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It’s gay! It’s lesbian! It’s trans! It’s Oklahoma City! — wait. What?
When it comes to gay destinations in the Midwest, Chicago usually gets the props. Considering how bloody red the Great Plains are, that shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. The surprise is all the second runner-ups.
Did you know Oklahoma City, AKA “OKC,” has what has been called the largest gay resort in the southwest? It’s called the Habana Inn (habanainn.com), it’s smack in the middle of town, and with 170 rooms, two clubs, two swimming pools, gardens, it is more than just a supped-up B&B. It’s a stone’s throw from what the locals formally call the NW 39th Street Enclave, but usually stick with “The Strip.” It’s the gayborhood, and where any good rainbow revel begins.
It might be a hard sell to folks used to gay fantasylands in New York or Palm Springs, but Oklahoma City pulls in Great Plains gays from every state Oklahoma abuts(!) and even a few it doesn’t. So what is the allure, besides the Habana? And the whole cowboy thing?
The best dance club in town, Copa, is actually in the Habana, and depending on the night, you might find yourself in a boxer shorts contest, or a sexy bra contest, or the hot, hung, corn-fed boys that take to the stage on Fridays. From there, you all but fall over the other gay clubs: Angles is the flash-and-light show venue, Tramps — god, I love that name — is where you go for the strong drinks and think of The Boom as the “cultural hub” with regular cabarets. The Park is where you go to relax; every scene has to have that one attitude-free “nice guy” space. Phoenix Rising and Apothecary 39 round out the landscape. Oklahoma City itself is not huge, so it’s not surprising whatever is there is close and compact, and its not often that you can go on a genuine pub crawl, particularly in the American Heartland.
Oklahoma City Pride kicks off in June, but this is not one of those places that burst into full flower for a few days only to hibernate for the rest of the year. I did a little research, and it seems that OCK is the midway point when it comes to the Great Gay Roadtrip — and you’d be surprised how many gays forego planes for a vista-filled cross-country ride between coasts. Consequently, while The Strip may be a little modest in size, it has a surprising diversity to its crowds.
Who knew?