Is louisville having growth on the gay population (St. Matthews, Bardstown: 2013, apartments)

[Geog101]

Have been reading articles on the subject. Let me know, would like to plan a visit there. Tell me all the places to see and do.

thanks

[Peter1948]

Originally Posted by Geog101

Have been reading articles on the subject. Let me know, would like to plan a visit there. Tell me all the places to see and do.

thanks

Who knows if the gay population is growning, but Louisville has a decent sized gay community and many gay owned bars, clubs, and restaurants. I have also noticed several more gay posters on this site wishing to relocate here recently, but that may just be a coincidence. I think the gay community appreciates the tolerance in the community as well as the livability, architecture, urban neighborhoods, and cheap cost of living in Louisville.

[louisville38]

I Live in East Louisville,and our city has Few Gay Bars and clubs and one or two gay owned restaurants.But so do most modern,and mid-size towns.People should not always equate that to mean this city,or any other city has a growing,and racially,and economically diverse gay community.

[Dayton Sux]

Have been reading articles on the subject.

You have? Tell us more (as in sources, what the articles said, etc.

Let me know, would like to plan a visit there. Tell me all the places to see and do

Hopefully Peter and the others can help.

I'm gay and I visit Louisville at least once a month in the fall, winter, and spring, but not necessarily for gay things (tho I go to a gay literary night at Days coffee house during my visits. Louisville is filled with coffee houses, but Days seems to be the favorite with gays and lesbians).

My impression of Louisville is that its more accepting than up here in Ohio and the gay community is more integrated into the life of the city and more...how can I say this.... appreciated, if you can believe that

Spring & Fall would be a good time to come here, for the various outdoor festivals. Lousiville has a strong festival culture, which really helps the quality of life there, IMO.

The Kentucky Derby has a lot of events happening in the weeks before the Derby (my favorite is the Cherokee Triangle Art Fair), but after Derby, in May, there is a street fair/flea market in Old Louisville and the Buy Local Festival at the Water Tower:

Old Lousiville Spring Fest:
About SpringFest - The 2013 Old Louisville SpringFest, Old Louisville KY

Buy Local Fair
Louisville Independent Business Alliance - Buy Local Fair


@@@@

Fall has the following that I plan on attending:

--Garvin Gate Blues Festival
Garvin Gate Blues Festival - Louisville, Kentucky

--St James Court Art Fair (which is a very big deal, the big fall festival in Louisville)
St. James Court Art Show | Louisville, KY

(both of these are in roughly the same neighborhood, the aformentioned Old Louisvllle, which is popular with gays).

There are these others, maybe not as busy or well known, but I like them?

--Butchertown Oktoberfest (i think this is happening again?)
--Mighty Kindness Harvest Hootenany (more an "old hippy" thing)

I'll let the others give you some recs as to neighborhoods and other things to see and do. I am more of an outdoors/hiking guy, so I am out hiking a lot when I visit..this isnt a gay thing, though (gays, in general, arent into hiking).

Gay bar scene is ..eh...like everywhere else.


Two that are very new and modern and good (and close to each other) as to location, since they are on the Bardstown Road corridor in the popular,hip, Highlands area (which also is popular place for gays to live) are these two:


Nowhere
https://www.facebook.com/NowhereLouisville

Big Bar
Big Bar - Louisville, KY

You can combine shopping on Bardstown Road/Baxter Avenue, and a dinner out with going to these places. Verywalkable. Very nice front patios, too...great for people-watching.

A freindly mixed place that seems cliquish but really isn't is Teddy Bears, fairly close to those Old Louisville festivals I mentioned earlier.

The big disco/nightclub is Connections...very nice for a gay place, but not really my cup of tea.

Louisville is a good theatre town. The top-shelf peforming arts group here is Actors Theatre. But there is also a gay theatre group called Pandora Productions. I havnt seen their plays but something to consider if they are peforming while you are visiting:

https://www.facebook.com/pandoraproductions

Also check out The Letter, which is the local GLBT newspaper. I think they are online, too. They have events and stuff listed.

[kytoaz]

there was an interesting article in leo last week regarding the lack of gay bars not just here, but across America. basically the article was stating that the need for strictly "gay" bars is dwindling due to the acceptance of the gay community into just regular bars. I think gay bars were created out of a need for people to have a safe place to go that accepted them. as more and more americans become less and less homophobic I think this need will continue to decrease.

I'm not gay but my son is. I find it amazing the diverse crowd that he hangs with as opposed to someone who was gay when I was his age. he has tons of straight guy friends who seem to have no hang up whatsoever regarding his sexuality. this really makes me happy. I was concerned when he came out to me, not for his sexuality, but for the way society would treat him and the barriers and prejudice he would face, but it appears we are coming out of the dark ages after all.

In response to the o.p., I think Louisville has always had a rather large gay population for a city of it's size. the owner of connections owns several restaurants including theatre square marketplace. a gay friend of mine works for him and he calls it the "gay mafia" lol.

[Peter1948]

Originally Posted by Dayton Sux

You have? Tell us more (as in sources, what the articles said, etc.



Hopefully Peter and the others can help.

I'm gay and I visit Louisville at least once a month in the fall, winter, and spring, but not necessarily for gay things (tho I go to a gay literary night at Days coffee house during my visits. Louisville is filled with coffee houses, but Days seems to be the favorite with gays and lesbians).

