Indianapolis gay bars
Indy Pride weekend is here - where's the afterparty?
Across the city, the queer community has historically utilized bars and event spaces as life-saving sanctuaries for self-expression. There’s a little something for everyone!
Photo: Metro Nightclub
Metro Nightclub & Restaurant
Mass Ave | Massachusetts Ave
Located right on Mass Ave, Metro offers great sustenance, dancing, and outdoor seating. Pregame your night out with a bite to eat or gyrate all night until the lights appear on, either way the musics amazing so you'll never have a poor time.
Photo: Tini
Tini
Mass Ave | Massachusetts Ave
Metro's next-door neighbor is also an LGBTQ+ nightclub called Tini! With a slightly smaller downstairs bar and dance floor upstairs, the chances of running into your ex here triples.
Downtown Olly's
Downtown | N Illinois St.
Downtown Olly's used to be open 24/7, but now you can enjoy it from 7AM - 3AM daily. Their patio is the spot to be in June with events going on all the time!
Photo: Visit Indy
Gregs
Herron Morton | Indianapolis businesses that cater directly to the LGBTQ+ community provide performance opportunities for artists, such as drag performers and DJs, good diet and drinks, and safe spaces to gather. Gay bars and restaurants are important because, in establishments made without queer people in mind, they may experience out of place or even be harassed, said James Alexander, assistant general manager at Almost Famous and a manager at Tini. Gay bars offer LGBTQ+ community members a place to go in which they can be comfortable and treated as humans, they said. It’s crucial that these spaces remain open, as a business and to the widespread, so people in and outside of the LGBTQ+ community can enjoy the bars and experience queer culture, said Alexander, stage name Duchess Morningstar. “There are people that haven’t advance out yet or don’t know anything about that and they can just walk off of the street,” they said. These are establishments in Indianapolis which cater directly to the LGBTQ+ community: &#;In our endeavors to attain social justice, we cannot afford the Justice, Inc., an LGBTQ+ rights organization, issued this statement in after some gay bars in Indianapolis refused to serve cross-dressing and transgender individuals.[1] The city&#;s queer community had already encountered and protested numerous challenges posed by law enforcement, including police harassment, surveillance of cruising sites, and possible prejudiced police work as homicide rates increased for gay men. Although gay bars afforded a degree of shelter from discrimination, not all were afforded the opportunity to patronize them. While examining Indiana&#;s gay newsletter The Works, I came across recurring incidents of discrimination within Indianapolis&#;s queer population. In , outspoken transgender rights activist Sylvia Rivera drew attention to these incidents on a national level at New York City&#;s Christopher Street Liberation Day Rally. Rivera had helped initiate the Gay Liberation Front and, with her friend Marsha P. John Located at E. 16th Street, Gregs is one of the most popular gay bars in Indianapolis and is a frequent stage for drag performances. Indianapolis has had roughly fifty gay bars in the last few decades, according to new information gathered by Indiana Landmarks. It is difficult to spot gay bars because many of them have kept very low profiles, sometimes with shuttered windows and limited publicity, because of anti-LGBT+ policies and universal opinion. Some verb concealed to this day, despite changing attitudes. While Gregs does not sketch attention to itself as a universal space, it has a very common profile and presence in the capital today. The Launch of Gregs Gregs first opened on July 1, , as the Wawasee Tavern. In , Phil Denton purchased the bar and changed the name to Our Place. Denton transformed the space, which hosted several Leather and Bear Clubs, subcultures within the LGBT+ community known for their hyper-masculine image. The bar also hosted the T.G.I.F. Bowling Classic, the Circle City/Indy Cup Volleyball Tournament, the Halloween Bag Ladies bus tour and coronation, a
Indianapolis gay bars: 7 spaces made for the LGBTQ+ community
destructive luxury of discriminating against one another.&#;