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If you're in town for a weekend and want a taste of Midwestern man-candy, Roscoe's is the place to find the barrel-chested white boy you've always dreamed of corrupting. Gays from all over the country flock to this popular but low-key Boystown favorite, where the music is unabashedly bouncy. Emerald's Saturday night parties are packed with pretty young things kicking it to a soundtrack just a few years behind Chelsea. The pool tables give way to a dance floor and a stage, where weekly drag contests are held. The oldest gay bar in Boise attracts a mixed-gender crowd ranging from buffed-and-shined college kids to older couples in matching Western garb. DJs spin quirky, creative sets (Rihanna segueing to Ultra Nat' to Robyn) while pretty people swig Cosmopolitans, cowboys play pool, and University of Texas students go wild. Hoedowns is a Brokeback fantasy come true.Ī little nip/tuck classed up Oil Can Harry's faster than jail did Paris Hilton, but this 17-years-and-running institution hasn't lost its edge. Throw on your old Wranglers and cowboy boots, order a domestic beer, and leave your pretensions at the door. There's something about watching two Marlboro men two-stepping to 'Cotton-Eye Joe' that does the soul good. On karaoke night the pocket-size emcee channels Motown divas. Attention-whore hipsters compete with rowdy lesbians and off-duty DJs for space on the miniature dance floor.
THE STEPS GAY BAR PHILADELPHIA CODE
Theme nights range from outrageous to downright unsavory: Hanky Code Party, No Pants Dance, and MondoHomo, to name a few.
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There's no such thing as a definitive list of anything, but that hasn't stopped us from scouring the world to find 50 bars with all the right qualities to make you feel at home. We talk a lot about how times have changed, but the gay bar remains a staple of gay life'a lifeline for many of us, an old friend for the rest. For many of us, it's hard to describe that strange, stomach-churning combination of trepidation and expectation, a sense that here is a place where you can drop any pretense, study the go-go boys with abandon, shimmy to Cher, and blow kisses at the drag queen vamping on the stage. There's a first time for everything, but the first visit to a gay bar occupies an entire place of its own.