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Marguerite Giguere - a sexy Realtor in Tacoma - recently posted a list of Tacoma gay bars on her blog, Get Real Tacoma.

If you are looking for gay bars in Tacoma you may be pleasantly surprised by the number of gay bars we have in the City of Destiny.  The up and coming St. Helens Neighborhood downtown is home to two gay bars in close proximity- The Mix and Club Silverstone.  Metro Gruv is about a mile away on 6th Avenue near Puget Sound University and the Hoppin' 6th Avenue Scene, and out on 56th and South Tacoma Way is The Airport Tavern.  All of these bars have a different vibe to them, so here are the details and my take on each one.

Back in early 2008, the Weekly Volcano wrote a story asking, "Does the South Sound gay community care if ‘their' bars are not as glamorous as the straight bars?"

Gay people from King County are just as capable of looking down on their gay brothers and sisters in the South Sound, just as straight people do. And complaints about Tacoma's and Olympia's gay scene are common. When they aren't in reference to the customers or their conduct, they are about the physical conditions. Specifically the worn carpeting, hand-me-down furniture, and fixtures, all of which seem to say whatever, you'll come anyway.  In some bars, the overlapping interior design themes of decades past combine to create an incoherent aesthetic only Frankenstein would appreciate. 

Absent from Tacoma's gay night life is any kind of gay establishment that is able to resemble the likes of 21 Commerce, the Matador or The Loft. In fact, Tacoma's straight night life is able to win the loyal patronage of queers who prefer to avoid gay clubs. One gay downtown nightclub patron I spoke with explains that seeing the same gay people at the same gay bar all the time is too depressing. Besides, he gets more phone numbers from straight guys at closing time than he would elsewhere. Hmmmmm.

How has the scene changed in the last three years?