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• Gay Saint Paul, Minnesota: the honest 2026 guide
• Bars and clubs
• Saunas and cruising
• Community, shops and support
• Pride and events
• Neighbourhoods
• Where to stay
• Closed or changed: gone but still Googled
• A bit of history
• Practical tips
• A few words
• At a glance

Gay Saint Paul, Minnesota: the honest 2026 guide

The honest summary: Saint Paul is Minnesota's capital, a city of about 311,000 people across the Mississippi from Minneapolis, and it has exactly one dedicated queer bar, the Black Hart. That's not because the city is unfriendly. Saint Paul passed one of the country's first gay-rights ordinances in 1974, scores 100 on the Human Rights Campaign's Municipal Equality Index, and is home to the state's main LGBTQ+ advocacy group. But the Twin Cities' gay nightlife grew up in Minneapolis, around Loring Park, and it stayed there. So Saint Paul is quieter: a queer soccer bar with drag and karaoke, a former gay cabaret that now mostly does comedy, a queer-owned bookshop, its own small Pride festival in June, and a Green Line train that takes you to the Minneapolis bars when you want a bigger night.

Legal in one line: Same-sex marriage has been legal in Minnesota since 1 August 2013, and the Minnesota Human Rights Act has protected sexual orientation and gender identity since 1993, when Minnesota became the first US state to cover transgender people; in 2023 the state added a trans refuge law and banned conversion therapy for minors.

Bars and clubs

We checked Visit Saint Paul's list of LGBTQ+ businesses, Travel Gay, the outxout listings, the OutHistory archive and the venues' own sites in October 2026. Only one place in Saint Paul calls itself a queer bar today.

• Black Hart of Saint Paul, 1415 University Ave W, Midway. Wes Burdine opened it in August 2018 in the old Town House, which had been a gay bar since 1969, and added soccer: Allianz Field, home of Minnesota United, is a short walk away, and the bar opens early on match days. Visit Saint Paul calls it the oldest queer nightspot in the city. The regular nights listed in October 2026 are Dragged Out, a drag show on the third Friday of the month (next on 20 November), karaoke on Tuesdays and Fridays, Trivia Mafia on Mondays and a Leather Dyke Social every other month. The crowd is mixed, with a strong lesbian following. Hours per its site: Monday to Thursday 3pm-1am, Friday 3pm-2am, Saturday 8:30am-2am, Sunday 8am-2am. It has a patio with bocce and its own free car park.
• Camp Bar, 490 N Robert St, downtown. Camp opened in 2007 in the space of the old gay bar Trixx and spent years as Saint Paul's gay cabaret and piano bar. Today the room mostly runs as Laugh Camp Comedy Club, and its own calendar showed no regular drag in October 2026. It still books the odd LGBTQ+ night, such as the Pride Comedy Cavalcade in June 2026, so we list it as queer-friendly entertainment rather than a gay bar.

For more choice, cross the river. Minneapolis has the Twin Cities' cluster of gay bars, most of them around Loring Park and downtown: The Saloon, The Gay 90's, The 19 Bar, Eagle|MPLS, Roxy's Cabaret, LUSH Lounge & Theater in Northeast and A Bar of Their Own, a queer women's sports bar. From downtown Saint Paul it's roughly 20 minutes by car or a longer ride on the Green Line. See our Minneapolis guide.

Saunas and cruising

There is no gay sauna or bathhouse in Saint Paul, and we found none in the Twin Cities that was open in October 2026. Minneapolis repealed its 1988 bathhouse ban on 25 June 2026, but no venue had opened by the time of writing.

We don't list any cruising area in Saint Paul. No outdoor spot was named by two current sources; OutHistory mentions Rice Park and Mears Park only as historical cruising grounds from decades ago. Sex in public places is illegal in Minnesota, and parks are patrolled. Use the apps or the Minneapolis bars instead.

Community, shops and support

• OutFront Minnesota, 2446 University Ave W, suite 112. Founded in 1987, it's the state's largest LGBTQ+ advocacy group, running an anti-violence program, training and lobbying at the Capitol. It's an office, not a drop-in centre: phone or check outfront.org first.
• Reclaim, in the same building (suite 104), provides sliding-scale therapy for queer and trans young people aged roughly 13 to 25 and their families.
• One Voice Mixed Chorus, 732 Holly Ave, is the Twin Cities' choir for LGBTQ+ people and allies, with about 100 singers and main concerts in January and June.
• Black Garnet Books, 1319 University Ave W, opened in 2020 as a bookshop centred on Black authors. Since November 2024 it has been owned by Terresa Moses, who describes herself as a proud Black queer woman. Check hours before going.
• Hail Mary Piercing, 678 W 7th St, is a queer-owned piercing and tattoo studio.
• Urban Growler, 2325 Endicott St, was Minnesota's first women-owned microbrewery (2014), and Joan's in the Park, a 40-seat restaurant on Snelling Ave in Highland Park, is also on Visit Saint Paul's list of LGBTQ+ businesses. Both are mainstream places with mixed crowds.
• Affirming congregations: Saint Paul-Reformation Lutheran Church, which ordained an openly lesbian pastor, Anita C. Hill, in 2001, and Unity Church-Unitarian on Cathedral Hill, a Unitarian Universalist Welcoming Congregation.

