Though the famed Las Vegas Strip offers countless bars, hotels and casinos, it only features one gay club; the rest of the gay nightlife is located in an area called ‘the Fruit Loop.’ (Photo courtesy of the Las Vegas News Bureau)
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ZACK ROSEN
Friday, May 09, 2008
 LAS VEGAS — This city wants your gay dollar. On a media trip there last weekend, I was repeatedly told that gay consumers are a respected and highly sought after market. There are several travel studies to back up the assertion that Vegas is already a top destination for gay and lesbian travelers. But a series of unfortunate events in Sin City left me with the impression that Vegas’ commitment to those travelers doesn’t guarantee a gay ole’ time.
I came to Vegas believing that it was a perfectly friendly place for gay tourists and acted accordingly. My first hint to the contrary: homophobic catcalls from two presumably straight guests while kissing my boyfriend at the hotel pool. That night, we dealt with multiple whispers of the “look, they’re gay” variety while walking around together and, later, a cabdriver refused to take us to the gay area of town known as the “Fruit Loop,” disingenuously claiming that it was too far away.
“I think that Vegas is all about carving out your own safe space,” says Ryan Staples, an employee of the Vegas-based Gay & Lesbian Community Center of Southern Nevada. “It’s not a safe town to begin with, gay or straight. People [visit] from all over the world with different perspectives on life. You will always be faced with stares or comments, people being disgusted at who your partner is. You’re not safe from harassment on the Strip. We’ve had people brutalized on the Strip, beaten up in bathrooms for the simple fact that they were gay. I do believe, though, that it is safer than a lot of other places in general in this country.”
In November of 2007, Thomas Lahey said he was the victim of a hate crime after he was attacked by three men in a bathroom after leaving Krave, a gay nightclub. Lahey reports being kicked in the face and a friend says the attackers were calling them “faggots, queers. When they were kicking [him] in the face, [the friend] said they kept saying, ‘Do you like that faggot?’”
He was beaten until he lost consciousness and suffered a broken nose, a chipped tooth and fractured cheekbones.
BUT THOSE KINDS of attacks can happen anywhere and not every gay Vegas resident or visitor has had such a harrowing time. Earl Shelton, managing director of local gay publication Q Vegas, says the Strip is a mixed gay and straight destination. Despite being “way out of the box and over the top,” with a fondness for “French tip pedicures and rhinestone flip flops,” he has never felt threatened on the Strip and believes that the straight clubs there draw a mixed clientele.
“The straight clubs attract and get a lot of gay traffic in them,” Shelton says. “Tao is a big one, one of the hosts is gay and brings his friends. I think the caliber of the venues attracts gays and lesbians more than the gay bars here. They’re upscale and nice and have great customer service. They tend to have a much higher budget to bring in celebrities, like when Paris Hilton was at Pure there were tons of gay boys there. Big nights like that tend to bring in the service industry because a lot of the service industry is gay.”
The service industry is a major presence in Vegas, because service is what the city does best. Regardless of the attitude of the visitors, Vegas hotel employees have been trained in sensitivity to their gay customers. None of them batted an eye when I asked for directions to gay bars or mentioned my boyfriend. (Mya Reyes, the director of diversity marketing for the city’s convention and visitor’s authority, says that hotel staff are even given instruction on nuances, like not “raising eyebrows” when two men book a room with one king bed and not sending gift baskets addressed to “Mr. and Mrs.” to rooms with two men.)
I stayed at the Hotel at Mandalay Bay, which was appealing for its subdued theme. While some local accommodations were scale models of Manhattan or colossal pyramids, Mandalay boasted its own beach, a lazy river and aquariums in the lobby. A similarly elegant dining experience can be found at Sensi, a restaurant in the Bellagio hotel that fuses Asian, Italian, Indian and seafood themes and boasts four open kitchens for the diner’s viewing pleasure.
“Our job as the Las Vegas Convention and Visitor’s Authority is to bring visitors to Las Vegas to support our hotel partners,” says Reyes. “We have more visitors here than any other U.S. city, we want to maintain that position. It’s the same for every market, whether men, women, gay, straight, whatever. It’s all done for the same reason: to bring visitors to Las Vegas.”
Las Vegas has no shortage of beautiful hotels and over-the top stage shows, but the city is low on gay-specific spaces. There is one gay club, Krave, on the Strip, which is home to the glam hotels and casinos, but the rest of the gay nightspots are scattered around the city.
Of course, for a real gay time in Vegas, it’s best to get off the Strip. The Fruit Loop, about $7 in a cab with a progressive driver, boasts four different gay bars at one intersection. Gypsy and Piranha (and the latter’s attached 8.5 Lounge) are reminiscent of Cobalt and Apex, though with a refreshing gender and ethnicity mix.
The Hotel at Mandalay Bay, featuring beautiful views and a man-made beach, is one of the few non-thematic hotels, making for a toned-down but high-end stay. (Photo courtesy of MGM Mirage) |
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The best time I had, though, was at the two bars across the street, Freezone and the Buffalo. Freezone is a dim lounge with a dance floor attached, and Buffalo a quasi-leather bar with no dance floor, only pool and darts. Both spots were blessedly free of the attitude and sky-high drink prices that characterize too many gay venues, and they were also remarkably diverse. Neither charged a cover or had a set closing time. My boyfriend and I played pool at the Buffalo until it closed at five in the morning and weren’t the last to leave.
WHEN VISITING THE tiny gay enclave, it’s hard to miss the economic disparity in comparison to the Strip, and it might be easy to miss the Fruit Loop altogether.
Reyes says that the Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Southern Nevada is working with the city to erect signs directing visitors to the Fruit Loop, and Staples says that Reyes herself is working to engage the queer community throughout Vegas. However, Reyes doesn’t believe that the Fruit Loop counts as a true gay district.
“We don’t have a Halstead Street, we’re not West Hollywood,” Reyes says. “We found that [gay tourists] come for the same reasons that everyone else comes for. We don’t try to market as a gay destination.”
There is a difference between folding gay visitors into the existing straight culture and offering them programs and services to meet their unique needs. The need to feel safe, comfortable and with our own kind is what makes cities like San Francisco, New York and Chicago such popular destinations year after year.
A poll commissioned by the Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority found the city to be the first and second most popular destination with, respectively, gay women and gay men who had already been there, and Witeck-Combs Communications ranked the city eighth as a destination for gays who had never been there. Still, there is a difference between a gay person on vacation and an actual gay vacation.
Without a doubt there are many Vegas attractions that appeal to gays and lesbians, from top-notch restaurants to stunning stage shows. But city officials would be smart to work to make Vegas a city where gay people can go to be themselves.
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