CC Slaughters

CC Slaughters occupies a building in Old Town/Chinatown that has housed one of Portland's most prominent gay nightlife venues for decades. The bar and club operates on multiple levels, with a ground-floor bar area and a dance floor that activates on weekends and for the regular drag programming that has been a CC Slaughters signature throughout its history. Old Town/Chinatown was Portland's original entertainment and gay district — the neighbourhood where the city's first gay bars concentrated when the scene was beginning to establish itself, and where venues like CC Slaughters represent the continuity of that history into the present. The drag shows at CC Slaughters are among Portland's most established regular LGBTQ+ entertainment, drawing a crowd that mixes long-term community members with visitors experiencing Portland nightlife for the first time. The Old Town location is both a strength and a complication for visitors: the neighbourhood is central and easily accessible by MAX, streetcar, and on foot from downtown hotels, but it is also the heart of Portland's unhoused population concentration — something to be aware of when navigating the area at night. Within the venue itself, CC Slaughters offers a complete gay bar and club experience: drinks, dancing, drag, and the particular social energy of a long-running queer space.