Out x Out has documented the oldest gay bar it could find still open in 18 US states. In 7 of them that bar traces its gay history to before 1960, though some of those dates are disputed. Every year below is when the bar became a gay bar, not when its building went up, and every bar has a dated 2025 or 2026 item showing it open.
Looking for the single oldest gay bar in America? Café Lafitte in Exile in New Orleans and the White Horse Inn in Oakland both opened in 1933, and when each became a gay bar is still argued. We laid out the case in America’s oldest surviving gay bar.
Phoenix New Times: "Open since 1971, Nu Towne Saloon has earned landmark status as the Valley's oldest gay bar still in operation."
Rebuilt after a 2010 fire gutted its interior.
Sources: Phoenix New Times (venue listing), Oct 2025 · Open: Phoenix New Times (venue listing), Oct 2025
The bar officially opened in 1933, and KALW's report says that in its early days it operated as a bar for gay men.
Disputed: No document we found shows it was a gay bar from its 1933 opening day, so we date it to the 1930s rather than a single year.
The address has been a bar since the 1950s, when as the Coral Lounge it was a "mixed" bar, the period term for an incognito gay bar. It became openly gay as R&R in the 1970s.
Sources: LGBTQ Colorado / Center on Colfax, Lavender Hill exhibit · Open: CBS Colorado, Jul 1, 2025
The Blue Moon opened on Baltimore Avenue in 1981 as a restaurant that was, in the Washington Blade's words, "out in the open, gay and proud," and added its bar in 1982.
A restaurant and bar.
Sources: Washington Blade, Jun 30, 2011; Cape Gazette, Apr 30, 2026 · Open: Washington Blade, May 14, 2026
LkldNow traces The Parrot as a home for Lakeland's LGBTQ+ community to at least 1969 and says it "may just be Florida's oldest operating gay bar."
Disputed: The City of West Palm Beach has given H.G. Roosters a historic designation naming it the oldest gay bar in Florida.
Sources: LkldNow, Aug 28, 2026; WFLX (H.G. Roosters), May 19, 2025 · Open: LkldNow, Aug 28, 2026
Jack Law and Bob Magoon started Hula's in 1974 on Kuhio Avenue; it moved to the Waikiki Grand Hotel in 1998.
Sources: Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Jul 16, 2024; Hula's (the bar's own history page) · Open: Hula's events listing, Oct 2026
Bob "Mongo" Eikleberry opened the Blazing Saddle in the East Village in October 1983; Little Village calls it the oldest gay bar in Iowa to remain in continuous operation.
Disputed: Little Village notes that The Garden, then known as Annie's and later the Brass Garden, was already open in Des Moines in 1983; we have not confirmed whether it is the same continuous business or older.
Sources: Little Village, Jun 5, 2026; Iowa Public Radio, Jun 24, 2024 · Open: Little Village, Jun 5, 2026
Café Lafitte opened at 941 Bourbon Street shortly after Prohibition ended in 1933 and reopened in 1953 as Café Lafitte in Exile at 901 Bourbon.
Disputed: Accounts of when it became a gay bar vary: a 1949 account describes the bar as "kept by two pansies," and The Gay & Lesbian Review says it was predominantly gay by 1958.
The Gay & Lesbian Review notes that most of its patrons today are straight tourists.
Sources: The Gay & Lesbian Review, Sep 1, 2026 · Open: The Gay & Lesbian Review, Sep 1, 2026
Baltimore Fishbowl: "It has operated as a gay bar since 1957."
Closed in July 2026 after its owner's death and reopened September 30, 2026.
Sources: Baltimore Fishbowl, Jul 2026; Washington Blade, Sep 28, 2026 · Open: CBS Baltimore, Sep 30, 2026
Perspectives on History: "Jacques has been a gay bar since the mid-1940s and is well known for its drag performances."
Disputed: Provincetown's Atlantic House says it became "truly gay friendly" in the early 1950s and calls itself one of the oldest continuously operating gay bars in America.
Sources: American Historical Association, Perspectives on History, Dec 1, 2010; Atlantic House (the bar's own site) · Open: The Boston Calendar (drag show listing), May 22, 2026
The Apartment Lounge opened in 1972 on Lyon Street and moved several times before settling at Sheldon Boulevard; Experience Grand Rapids calls it Michigan's oldest gay bar.
