Downtown Portland holds one of the city’s small gay entertainment epicenters. The nightlife is where you will really feel at home in gay Portland. Jump on the #17, and get off at NE 27 th and Alberta.
** From the Convention Center, walk 0.5 miles North on MLK to NE Weidler. You will be among people juggling, dancing with fire, and wobbling on stilts – it’s a big ball of positive creative energy. And the last Thursday in July is the 27 th – perfect! You will find a different musician or band playing a wide variety of music on every corner. Galleries, studios, and restaurants open up and present great new art, and all along the sidewalk independent artists peddle their stuff. On the last Thursday of every month the bohemian art community lets loose in the Alberta Arts district. Here you are sure to find yourself among a great concentration of queer and queer-friendly folks. Though not specifically a gay event, I would be remiss not to mention Last Thursday on Alberta ( ). Everywhere you go you will be among friends! Check out the list below for just a few gay, gay-owned, and gay-friendly places to visit and activities do while you are in town. In fact it is getting harder and harder to point to establishments that are not gay friendly.
While there is no specific ‘gayborhood,’ the gay and gay-friendly establishments are everywhere, so just look around. What you might not know, though, is that Portland is regularly ranked as one of the top 10 gay-friendliest cities in the US! Whether you are looking for gay choirs, lesbian square dancers, drag kings and queens, dancing at the club, trivia, or just a place to be out and among the masses, Portland has a place for you. In many ways, Portland is exactly what you think it is: the city of countless coffee houses and microbreweries, food trucks and foodies, bike lovers and buskers, and beard lovers and hipsters galore. A native Oregonian, Portland suits her love of books, the outdoors, and beer.
Alisha Babbstein is the archivist at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education.