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Gay Portland
Portland’s vibrant LGBTQIA+ communities encompass rich history, performing arts, community events and more.
Portland is home to vibrant, diverse LGBTQIA+ communities — thanks to a variety of queer-friendly activities, a robust arts and culture scene, and boisterous Portland Pride celebrations every summer. Make the most of your trip with this celebration of gay Portland and all it has to offer.
Know Before You Go
Editor’s Note: We use LGBTQIA+ to remain inclusive of more queer identities, but until the rest of the world catches up, we’ll use “LGBTQ” in some applications so you can easily find us on the internet.
What to Know About the LGBTQIA+ Community in Portland
Is Portland queer-friendly?
In 2021, the Williams Institute found that about 6% of Portland metro area residents identified as LGBT — the second-highest percentage in the United States.
Is Portland safe for transgender people?
What is the Pink Triangle in Portland?
Queer-Owned Portland
Looking for spots with impeccable vibes, good food, fun drinks and singular style? Portland’s queer-owned shops, restaurants, bars and coffee shops are brimming with spirit and are part of a long tradition of LGBTQIA+ creativity and community. From trans-friendly and -owned restaurants to the nation’s first women’s sports bar, these small businesses are proud and queer.
Shopping
In a town filled with bookstores, Grand Gesture Books is a true standout. As Oregon’s first romance indie bookstore, founder Katherine Morgan says that she’s delighted to be “providing a community that hasn’t been here before.” As a Black queer woman, she offers visibility, as both readers and writers, for other queer BIPOC people in a predominantly white city. “There is a spot for you in this community, and also there’s a spot for you on these shelves,” says Katherine.
If you want to make your romance book dreams come true, look no further than She Bop, a sex‑positive boutique with a curated selection of body-safe toys and inclusive gear for a good time. She Bop also offers binder fittings for youth and adults; give them a quick call, and they’ll set you up at one of their two locations. For tamer intersectional feminist gifts, Citizen Ruth’s shelves are lined with handmade jewelry, subversive greeting cards and more, all made by women, LGBTQ and BIPOC artists. Sonny’s House of Tattoos and Treasures is a home to artists of all stripes. Part tattoo studio, part gift shop, part book store, part art gallery — and all queer joy. Sock-lovers must visit Sock Dreams, stocked full of any and all types of hosiery in a wide range of sizes and designs.
Food & Drinks
With locations in Northeast and Northwest, Friendship Kitchen specializes in Vietnamese comfort food from the heart, with plenty of vegan and vegetarian options like eggroll chả giò made with Impossible meat. Their cocktail menu is always full of yummy drinks, which they’ve parlayed to Stem Wine Bar on North Mississippi Avenue. “Being able to feed a creative and diverse Portland family feels like our calling in life,” said owners Trang Nguyen Tan and Wei-En Tan.
Northeast Portland is home to vibrant queer-owned eateries bursting with creativity, flavor and heart. In the warm, cozy dining room of Chelo, diners will find a bright and bold seasonal menu full of dishes inspired by fresh ingredients and flavors from Mexico. Chef Luna Contrera created Chelo as an homage to her grandmother from Guadalajara, which diners can taste in her from-scratch recipes and handmade blue corn tortillas. Mis Tacones began as a taco pop-up at queer dance parties and has grown into a beloved vegan taquería dishing out plant-based Mexican comfort food. Their tacos and empanadas, wrapped in hand-pressed tortillas from local makers Three Sisters Nixtamal, are all hits and no misses. JinJu Patisserie, a James Beard Award winner for Outstanding Bakery, often has a line out the door and for good reason. JinJu’s display burst with vibrant pastries like flaky croissants, jewel-like berry tarts and divine chocolate bonbons.
Head to Southeast for queer-owned spots serving up connection and a whole lot of flavor. Geeky diners can sip and unwind at TPK Brewing, offering a one-of-a-kind experience for lovers of craft beer, tabletop games and in-house Game Masters to lead your RPG adventures. On Southeast Belmont Street, Taquería Los Puñales specializes in inventive twists on delicious family recipes. Tacos de guisado are the star of the show — some have called them the very best tacos in Portland.
Upcoming LGBTQIA+ Events
Connect with Portland’s thriving LGBTQIA+ communities at these upcoming events.
LGBTQIA+ Arts and Culture in Portland
Around town, popular performing arts groups include the long-running Portland Lesbian Choir and the Portland Gay Men’s Chorus, which formed in 1980 and today counts about 170 singers among its membership.
Portland is also home to a thriving drag scene, with drag brunches, bingo nights and energetic shows routinely taking place across the city. Get the skinny with our guide to drag in Portland.
Our city’s love affair with drag is just one part of a bustling Portland LGBTQ nightlife scene. Scandals, a nightclub and live music venue, was one of the few surviving businesses in Portland’s historic Pink Triangle district until it closed in September of 2025. Back 2 Earth packs its calendar with karaoke, game nights and other events. Blow Pony hosts a monthly dance party that’s been going on since 2007 at venues across Portland. And for more than 30 years, Oaks Amusement Park has hosted the twice-monthly Gay Skate Night at its historic roller rink.