Sources: 99.3 WFMK, Mar 21, 2025; Experience Grand Rapids, Apr 20, 2026 · Open: Experience Grand Rapids, Apr 20, 2026
The 19 Bar opened in 1952 and became gay-owned when it was sold in 1956, per the Walker Art Center; CBS Minnesota says it opened in the 1950s and is the oldest gay bar in the state.
Closed for about 11 months after a 2024 fire and reopened in February 2025.
Sources: Walker Art Center, 2024; CBS Minnesota, Feb 26, 2025 · Open: CBS Minnesota, Feb 26, 2025
Club Feathers opened on June 21, 1978, and was set to mark 48 years in business on June 21, 2026.
Sources: NJ101.5, Jul 2020; NorthJersey.com (via AOL), Jun 11, 2026 · Open: NorthJersey.com (via AOL), Jun 11, 2026
Walter Cole bought the Demas Tavern in 1967, and KPTV dates Darcelle XV as a club to 1969.
Disputed: Sources split between the 1967 purchase and a 1969 opening.
A drag cabaret with ticketed shows as well as a bar.
Sources: KPTV, May 18, 2026; OPB, Oregon Experience · Open: Darcelle XV show calendar, Oct 2026
Mirabar opened in Woonsocket in 1947 and has moved several times; it is now on Elbow Street in Providence.
Sources: Rhode Island Monthly, Jun 3, 2025; Rhode Island Monthly, LGBTQ+ timeline, Jun 1, 2024 · Open: Rhode Island Monthly, Jun 3, 2025
The Salt Lake Tribune reported in 2022 that the SunTrapp "has been in business since 1991." It traces its roots to The Sun, which Joe Redburn opened in 1973 and which the Tribune calls Utah's first gay bar.
It has not run without breaks: shut for weeks in early 2022 during an ownership dispute, it surrendered its liquor license in March 2024, reopened under a new owner that June, and closed again from October 31 to December 2, 2025.
Sources: Salt Lake Tribune, Jun 29, 2024; Salt Lake Tribune, Feb 4, 2022 · Open: QSaltLake, Dec 1, 2025
The Park opened in 1978; VICE reported in 2017 that the nonprofit Roanoke Pride runs it as a dance club, event venue and community center.
Disputed: Virginia Dogwood gives 1979 for The Park, and also dates Richmond's Babes of Carytown to 1979.
Sources: VICE, Jun 27, 2017; Virginia Dogwood, Jun 19, 2024 · Open: WVTF, Jun 12, 2026
UpNorthNews: "Established in 1983, Napalese Lounge in Green Bay now holds the title of oldest gay bar in the state."
Disputed: Other accounts give 1982. Superior's Main Club appears in gay guides from 1971 but, per the Wisconsin LGBTQ History Project, became formally gay only in 1983.
Moved from South Broadway to Cedar Street around 2000.
Sources: UpNorthNews, Mar 13, 2025; Wisconsin LGBTQ History Project · Open: WFRV Local 5, Dec 12, 2025
We list a state only when a source states the year its oldest open bar became a gay bar and a dated 2025 or 2026 item shows the bar is open. These 34 haven’t passed both checks yet. That doesn’t mean they have no gay bar.
Alabama · Alaska · Arkansas · Connecticut · Georgia · Idaho · Illinois · Indiana · Kansas · Kentucky · Maine · Mississippi · Missouri · Montana · Nebraska · Nevada · New Hampshire · New Mexico · New York · North Carolina · North Dakota · Ohio · Oklahoma · Pennsylvania · South Carolina · South Dakota · Tennessee · Texas · Vermont · Washington · West Virginia · Wyoming · Washington, D.C. · Puerto Rico
Know the oldest gay bar in your state? Bar owners, historians and regulars: send the year and a source, like a news story, archive listing or the bar’s own history page, to info@outxout.com. We add a state once we can confirm both checks.
Free to use with attribution to Out x Out. Corrections and additions with a source go to info@outxout.com.
Out x Out has documented the oldest gay bar it could find still open in 18 US states. In 7 of them that bar traces its gay history to before 1960, though some of those dates are disputed.
The earliest single year not marked disputed in Out x Out's list belongs to Rhode Island's Mirabar, a gay bar since 1947.
Each row in Out x Out's list of the oldest gay bar in each state gives the year the bar began operating as a gay bar, as far as its sources support, with a link to the source and a dated 2025 or 2026 item showing it open.
Out x Out, "The Oldest Gay Bar in Each State" (updated October 27, 2026), https://outxout.com/data/oldest-gay-bars