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.
Theme nights range from outrageous to downright unsavory: Hanky Code Party, No Pants Dance, and MondoHomo, to name a few. 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.
