Gayborhoods, or neighborhoods where lesbian, transgender, straight, bisexual, gay, queer and anyone else can find unrestricted love and flourish are some of the most vibrant places in the world. From Chicago to Tokyo, here are the best gayborhoods in the world.

Chicago, Boystown

America’s first-ever recognized LGBTQ village, Chicago’s Boystown is located in the city’s North Side, specifically the Lakeview East neighborhood. Chicago’s gay nightlife isn’t confined to Boystown though, Andersonville is also known as a great spot to go out.

Palermo, Buenos Aires

Vibrant and flashy, one of Latin America’s LGBTQ epicenters is in Argentina’s capital city. Actually, Buenos Aires is rampant with the life, and Palermo is just a central meeting place of bars, clubs, and venues.

Zona Rosa, Mexico City

Near the center of this bustling, often maniacal city is the Colonia Juárez, home to Mexico City’s financial district, a growing Korean community, a steady nightlife, and the “pink zone,” where the LGBTQ community is also thriving.

South Beach, Miami

SoBe’s LGBTQ community aided in the revitalization of Miami Beach in the ’80s and ’90s. Today, it is a playground of bright and lively places to go all year round. If you can’t make it down to South Beach, Wilton Manors in Ft. Lauderdale is also a fantastic gayborhood.

Le Marais, Paris

Straddling the 3rd and 4th arrondisements of France’s City of Light is this neighborhood teeming predominately with a large Jewish population and a very large LGBTQ population, migrating from all areas of the city and world, especially for the weekly parties thrown at venues like Flash Cocotte.

Ni-chome, Tokyo

Essentially, it’s two square blocks in the Shinjuku business district packed tight with over 300 clubs and bars for all walks of the gay life. Bars, clubs, sex shops, fetish joints, and all of it is orderly and discreet, as the Japanese are known to be.

Faubourg Marigny, New Orleans

As weird and wonderful as Lousiana’s gem city is, there is this freewheeling little nook situated right below the French Quarter. The Mardi Gras parade starts here every year, the music venues are ongoing, and there’s no question about love-who-you-will in this neighborhood.

Downtown Asheville, North Carolina

Especially for lesbians, the Blue Ridge’s small island of forward thinking is a pilgrimage site for mainly Americans of the generally lesser-tolerating southern regions. Some of the best live music and slam poetry venues in the state live here as well.

Jardins, São Paolo

In Brazil, the bars start picking up the pace around 1:00 in the morning. That goes particularly for Jardins, the most unapologetic LGBTQ part of the city. Besides drinking and dancing locales, there’s the Frei Caneca shopping center — known by many as the “Gay Caneca” for its high level of cruising.

 

Nollendorfplatz, Berlin

At the turn of the 20th century, this neighborhood was the trembling center of the country’s sexual liberation movement. Nollendorfplatz is fully out of its shell, complete with a big leather scene to boot!

Atlanta, Georgia

Well, Midtown could be called the boy-kissing-boy/girl-kissing-girl/anyone-dressed-and-identifying-as-they-wish meet up place for Atlanta, but really the gay love is spread thick all around the metropolitan core of this major American city.

Melrose Arch, Johannesburg

Melrose Arch is posh, caters to very young professionals, and promotes equality through the ubiquity of gay bars lining the streets of this sometimes very tumultuous South African city.

Soho, London

Quite right. Formerly known for seediness and sex shops, now West London is throbbing with the best kind of nightlife. Smack in the middle of the theatre district, there’s plenty of drag shows and bars with names like G-A-Y Bar.

Montrose, Houston

Often called one of the best gayborhoods in America, perhaps because it got the idea even before it became a phenomenon. In the 1970s, there were up to 40 LGBT night spots in this sprawling urban side of Texas. Today it’s an even larger artists’ haven.

Chueca, Madrid

The barrio of barrios, Spain could not have emerged from its turbulent past into probably the most open-minded country in the world without it. Chueca is proof of this. No matter your carnal preference, this is the nightlife capital of Europe.

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