Saint Paul has no LGBTQ+ community centre. The nearest are in Minneapolis: Quatrefoil Library on E Lake St and Queermunity on Hennepin Ave.

Pride and events

STP Pride Festival is Saint Paul's own Pride, produced by SIGMA CORP. The 2026 festival ran on 13-14 June, noon to 8pm, at Dual Citizen Brewing Company, 725 Raymond Ave, with music, food trucks, games, family activities and vendors. There's no parade. The organisers have announced 19-20 June 2027 for the next one; the venue had not been confirmed when we checked.

The big one is Twin Cities Pride in Loring Park, Minneapolis, in late June, with the parade on the Sunday. In 2026 it ran on 26-28 June. Through the year, the Black Hart's monthly Dragged Out is the steadiest queer night in Saint Paul. See the Saint Paul events page for current listings.

Neighbourhoods

Saint Paul has no gay district. Queer life here is spread out, and the sources we checked support three areas:

• Midway (University Ave W): the strongest cluster, with the Black Hart, Black Garnet Books, OutFront Minnesota and Reclaim, plus Allianz Field. The Green Line runs the length of University Ave.
• Downtown and Lowertown: Camp Bar, most of the hotels, the skyway system and Union Depot. In the 1980s and 1990s this was where the city's gay bars were, including Rumours & Innuendo.
• West Seventh and Cathedral Hill: residential streets with restaurants and bars, Hail Mary Piercing and Unity Church. Some online guides call this the heart of the city's queer nightlife; we found no gay bar there.

One online guide places Loring Park in Saint Paul. It's in Minneapolis.

Where to stay

None of the city's hotels is gay-owned or IGLTA-listed as far as we could find, so pick by location. The Saint Paul Hotel (1910, on Rice Park) is the classic, though new owners have announced a full renovation. Celeste of St. Paul is a 71-room boutique hotel in a former conservatory and convent. Hyatt Place in the art-deco Custom House is two minutes from Union Depot and the Green Line. For a hockey game or a concert, Holiday Inn, Hampton Inn & Suites and Courtyard face the Xcel Energy Center. See all Saint Paul hotels.

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Closed or changed: gone but still Googled

• Town House (1415 University Ave W): a gay bar from 1969, known for drag, karaoke and its piano lounge. It became the Black Hart in 2018.
• Rumours & Innuendo (downtown): Rumours opened in 1984 and Innuendo in 1993; both closed in 2010.
• Trixx (490 N Robert St): closed before 2007, when Camp Bar opened in the space.
• Grrrl Scout: the roving lesbian dance nights ended in 2025.
• Pi Bar: closed in 2008, and it was in Minneapolis, not Saint Paul.
• Rainbow Health (formerly Minnesota AIDS Project) closed in July 2024, and Family Tree Clinic has moved to Nicollet Ave in Minneapolis. Older guides still list both in Saint Paul.

A bit of history

Saint Paul passed a gay-rights ordinance in 1974. In April 1978, after a petition drive inspired by Anita Bryant's campaign in Florida, voters repealed it by 54,096 to 31,694. The city council passed a new ordinance in June 1990, and an attempt to repeal it failed at the ballot in November 1991. Two years later, the Minnesota Human Rights Act was amended to cover sexual orientation, with a definition that included gender identity.

Practical tips

• Getting here: Minneapolis-Saint Paul International (MSP) is about 8 miles from downtown Saint Paul, 15 to 25 minutes by car. Metro Transit's Route 54 bus runs from the airport to downtown. Amtrak trains, including the Borealis to Chicago, stop at Union Depot in Lowertown.
• Green Line: the light rail, opened in June 2014, runs 11 miles from Union Depot past the Capitol and along University Ave through the Midway to downtown Minneapolis.
• Winter: downtown's skyways link many hotels and buildings, which helps from December to March. Plan rideshares for late nights, as transit thins out.
• Help: OutFront Minnesota's anti-violence helpline is 800-800-0350. In an emergency, call 911.

A few words

English is spoken everywhere. Locals say "the Twin Cities" for Minneapolis and Saint Paul together, "STP" or "St. Paul" for the city, "the skyway" for the enclosed walkways downtown, and "up north" for any trip to the lakes. "Minnesota nice" means polite, sometimes to the point of saying little.

At a glance

Gay bars1: Black Hart of Saint Paul (Midway); more in Minneapolis Queer-friendlyCamp Bar (comedy, former gay cabaret), Black Garnet Books, Hail Mary Piercing Gay saunaNone CommunityOutFront Minnesota, Reclaim, One Voice Mixed Chorus PrideSTP Pride Festival 19-20 June 2027; Twin Cities Pride in Minneapolis in late June LegalMarriage since 2013; state anti-discrimination law since 1993; HRC score 100 AirportMSP, about 8 miles

Last verified: October 2026.