L.A. Times Concierge: I moved to Pasadena. Where are all the queer bars?

My hubby and I unrecorded successful Pasadena. We moved from Los Feliz astir 10 years ago. We person struggled to find LGBTQ+ events this acold east. We tin lone deed up Boulevard truthful galore times (although we emotion it). Any proposal for uncovering LGBTQ+ events successful Pasadena, Eagle Rock, Highland Park, Glendale oregon the SGV? I consciousness similar determination are bars retired present that whitethorn big play events that I conscionable don’t perceive about. — Will Birnie

Looking for things to bash successful L.A.? Ask america your questions and our adept guides volition stock highly circumstantial recommendations.

Here’s what we suggest:

Will, you are truthful right. While determination are respective queer bars astir your erstwhile vicinity (Hi Tops successful Los Feliz, Akbar successful Silver Lake, Club Bahia successful Echo Park and Honey’s astatine Star Love successful East Hollywood), they are fewer and acold betwixt successful the eastbound portion of L.A. County. But your question sent maine down a rabbit spread and I’m arrogant to study that I’ve recovered a fistful of spots and regular events that you should cheque retired successful your area. (Shout retired to my colleagues and everyone who responded to my petition for assistance connected Instagram.)

Highland Park is location to the Offbeat, which is 1 of my person Jaycen Mitchell‘s favourite bars successful the area. The beloved dive barroom hosts karaoke nights, resistance shows, unrecorded euphony performances, “RuPaul’s Drag Race” screenings and different themed nights passim the week. “I’ve been capable to spot each of my favourite resistance queens determination successful much intimate settings, and the DJs person had maine and my friends dancing until we were the past ones there,” Mitchell tells me. Also successful Highland Park is Blind Barber, a speakeasy that hosts Homo Happy Hour connected Thursdays. Mitchell says the blessed hr is ever a bully clip and a accidental to “show up arsenic your authentic self, beryllium successful assemblage and queen retired with your girls.”

Then successful Glendale, there’s Junior High, a nonprofit creation assemblage and inclusive gathering abstraction that hosts a assortment of events, including euphony shows, creator showcases, drama nights, pottery workshops and more. A standout lawsuit is Fantasy Suite, a rod creation amusement that features queer dancers with varying assemblage types. Cherry Jayne and Jax “Lil Sumthin” launched the queer portion nine acquisition successful 2022 aft struggling to find enactment owed to “fatphobia that plagues accepted portion nine hiring,” they told me. The adjacent lawsuit volition instrumentality spot Feb. 7 and volition diagnostic Valentine’s Day songs of love, lust and heartbreak.

At Footsies successful Cypress Park, Latino queer creator and DJ Mino Sanchez and his boyfriend, Ivan Castaneda, who besides DJs, person been hosting Gay Night for astir 4 years. The event, which happens connected the 2nd Saturday of each month, features BIPOC queer DJs who rotation house, disco, Spanish creation music, electronica, popular and planetary sounds. There’s besides a resistance show astatine midnight. In El Monte, the San Gabriel Valley LGBTQ Center hosts Gayme Night connected the 3rd Thursday of each month. The all-ages lawsuit features karaoke on with video and committee games.

And you already cognize and emotion Boulevard — it truly is simply a gem (and it’s the lone cheery barroom successful Pasadena). Though it was astatine hazard of closing during the pandemic, the 45-year-old barroom survived and continues to big a resistance trivia nighttime connected Tuesdays and a resistance amusement connected Friday nights hosted by Borgia Bloom Facade. Times nutrient columnist Jenn Harris writes that the Boulevard barroom has served arsenic a “safe haven for the cheery assemblage successful the country and an alternate to the West Hollywood barroom scene.”

If you’re looking for a antithetic benignant of assemblage beyond bars and events, my workfellow Jaclyn Cosgrove recommends Throop Unitarian Universalist Church successful Pasadena. “My pastor, Rev. Tera Landers, likes to accidental she doesn’t similar religion, but she loves church,” says Cosgrove, who besides lives successful Pasadena. “That’s successful ample portion due to the fact that of the assemblage we person astatine [the church] including our choir, which has a ample fig of transgender and queer members. It is wherever I spell to refill my cupful each Sunday.”

I anticipation this database helps you and your hubby find much spaces astir your vicinity to physique assemblage and person a large time.