50 Great Gay and Lesbian Bars in the US

 A bastion of top-shelf drag, The Stud welcomes gay and straight alike to take in nightly performances and dance up a storm to a roster of high-energy DJs. Every second Saturday of the month the club hosts Frolic, where guests come to play in their furriest costumes.

Just John loves to hosts parties and does so almost every night of the year whether it involves show tunes, karaoke, homo bingo, dancing or all of the above. The Main Room is a bit more upscale with premium dance floor views; the Side Room more relaxed with dart boards and sports screens; and the Florida Room does indoor-outdoor with climate control overlooking the patio area. JANE is the lady-centric once-a-month event.

The Round-Up - " The Home of Good Times - Home of Good People" - opened in the summer of 1980 and has been a draw for good looking cowboys ever since. Music is all styles, speeds, and tastes to please a mixed crowd of line, shuffle, two-step, waltz dancers but generally starts old school and picks up the tempo as the night goes on. Cowboys can saddle up to no less than six bars including the Parlor Bar hosting special Screwdriver Saturdays and Bloody Mary Sundays, The Tool Shed Bar surrounded by antique hand tools, branding irons, chaps and tack, and The Tequila Shack with over 40 premium tequilas and long necks. It's also a very popular venue for charitable events, dance lessons and some great karaoke.

The gay-owned Tropicale is like an old Miami dinner club but with California cuisine. A gay hot spot with sexy bartenders, it has retro tropical decor, indoor-outdoor dining and lots of neon out front. There's jazz on Tuesdays and Thursdays and a patio brunch on the weekends. And to think it was the Cadillac dealership in the 1960s. Next door is the Copa, its nightclub sibling.

There's usually a game of Super Smash Bros or Donkey Kong underway at The Phoenix Bar and Lounge, projected onto a wall and played by patrons settled into comfortable couches. It's the kind of quirky detail that keeps this super-relaxed and inclusive place near the top of the list of Vegas gay bars, not to mention the spacious dance floor slash lounge area, sunny back patio and rocking DJ booth. Parking can be a little tough to find nearby.

Opened in 1933 in a former Standard Oil Company gas station, The White Horse competes for the title of oldest continuously operating gay and lesbian bar in the United States. It has always been a neighborhood joint and continues to be the type of place to kick back and get into a good conversation or shoot a little pool with a mixed gender and age crowd, a throwback to a time when bars were community meeting places.

Good day or night, Rosie's is the see-and-be-seen spot in Wilton Manors with the action outside on the tropical patio. It features Djs and buckets of beer on Sundays and a huge menu with whimsical names like "Wing Man"(sides), "The Trojan Wrap" and "Beet Your Brains Out." Burgers are a specialty. It's a popular spot Sundays after the girls' baseball league games.

Though it recently shed its East Atlanta Cool for more mainstream Midtown, My Sister's Room is still the go-to spot for lesbians in Atlanta. The crowd is mostly twenty-somethings, and throughout the week the bar offers special events, such as karaoke, beer pong, and one of the very few women-as-men drag shows in the city.

CC Slaughters is Portland's best known gay club with nightly DJs moving the crowd on a massive dance floor, daily happy hours served by bartenders in drag and weekly themed parties, drag shows and trivia nights. The club is also home to the Rainbow Room, an upscale martini lounge that makes for a more intimate setting.

Parliament House, the 10-acre lakefront complex known as the largest, gayest place on earth, is pretty much always open with a bunch of bars, a beach, a theater, pool lounge, billiards bar, drag shows, male dancers, dance floor, videos and a hotel. Open since 1975, it is the longest running gay club in town. Definitely a check-it-off for a night, an evening, an event, a concert.