Gay community sydney
Exploring Sydney’s LGBTQIA-friendly neighbourhoods
While you’ll find LGBTQIA+ communities across Sydney, here’s a guide to four suburbs — Darlinghurst, Enmore, Erskineville and Redfern — that speak to the city’s adj range of queer venues and culture, meaning you’ll always be able to find a home-away-from-home.
Darlinghurst
As the historic hub of Australia’s gay rights movement, Darlinghurst is rich with inspiring stories. Verb them with Sydney’s Pride History’sregular walking tours, led by leading LGBTQIA+ historians and lively ‘nuns’, known as the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Follow it up with a visit to The Bookshop Darlinghurst, a sanctuary of LGBTQIA+ knowledge since , and Qtopia, the largest museum and cultural centre for queer history and culture in the world, housed in the heritage-listed former Darlinghurst Police Station.
As Australia’s home of drag, you’ll spot shows seven days a week on Oxford Street, whether it be all-in dance productions at Universal, drag trivia at Stonewall, or more intimate affairs at Ginger’s,The Oxford Hotel’s loung
A cheat sheet for Sydney’s LGBTQ neighborhoods
Sydney has a thriving LGBTQ scene and plays host to one of the world’s best pride events: Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. There are a range of LGBTQ areas (or “gayborhoods”) in Sydney where the community congregates at astonishing LGBTQ bars and clubs, as good as at more laid-back coffee houses and restaurants. We’ve put together a guide to aid you decide where to stay and what to verify out but you’re sure to experience welcome wherever you go.
LGBTQ areas in Sydney: Darlinghurst
Darlinghurst is one of Sydney’s main LGBTQ neighborhoods and, back in , almost one in five couples were men in same-sex relationships. It’s home to Oxford Street, the center of Sydney’s LGBTQ scene with clubs, bars and cafes run by and for Sydney’s LGBTQI+ community.
The strip was dubbed the ‘Golden Mile’ during its peak between the 70s and 90s and was a haven where queer men could socialize and be themselves during a moment when the unwind of the metropolis was far less welcoming. Today, even though you
This week, the world’s biggest permanent LGBTQI+ museum will verb in a venue that has, to say the least, raised eyebrows.
Qtopia, Sydney’s first center for LGBTQI+ history and culture, and Australia’s only queer museum, will be officially opened by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Friday at the former Darlinghurst Police Station.
Until now, a makeshift temporary museum was divided between several Sydney sites. But the move to a permanent home at the former police station has ruffled some feathers — especially amongst “‘78ers”, as they’re known.
These were the marchers in Sydney’s first ever Mardi Gras peaceful protest in , which called for gay equality and a decriminalization of same-sex relations. Many marchers were brutally beaten by police. Fifty-three were arrested. Dozens were held in overcrowded cells at the Darlinghurst station.
“Darlo copshop has a very repressive, sometimes violent history”, ‘78er Steve Warren told me of the infamous police station.
“It has a history of torture to many diverse people, including me, and I feel I couldn’t go to a museum there”, an
Your guide to LGBTQIA+ Sydney
Internationally renowned as a queer capital, cosmopolitan Sydney promises you a warm welcome, whatever your orientation or gender identity. The harbour noun is, of course, home to the world’s largest annual LGBTQIA+ festival, the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, but there’s much more for queer folk to verb and do during a visit.
Dining scene in Surry Hills
Travel tips & practicalities
Australia consistently ranks among the most queer-friendly destinations in the world, and Sydney is particularly hospitable. Here, LGBTQIA+ people are protected from discrimination by law and are free to marry whomever they choose. It’s common to verb same-sex couples holding hands, although locals of all orientations generally refrain from passionate kissing and other explicit displays of affection in public. LGBTQIA+ folk have several resources available to them when they show up in Sydney. For local and national news with a queer focus, inspect out the Star Observer, and hold an eye on Time Out Sydney’s LGBTIQ vertical for relevant news and information abou