Queer Horror is an ongoing bi-monthly film festival that is shown at the
Hollywood Theatre.[5] The Portland Queer Film Festival, formerly known as the Portland Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, has been running for more than twenty years and takes place at
Cinema 21.[6] The Portland Queer Documentary Film Festival screens LGBTQ documentaries.[7]
Coffin Club (formerly Lovecraft Bar) has also been described as an LGBT-friendly bar.
The Sports Bra, established in 2022, is an LGBTQ-owned bar focused on
women's sports. Rebel Rebel is in Old Town Chinatown.[14] 2022 also saw the openings of the LGBTQ video bar Sissy Bar, and
Doc Marie's, a lesbian bar.[15][16] Misfits Bar and Lounge has been described as a "laidback queer hangout".[10]
Monthly
Blow Pony dances were established in Portland by Airick Redwolf in 2007. Inferno monthly dance parties hosted by Hot Flash Productions owner/operators DJ Wildfire (Jenn Davis) and Armida Hanlon that first began in Portland in 2004 and are now held regularly in Portland and Seattle.[17][18] Portland also hosts
Bearracuda dance events regularly.
The queer-owned vegan restaurant
Mis Tacones was established as a pop-up restaurant in 2016 and relocated to a brick and mortar space in 2022. The queer-owned and operated
Taqueria Los Puñales opened in 2020.
During the
COVID-19 pandemic,
Hobo's and
Local Lounge closed in 2020 and 2021, respectively. In late 2021, Daniel Bund opened
The Queen's Head, an English-style pub and lounge hosting drag shows and burlesque performances frequently.[22] The bar closed in 2022.
The Roxy was an LGBT-friendly
diner along
Southwest Harvey Milk Street. The restaurant opened in 1994 and closed in March 2022. Sullivan's Gulch Bar & Grill (formerly known as Joq's Tavern,[23][24] or simply Joq's) has also been described as an LGBT establishment.
Shine Distillery and Grill, which closed in 2023, was described as a gay bar.
The City Nightclub, an all ages drug and alcohol free gay and lesbian nightclub, was established in 1983 by Lanny Swerdlow. According to author
Linnea Due, it was the only all ages gay and lesbian club in the United States. An attempt by the Portland Police Bureau in 1996 to shut down the club sparked a demonstration which was covered on
MTV News: Unfiltered. Ultimately, the club shut down in December of 1996.
Located at Northwest 5th Avenue and Davis Street in
Old Town Chinatown, Barbarella (sometimes Barbarella PDX) was a nightclub in a building which previously housed a "grimy" music venue called Someday Lounge, followed by the
Las Vegas-inspired Fifth Avenue Lounge. The bar was part of an
Austin, Texas-based chain of nightclubs. Andrew Jankowski of Willamette Week described Barbarella as "a dance club with dirt-cheap drinks, themed parties running from the '50s through the '80s and an overall vibe best described as 'a straight person's idea of a gay bar'".[25] He compared the bar to neighboring
amusement arcadeGround Kontrol, but without the video games, and said, "Barbarella's aesthetic is as delightfully
kitschy and low-budget as a bar named after a campy sci-fi cult classic should be."[25] Jankowski wrote:
On paper, Barbarella should be a sensation, particularly with central eastsiders who rarely deign to cross the river into the Old Town entertainment district. Sure, the lack of specialty drinks feels like a missed opportunity, and even the bartender recommended against ordering food. But with no cover charge and wells at or below $2 each, you'd imagine the place would be packed with people headed to or from the arcade bar, the gay strip club or the scores of other party spots in the neighborhood.[25]
Daily Xtra described Barbarella as a "video/dance dive bar" with dance parties, disc jockeys, and
queer events in its 2019 overview of "gay Portland".[26] The venue had two dance floors and a loft. The interior featured
lava lamps,
pinball machines, and
mid-century modern furniture. There was a painting of a topless woman on one wall, as well as two "tributes" to
Jane Fonda, who starred in the 1968
science fiction film Barbarella. According to Jankowski, "The only 21st-century features are the video projections and gently rippling rainbow
LED lights behind the pre-existing sheet-metal grates."[25]