My impression of Louisville is that its more accepting than up here in Ohio and the gay community is more integrated into the life of the city and more...how can I say this.... appreciated, if you can believe that

Spring & Fall would be a good time to come here, for the various outdoor festivals. Lousiville has a strong festival culture, which really helps the quality of life there, IMO.

The Kentucky Derby has a lot of events happening in the weeks before the Derby (my favorite is the Cherokee Triangle Art Fair), but after Derby, in May, there is a street fair/flea market in Old Louisville and the Buy Local Festival at the Water Tower:

Old Lousiville Spring Fest:
About SpringFest - The 2013 Old Louisville SpringFest, Old Louisville KY

Buy Local Fair
Louisville Independent Business Alliance - Buy Local Fair


@@@@

Fall has the following that I plan on attending:

--Garvin Gate Blues Festival
Garvin Gate Blues Festival - Louisville, Kentucky

--St James Court Art Fair (which is a very big deal, the big fall festival in Louisville)
St. James Court Art Show | Louisville, KY

(both of these are in roughly the same neighborhood, the aformentioned Old Louisvllle, which is popular with gays).

There are these others, maybe not as busy or well known, but I like them?

--Butchertown Oktoberfest (i think this is happening again?)
--Mighty Kindness Harvest Hootenany (more an "old hippy" thing)

I'll let the others give you some recs as to neighborhoods and other things to see and do. I am more of an outdoors/hiking guy, so I am out hiking a lot when I visit..this isnt a gay thing, though (gays, in general, arent into hiking).

Gay bar scene is ..eh...like everywhere else.


Two that are very new and modern and good (and close to each other) as to location, since they are on the Bardstown Road corridor in the popular,hip, Highlands area (which also is popular place for gays to live) are these two:


Nowhere
https://www.facebook.com/NowhereLouisville

Big Bar
Big Bar - Louisville, KY

You can combine shopping on Bardstown Road/Baxter Avenue, and a dinner out with going to these places. Verywalkable. Very nice front patios, too...great for people-watching.

A freindly mixed place that seems cliquish but really isn't is Teddy Bears, fairly close to those Old Louisville festivals I mentioned earlier.

The big disco/nightclub is Connections...very nice for a gay place, but not really my cup of tea.

Louisville is a good theatre town. The top-shelf peforming arts group here is Actors Theatre. But there is also a gay theatre group called Pandora Productions. I havnt seen their plays but something to consider if they are peforming while you are visiting:

https://www.facebook.com/pandoraproductions

Also check out The Letter, which is the local GLBT newspaper. I think they are online, too. They have events and stuff listed.

That is a decent overview. I am straight, but have several gay friends in Louisville. I will tell you that there is probably more gay people than you think, and Louisville's gays are very integrated into the community. Several are small business owners (ie the Blind Pig which is having some liquor license issues due to its neighbor, the trendy speakeasy lounge Meat which had to shut down briefly). Dayton Sux gave a nice initial overview to gay Louisville.

Although gays are highly concentrated in Old Louisville, downtown, nulu/Butchertown, Clifton, and the Highlands, there are gay singles and couples living throughout Jefferson County. One gay couple I know is only open with close friends, lives in Beechmont, and lead a quiet life together like any suburban family would. Based on mutual friends they have, they tell me there are many gay couples living in Louisville who prefer their sexual orientation stays at home. There are still some people not open and out, and this tends to happen more in mid sized cities.

The following hotel and Louisville's first "gay" neighborhood is under development now, in a revitalizing and gentrifying Smoketown neighborhood.

First-in: Louisville businessman George Stinson focusing on Broadway area, next big move in 30 years of downtown investments - Insider Louisville

The major player here is George Stinson, a prominent gay business man and the owner of the Connection. He plans to move his Connection night club next to the new luxury boutique hotel the Vu, which is set to open next year. He has plans for a whole gay oriented retail district, as well as some apartments mostly marketed towards LGTB.

To give you an idea how big of a deal it is for Louisville to get a gay boutique hotel, NYC just had their first one open last year:

NYC's 'The Out' hotel opens; Louisville plans their own gay hotel | Gadling.com

This hotel will be a big draw for much of OH, KY, IN, and even parts of TN.

This combined with Gil Holland's major investment in the Portland area and the stroll and warehouse district under development there could completely transform urban Louisville. In my estimation if these areas came to fruition it would give the city the most separate, walkable, viable, architecturally interesting neighborhoods of any city under 2 million metro in the US (considering all the places you already have like Nulu, Butchertown, the massive Highlands and its different districts, Clifton, Crescent Hill, and now even places like New Albany, heart of St. Matthews, and Germantown (to a lesser degree) are getting in on the mix. I think it would be right there with places like Austin. Good stuff happening. Now if Louisville could just get some major corporations to relocate there, it really would be booming. The lack of high paying jobs is preventing it from growing like say, Charlotte. This can also be blamed on the very business unfriendly, still agrarian minded state of KY and also high taxes for the "south."

[matryoshka4811]

As far as Kentucky goes, my best friends (both of whom are gay) have always had a better time being accepted in Louisville than elsewhere in the state. UofL itself actually just was award the best possible rating by the national LGBT-College Campus Climate group. We were all very proud!

UofL receives five-star rating on national LGBT Climate Index — University of Louisville