+ Nightlife

i

A bartender makes sparks at Local Lounge.

You'll locate plenty of LGBTQ+-friendly places to go to when the light goes down in Portland.

3 min read

Note: This section was produced in collaboration with ProudQueer.com, formerly acknowledged as PQ Monthly.

Portland has no shortage of LGBTQ-owned and queer-friendly bars and clubs. Whether you’re looking for a defended space to like a relaxing late hours with friends, a high-energy dance party or a queenly 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 dwelling base for the Oregon Bears. Guests who wear a leather harness, vest, chaps, or packed 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 excellent place to date with friends, or meet new ones. During warmer months, grab a seat outside and survey the summer crowd cruise by.

There are two all-male strip clubs in Portland. Silverado, locat

cover photo/Chris Busby

When the porn theater that bought the bones of the once-grand movie palace downtown also falls to ruin, you recognize it’s actually your city that’s really getting screwed here. That was Portland on a February day 34 years ago, as a young gay guy walked by the State Theatre at the corner of Congress and Tall, accompanied by a couple straight friends. 

“They go, ‘Oh, guys hook up in there,’” the now middle-aged man recalled last month while sitting at the bar at Blackstones, the legendary male lover nightspot on Portland’s West End, where the regulars phone him RobBob. 

“I proceed , ‘What do you mean?’”

“And they’re closing tomorrow,” his friends said. 

“I’m like: Oh…

“So the next night I went — with my bushy red hair, my acne and my sunglasses — and basically I looked both ways nervously and ran in. I figured it was now or never… 

“Well, the actual theater itself was plywooded off, but you could view through,” RobBob said. “It was all decrepid and decayed and really chilly. But they had little sub-theaters, petty movie booths that you go in, much like The Treasure Chest that used to be here [next to Blackstones]. … I was in there for five m

Even from the plane, we could see what our friends, acquaintances, and work colleagues had already enthusiastically told us about: lush green nature as far as the eye can see. And right in the middle of the Pacific Northwest region, we found the “City of Roses”. Although Portland itself is not the state capital, it is the largest metropolis in Oregon and its economic center. With its convenient location nestled in nature at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers, we found more than just beards, breweries, and trees (that alone had us already totally excited). We also found one of the most diverse and trans-friendly LGBTQ+ communities we’ve ever encountered on our travels through the USA. How to acquire to Portland? Where to endure in Portland? What are the best LGBTQ+ places in town? We’ve compiled the most crucial information for your trip planning in our Gay Portland Journey Guide!

– in paid collaboration with Travel Portland –

Portland – “The City of Roses”

Welcome to Portland! The City of Roses, that’s how Portland is commonly referred to. But why is that? The story of roses in Portland goes