14 Ways to Support and Celebrate the LGBTQ+ Community in Minnesota

Queer footie bar The Black Hart often sees crowds of United fans pour in for a post-game pint and stay for a drag show or karaoke. (U.S. Women’s National Team star Megan Rapinoe even stopped by while she was in town for a friendly match against South Korea.)

While not necessarily LGBTQ+ centric, A Bar of Their Own is the Cities’ first bar that shows exclusively women’s sports and draws a diverse, family-friendly crowd.

More than 100 players hit the ice every year in Minnesota’s chapter of Team Trans, an international hockey organization for athletes with trans and nonbinary identities. The local team features an intergenerational lineup from 18-year-olds to quinquagenarians whose scrimmages are determined by skill level. Fill our your own new player registration form here.

Grab a table (and bottomless mimosas) at LUSH on Saturday mornings to watch one of Minneapolis’ most beloved drag performances. The weekly event is all-ages, too, so the whole family can watch in awe. 

What could be better than a night of magic, flying fairies, and belly dancing? Well, it helps when the cast is as gay as a party. Every third Saturday, Queer Circus MN’s marvelous motley crew graces the stage at Can Can Wonderland.

The Urban Bird Collective was founded in 2018 to create inclusive opportunities for birding amongst the Black, Indigenous, people of color and LGBTQ+ communities. All while exploring nature, learning about conservation, and building strong bonds in the great outdoors.

Studies show that fewer than 1 in 3 nonbinary and/or transgender youth feel gender-affirmed at home. The Minneapolis-based QUEERSPACE Collective pairs queer, nonbinary and trans young people between the ages of 12 and 17 with queer elders (25+) to offer friendship, allyship, role models, and peer socialization that can help them navigate coming of age. Mentor/mentee pairs get together monthly for group hangouts or 1-on-1 quality time over the course of a year.

Grrrl Scout is a queer, trans-owned event production company that’s been helping LGBTQ+ folks stay up too late with its pop-up dance party since 2013. DJs, dancers and other special events make these some of the local scene’s favorite hangs.

A free annual event hosted by Twin Cities Pride, the Queer Writes Book Fair showcases LGBTQ+ authors, publishers, booksellers, zine makers, artists and more. Browse new and used books, buy stickers and original art, and support local writers all across the queer spectrum, including special guests like “Project Runway” contestant-turned-children’s book author Christopher Straub. 

This incredible collection of queer media started in a closet — and the irony there isn’t lost on the local LGBTQ+ community. Patrons can now browse more than 15,000 books, magazines and DVDs. Can’t get to the archive in person? Quatrefoil members can access the Q Digital collection via the Libby app.

Twin Cities Zine Fest — now in its 20th year — isn’t specifically queer, but it is definitely queer. Zines are intentionally DIY, scrappy, noncommercial and independently made (like many of our queer community members), and they are a beautiful, raw form of artistic self-expression. Personal stories, educational materials, calls to activism and local guides abound at the annual gathering, which the Walker Center recently discussed in its Design Lecture Series. 

BlackEnd Tattoo Ateliér is a queer-owned shop in south Minneapolis that features a diverse group of artists whose styles range from colorful cartoons to delicate line work to realistic portraiture. Whether you’re looking to make a custom design permanent, get a lover’s name inscribed (or covered up), or have another meaningful idea for body art, BlackEnd is the place.

They say it takes two, and isn’t it better to know you can dance with whomever you like? Minneapolis dance instructor Miriam Lea provides bootcamp-style lessons in this classic Argentine dance form while upending the traditional gender-based roles (who leads, who follows).

Threshold Theater gives a microphone (or at least a black-box theater like Bryant Lake Bowl) to writers, actors and artists who are creating live stage shows with a fresh take on queer life. The LGBTQ+ production company’s ongoing play-reading series offers an intimate look at some of the artistic processes involved in creating theater.