Gay Guide to San Diego
In July 2011 roughly two hundred active-duty service members and veterans marched together in the San Diego Pride parade wearing T-shirts showing their branch, the first active-duty military contingent in any Pride parade in the country. Don't ask, don't tell was still technically in force and would not end until that September. The following year San Diego became the first Pride in the United States where active-duty personnel marched in full uniform, after the Defense Department granted permission. In a city built around the Navy, that two-step is the local history in miniature.
Hillcrest is the district, gathered around University Avenue and Fifth beneath the big neon Hillcrest sign. Urban MO's is the one everyone starts at, with The Loft, Flicks, #1 on Fifth, Rich's, Uptown Tavern and the Hillcrest Brewing Company along the same few blocks. Gossip Grill is a lesbian bar, which is worth naming plainly because the country has very few left.
The scene spreads north and east from there. Pecs covers North Park, the SRO Lounge sits in Bankers Hill, and The Rail, The Alibi, insideOUT and Nunu's are scattered through the surrounding neighborhoods, with Club San Diego handling the bathhouse end.
Black's Beach, under the Torrey Pines cliffs, is the clothing-optional beach, with the gay stretch at the north end. Getting down is a steep trail and getting back up is worse, which keeps it from ever being crowded in the way the city's other beaches are.
San Diego Pride takes a July weekend and is among the largest in the country, with the parade running straight through Hillcrest. The San Diego LGBT Community Center anchors the year-round side, and the weather means the scene never has an off season.