Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Wow, I didn't think that could be possible, but Portland's pride parade only had 45,000 attendees in 2019, while Boise's was at 60,000 that same year. Is it a thing that cities in red states have bigger pride parades than their populations would predict, just because the LGBTQ+ communities there are much more vocal about asserting their existence? Or because e.g. Eugene and some of the Portland suburbs have their own parades, whereas everyone in Idaho goes to Boise's?
Wow, I didn't think that could be possible, but Portland's pride parade only had 45,000 attendees in 2019, while Boise's was at 60,000 that same year. Is it a thing that cities in red states have bigger pride parades than their populations would predict, just because the LGBTQ+ communities there are much more vocal about asserting their existence? Or because e.g. Eugene and some of the Portland suburbs have their own parades, whereas everyone in Idaho goes to Boise's?
Idaho has several pride events scattered throughout the state, so Boise isn't the only city who hosts pride. For instance, Rexburg over in the SE area of the state, home to BYU Idaho, also has a pride event. I'm sure people from the state and even neighboring states travel to Boise for pride, but Boise does have a sizable and notable LGBTQ+ population, there are a lot of artists in this city who are part of the community. Boise also has outstanding support from open minded people who aren't part of the LGBTQ community. Many businesses in downtown and throughout the city display Pride flags all year long. I don't think anyone here is being loud to assert their existence, Boise is a progressive city, it is more a reflection of the city.
Last edited by Syringaloid; 08-16-2022 at 12:40 PM..
Reason: typo
Providence surpassed Boston (I've lived in both), there are twice as many gay bars in 3 blocks in Providence than all of Boston at this point. More gay sports leagues. That's just for starters. The bars/clubs here are full of people that come down from Boston as the only places left there are Pi Alley and Club Cafe, really. Maybe Cathedral is hanging on. Boston has lost Ramrod, Machine, Eagle, Fritz, Luxors, Napolean Club, Paradise, and more with nothing replacing them fairly quickly. PVD has at least five: Stable, Eagle, Dark Alley, Alley Cat and Mirabar. Plus bathhouses (2) that Boston doesn't. Pride seems more robust here too.
But is PVD's growing? Or is it shrinking too.. just not at the same rate as Boston's?
Providence surpassed Boston (I've lived in both), there are twice as many gay bars in 3 blocks in Providence than all of Boston at this point. More gay sports leagues. That's just for starters. The bars/clubs here are full of people that come down from Boston as the only places left there are Pi Alley and Club Cafe, really. Maybe Cathedral is hanging on. Boston has lost Ramrod, Machine, Eagle, Fritz, Luxors, Napolean Club, Paradise, and more with nothing replacing them fairly quickly. PVD has at least five: Stable, Eagle, Dark Alley, Alley Cat and Mirabar. Plus bathhouses (2) that Boston doesn't. Pride seems more robust here too.
Wow.
I moved to Philadelphia from Boston, and I've long thought Philadelphia's LGBT amenities and institutions underpowered for a city about 2.5x Boston's size.
(For instance, I was a charter member of the Boston Gay Men's Chorus, and I sang in its Philadelphia counterpart for nine years. Boston's had as many members at its debut concert as Philadelphia's did in the seventh season I sang in it. And where the Pride parade route in Boston was lined six deep with spectators from start to finish, Philadelphia's drew crowds only at its start and its end. But then again, Philadelphia doesn't do parades well at all. It does block parties like no one else, however, and the folks who revived our Pride march this year were smart to run it into the Gayborhood from Independence Hall rather than the other way around, because the block party in the Gayborhood was phenomenal.)
But Philadelphia's Gayborhood has hung on better than Boston's has, it appears. All of the gay bars and clubs that were in existence when I moved into it in 1983 save one (Key West) remain in business, though three of them have changed names and formats several times and two have changed hands, one twice. (The owner of one, Woody's, sold the bar that bears his name and opened another one, Knock, a block to the east. Woody's is now owned by a pair of straight brothers who have turned it into a college-town pub on the street floor and a bachelorette party upstairs, but it remains nominally gay.)
Ironically, it's outside the Gayborhood where Philly's LGBT club scene has shrunk. The Pennsylvania Convention Center wiped out two Black gay bars on the DL, and a third died with its owner. Two other bars in North and West Philadelphia went out of business as well, as did a private club in Millbourne, just over the city line in Delaware County. Two other bars that were just outside the Gayborhood, Seasons and the Drury Lane, closed years ago, and their buildings no longer stand. And the bars that used to be the heart of gay male life in the city west of Broad Street are all gone now. The 247 Bar, opened in 1971, was the oldest of them (its owner was a friend of Police Commissioner and later Mayor Frank Rizzo, whose cops left it alone while raiding just about everything in what is now the Gayborhood); it bit the dust about seven years ago.
I moved to Philadelphia from Boston, and I've long thought Philadelphia's LGBT amenities and institutions underpowered for a city about 2.5x Boston's size.
(For instance, I was a charter member of the Boston Gay Men's Chorus, and I sang in its Philadelphia counterpart for nine years. Boston's had as many members at its debut concert as Philadelphia's did in the seventh season I sang in it. And where the Pride parade route in Boston was lined six deep with spectators from start to finish, Philadelphia's drew crowds only at its start and its end. But then again, Philadelphia doesn't do parades well at all. It does block parties like no one else, however, and the folks who revived our Pride march this year were smart to run it into the Gayborhood from Independence Hall rather than the other way around, because the block party in the Gayborhood was phenomenal.)
But Philadelphia's Gayborhood has hung on better than Boston's has, it appears. All of the gay bars and clubs that were in existence when I moved into it in 1983 save one (Key West) remain in business, though three of them have changed names and formats several times and two have changed hands, one twice. (The owner of one, Woody's, sold the bar that bears his name and opened another one, Knock, a block to the east. Woody's is now owned by a pair of straight brothers who have turned it into a college-town pub on the street floor and a bachelorette party upstairs, but it remains nominally gay.)
Ironically, it's outside the Gayborhood where Philly's LGBT club scene has shrunk. The Pennsylvania Convention Center wiped out two Black gay bars on the DL, and a third died with its owner. Two other bars in North and West Philadelphia went out of business as well, as did a private club in Millbourne, just over the city line in Delaware County. Two other bars that were just outside the Gayborhood, Seasons and the Drury Lane, closed years ago, and their buildings no longer stand. And the bars that used to be the heart of gay male life in the city west of Broad Street are all gone now. The 247 Bar, opened in 1971, was the oldest of them (its owner was a friend of Police Commissioner and later Mayor Frank Rizzo, whose cops left it alone while raiding just about everything in what is now the Gayborhood); it bit the dust about seven years ago.
iirc from reading a competitor site, Boston development took out lot of its Gay Bar scene. And unfortunately, the South End happens to be the spot with the second highest rate of gentrification in Boston... pushing out local spots and pushing in minimalism (Like Tatte)
Boston really does not have a gay neighborhood. Maybe the South End 'feels' more gay friendly? Idk? But, Philly's is much more prevalent and larger.
Boston really does not have a gay neighborhood. Maybe the South End 'feels' more gay friendly? Idk? But, Philly's is much more prevalent and larger.
Correct. The South End (and adjacent tracts that are technically historically part of the Back Bay, Bay Village and the Fenway) and parts of Jamaica Plain have some legacy overrepresentation that may contribute to a sense of that, but it's a shadow of what it was a generation ago. And, even so, it's more of an ElderGay representation, nothing brimming with twenty-something energy. Perhaps some twenty-something gay techbros can afford to live there, but they'd probably choose more modern digs if they can.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