Local museums and galleries, including the Portland Art Museum, the artist-driven Well Well Projects and Multnomah Arts Center, occasionally spotlight the works of LGBTQIA+ artists. Portland’s public art spaces celebrate the community’s past and present, as well. Never Look Away is a 37-foot-wide (11.3 m) mural in the Pearl District that depicts eight local and national LGBTQIA+ activists.
Annual Festivals and Events
Of course, there’s Portland Pride. How could we start with anything else? Portland’s annual festival and parade take place in late July, but the parties and festivities start in June, including Portland Black Pride, which happens around Juneteenth every year.
If you’re just looking for a laugh and a safe space to hang out, drop by one of our local queer comedy shows. Be Gay, Do Crime isn’t just good advice: It’s a regular comedy show where the performers tell stories about queer heroes, villains and rebels. Hear You Loud & Queer, on the other hand, is a monthly open mic and showcase highlighting queer comedians and queer joy. Let your nerd flag fly at Magic Tea Party, a monthly Dungeons and Dragons comedy show. You know, like popular D&D podcast Critical Role if they wore flannel and went to brunch.
An exhaustive list of LGBTQ+ Portland events would keep us here until Pride, but if you’re looking for other ways to connect with the community, check out our city’s bon vivant periodical, Queer Social Club, for a robust and frequently updated calendar.
Queer Sports
Football — or, as Americans call it, soccer — has sometimes struggled to find an audience in the States. Not so in Portland! The Timbers, a men’s Major League Soccer team, and the Portland Thorns, a National Women’s Soccer League team, both call our city home. The Thorns come with their own grass-roots cheerleaders supported by the Rose City Riveters fan organization, an accepting group of folks with some serious queer ally bona fides.
Given all that, it’s hardly surprising that the city has produced two separate queer football clubs: The Netrippers and the Lavender League. Games run all summer, so come by and watch the Pink Pony FC take on the Gray Agenda (or one of many other delightfully named teams).
Soccer not really your thing? No problem, Portland has plenty to offer when it comes to queer community sports activities and leagues. The Portland Frontrunners is a walking and running club that’s been operating in Portland since the early 80s — one of the first gay organizations formed in the city. In addition to being charmingly unconcerned about grievous bodily harm, the Portland Lumberjacks are also the city’s only LGBTQ+ inclusive rugby team. Should you prefer something a little more old school, there’s always the PDX Pride Bowling League.
LGBTQIA+ History in Portland
According to Oregon Queer History Collective Board President Cayla McGrail, Portland’s modern queer culture began taking shape throughout the 1940s, spurred by widespread movement to metropolitan areas and dramatic social and economic shifts. “That helped create this nightlife scene where queer people could find community,” McGrail says.
That scene birthed numerous performance halls that hosted drag performances. One popular post-World War II venue was Darcelle XV Showplace, founded in 1967 by Walter Cole, who performed as the iconic Darcelle XV until Cole’s death in 2023. The club is still going strong today, and holds two Guinness World Records: one for the oldest drag performer, awarded to Darcelle XV in 2016; the other for the world’s longest drag show, which ran for over 48 hours in 2023.
In 1970, soon after the riots at Stonewall, Portland’s queer community began organizing in earnest. In the decades since, organizations such as the nonprofit Basic Rights Oregon and Q Center have been established to serve the Portland-area queer community and continue fighting for equal rights.
For more, check out the LGBTQ+ Historic Sites Project, which recognizes significant places from throughout Portland’s queer history.
Queer Community Groups & Resources
Traveling while queer is not always as safe and joyful as we’d like to be, and while Portland is friendlier and more welcoming than plenty of other places, it never hurts to know where to turn for advice or where to find a place to sit down and talk with folks who understand you, no matter where you’re from. Travel Gay Portland (no relation but appreciation) is a good first stop: Located downtown inside underU4men just blocks from the Pioneer Square Red and Blue Line train stop, they have a visitor center to help you find what you’re looking for.
Community organizing is a bit of a hobby for Portlanders, and our queer community is no different. The Q Center, a queer nonprofit organization and community center, maintains an event calendar and operates a number of recurring affinity groups. On the west side, the Westside Queer Resource Center hosts recurring events as well, including regular drop-in hours. Specifically for queer youth, SMYRC operates events and provides more concrete resources as well, like a clothing closet, gender affirming care, and hygiene and safer sex supplies. For transgender people, Greater Portland Trans Unity hosts a monthly meetup and an open mic night.
LGBTQ+ Pride in Portland
From brunch to nightlife, connect with Portland's queer community every day.
Trans-Friendly Portland
A transgender local’s guide to finding trans and queer community in Portland while soaking up the Rose City culture.
Portland Pride
The Portland Pride Waterfront Festival and Parade is a family-friendly LGBTQIA+ community celebration held in downtown Portland every summer.
Drag in Portland
Indulge in Portland’s artful drag scene with local stars like Poison Waters, burlesque dancers like Jayla Rose and acrobatic drag shows all over the city.
Queer Community Events
Celebrate the Portland LGBTQ+ community at these upcoming events.
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