Dallas gay scene
I don’t know about you, but my hometown urban area is a place I saw surprisingly little of despite living there for 18 years. My wasted youth was spent mostly beside a swimming pool, in an heavily air-conditioned mall or in the local ice cream shop.
Can you blame a guy? A $2 brownie fudge sundae is hard to resist! The suburban existence can be so hard…
So, on a most recent trip home, I decided to finally dive into the deep end of Dallas. Growing up, I never heard much about the gay scene in Dallas (but then again, I wasn’t really looking for it either). But, over the years, Dallas has had an increasingly apparent presence for its LGBTQ locals.
Dallas Pride has been running consistently for nearly 30 years, and the gayborhood of Oak Lawn is consistently ranked among the most gay-friendly places in the USA (despite some recent anti-gay attacks in 2015 and 2016).
The city was even abode to the first Hooters-style restaurant for gay men. (Tallywackers—a bar and restaurant where the hunky waiters only worse short shorts—closed down earlier this year.)
Dallas as a city is relatively straightforward. There are a handful of other neighborhoods—eac
Dallas has long been acknowledged for its sports teams, cowboy culture, and thriving business districts and, somewhat more recently, for its dynamic and evolving LGBTIQA+ scene.
The history of the community in Dallas is a testament to resilience, unity, and mutual sustain . By the late 1960s, Dallas had an emerging gay neighborhood, Oak Lawn, which gradually became the epicenter of the LGBTIQA+ community. This was also the time when the first openly gay and lesbian bars started appearing. The AIDS crisis in the 1980s sparked a more public presence, with the community working to provide support and resources for everyone affected.
Activism intensified in the 90s and early 2000s, leading to significant momentum in acceptance and visibility. Events favor the Alan Ross Texas Freedom Parade, originally acknowledged as the Dallas Lgbtq+ Pride Parade, which started in 1983, became annual celebrations of LGBTQ event and rights.
Why listen to us? We’re Dallas movers, and offer long-distance moves to Dallas as good. We’ve been all over this city, and adore it.
LGBTIQA+ Dallas Now – Facts and Figures
Recent estimates suggest that approximately 4.1% of Dallas residents recognize as LGBTQ
6/13/25
In celebration, the Anthony Bobrow Trust has delivered checks totaling over $300,000 to Dallas non-profits this week. In the past three years that’s over $1Million to continue their operate to sustain and upgrade the lives of our Community. With the finish of US Government aid, their needs are even more critical. We’ll produce smaller gifts during the remainder of 2025, usually another $100,000. We recognize the guests of the Hidden Door (and Tony’s astute investments) for making this possible. Non-profit groups receiving donations in this first round: AIN, ASD, Legacy Cares, Taste of Hope, The Family Place and the Oak Lawn Band.
After decades of creature a cash-only business, The Hidden Door will open accepting credit card payments, effective Monday, Feb. 10, when the bar opens.
“Things change after half a century,” noted Hidden Door President and General Manager Harvey Meissner, explaining that 45 years ago when the bar first opened in 1979, when customers were paying with credit cards, bars had to call via a modem, key in their card information manually then stay for authorization, then document it all down a couple of times.
Then-owner Jim Robert simplified
The Dallas LGBTQ+ community thrives as one of the largest in the nation. The greater Dallas metro area has the largest number of LGBTQ+ people in Texas (211,000) and the sixth-largest in the United States.
Though homosexual people have settled all across the North Texas region, the Oak Lawn/Cedar Springs neighborhood continues to be the entertainment, business, and residential epicenter for LGBTQ+ locals and a top visitor attraction. It’s the home to multiple bars, clubs, retailers, restaurants, and other gathering places, includingThe Round-Up Saloon (one of the top Diverse country-western bars in the world) and Sue Ellen’s (Texas’ oldest lesbian block and one of the few remaining in the nation). Named the “Best Gayborhood” by OUT Magazine in 2014, the district also boasts the headquarters of the North Texas LGBT Chamber of Commerce, an organization whose mission is to foster an inclusive business community.
The cultural opportunities in Dallas are abundant for LGBTQ+ people outside the gayborhood, especially in the arts. We’re home to the largest contiguous arts district in the U.S.; the most-recorded male chorus in the world, The Turtle Creek Chorale; and Uptown Players, a
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