Anchorage - Guide for Gays, Lesbians and Queers

Anchorage is Alaska's largest city and home to the state's only sizable queer scene. It is small and sits almost entirely downtown, with two bars at its core.

Mad Myrna's on East 5th Avenue is the best-known queer bar in town. It hosts drag shows, dance nights and theme nights, and it is busiest on weekends. The Raven on East 4th Avenue is quieter, a pub with plenty of regulars and popular with bears. The two are a few minutes' walk apart, so it is easy to spend an evening at both.

There are no other queer bars, no queer cafés and no gay sauna in Anchorage; the common gay travel guides list no bathhouse in the city. Most other bars and restaurants downtown are mixed and generally welcoming to queer guests.

The community organizes mainly through nonprofits. The Alaskans Together Foundation works for LGBTQ+ equality across Alaska and runs the Pride parade in June. The Pride festival on the Delaney Park Strip is the biggest queer date of the year, with a full week of events around it.

Most visitors come to Anchorage for the outdoors. The Chugach Mountains rise right at the edge of the city, and in summer it stays light late into the night. One or two evenings downtown are enough to see the city's queer side, ideally on a weekend or during Pride week.