Kilti LGBTQ+

Get Your History Straight and Your Nightlife Gay®

Founded on principles of equality, Philadelphia is a welcoming and inspirational place for LGBTQ+ travelers, offering inclusive arts and nightlife, vibrant shopping and dining, and a long history of LGBTQ+ activism.

A Welcoming Place

Three centuries ago, William Penn founded Philadelphia as a place where freedom, tolerance and equality would thrive.

In that tradition of Brotherly and Sisterly Love, the city has long welcomed LGBTQ+ residents and visitors to this inviting destination, thriving social hub and historically significant locale.

The Gayborhood

La Gayborhood in Midtown Village has been Philly’s center of LGBTQ+ life and culture since the 1950s.

The lively neighborhood is home to a significant portion of Philadelphia’s 60,000 LGBTQ+ residents. The 16-square-block area offers a slew of LGBTQ+-owned and -friendly bars, restaurants, shops, theaters and institutions, plus 36 rainbow street signs and two rainbow crosswalk intersections.

LGBTQ+-Inclusive Dining & Shopping

Many of Philly’s most popular LGBTQ+-inclusive dining and nightlife spots dot the Gayborhood, including restaurants like Bud & Marilyn’s, Winkel, Mission Taqueria and Oyster Bar, as well as bars like Woody’s and Tavern on Camac, arguably the city’s oldest LGBTQ+ bar. The neighborhood is also the site of Giovanni’s Room, the nation’s oldest LGBTQ+ bookstore, and Duross & Langel, a hotspot for handmade facial, skin and body care.

Many more LGBTQ+-owned and -friendly spaces ring the city, from South Street’s Workshop Underground, Queen Village’s Philly AIDS Thrift, Fishtown’s Cake Life Bakeshop and Fabrika to Dankbaar in East Passyunk.

Events & Festivals

The 100,000-attendee-strong Philadelphia Pride March & Festival has been held annually since 1972, and is one of the nation’s oldest. The current version has been running since 1988 and is now one of the largest in the nation. Also held during Pride Month: the Philadelphia Dyke March.

La Philly Black Pride festival, a four-day weekend of celebrations and community building across the city, was first held in 1999. And OURfest (known as OutFest from 1995 to 2022) celebrates National Coming Out Day (NCOD) features the nation’s first-ever NCOD parade.

A Deep History of LGBTQ+ Rights Activism

In Philadelphia, the birthplace of democracy, freedom and independence, the crusade for LGBTQ+ equality began in earnest in the 1960s.

It was here that teens led successful sit-ins at Dewey’s Restaurant with discriminatory policies against people they dubbed “homosexuals.”

And it was here on July 4, right in front of Independence Hall, that some of the nation’s first gay rights protests took place during the Annual Reminders (1965-1969).

Philadelphians who have played significant roles in the struggle for equality include activist and founder of Philly Gay News Mark Segal, the “Mother of the LGBTQ+ Rights Movement” Barbara Gittings, “Dr. Anonymous” John E. Fryer, M.D. and marriage equality activist Edie Windsor.

Philadelphia was also the first city in the United States to launch a major marketing campaign welcoming LGBTQ+ tourism with Get Your History Straight and Your Nightlife Gay®. The city continues to welcome LGBTQ+ travelers with spaces like the Philly Pride Visitor Center, while also celebrating the community’s cultural, artistic and culinary achievements.

Over and over again, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania has been at the forefront of this civil rights movement, helping to bend history just as it always has.