Gay Guide to Cleveland
It was an Ohio case, Obergefell v. Hodges, that brought marriage equality to the entire United States in 2015. Cleveland, the state's lakefront comeback city, has gathered much of its LGBTQ+ life into a walkable arts neighborhood on the near West Side.
The center of the scene is Detroit Shoreway and its Gordon Square Arts District, a quirky, progressive quarter near Lake Erie that is home to the city's LGBT community center, theaters, and a run of queer-friendly bars and cafes. Elsewhere, the Leather Stallion Saloon, the oldest leather bar in Ohio, keeps the older scene alive closer to downtown.
Cleveland pairs this with rock-and-roll history and a lakefront setting, making the gay scene one strand of a broader creative revival across the West Side.
Pride in the CLE steps off each September from Edgewater Park on the lakefront, a march and festival that draws the region's queer community to the shore of Lake Erie.