Just because Pride month is nearly over doesn’t mean we have to stop celebrating and learning about our community. These walking tours all around the country offer a look into the lives and fascinating history of LGBTQ+ people from Boston to San Francisco. Learn about artists and activists who changed the world, events that rocked our community to its core and the vital contributions of those past and present.
Village Pride Walking Tour (New York City)
Hosted by the LGBTQ+-owned and operated Christopher Street Tours, the Village Pride Walking Tour takes visitors to the spots where the queer and trans-rights revolution happened in New York City. From the landmark Stonewall Inn to the NYC AIDS Memorial and LGBT Community Center, this two-hour walking tour takes you through the streets of Greenwich Village and decades of history.
Cost: $49
Philly Gayborhood and LGBTQ+ History Tour (Philadelphia)
Beyond the Bell Tours hosts this fascinating look into the past and present of Philadelphia’s famous Gayborhood. With the 11th highest LGBTQ+ population in the nation, Philadelphia has a rich queer and trans history. This 90-minute tour tackles important LGBTQ+ subjects and highlights the lives of Philly legends like Barbara Gittings, Gloria Casarez and Kiyoshi Kuromiya.
Cost: $49
LGBT Queer History Tour (New Orleans)
The New Orleans Secrets Tour group is locally owned and operated and specializes in small group tours. This tour begins in the iconic French Quarter and explores New Orleans’s history as a gathering place for LGBTQ+ artists, activists and creatives. The tour balances some of the city’s most vibrant moments with its devastating queer histories, like the Upstairs Lounge fire, which took the lives of over 30 people.
Cost: $39-49
Rainbow Revolutionaries (Boston)
The Freedom Trail tour company now offers this 90-minute LGBTQ+-focused tour! Learn about the history of Boston Marriages, LGBTQ+ rights milestones and struggles in Massachusetts, and the “storied romances of some of Boston’s most famous individuals, from literary giants to a world-renowned actress and even a Revolutionary War hero.”
Cost: $17
LGBTQ Castro Tour (San Francisco)
Cruisin’ the Castro Walking Tours has been showing locals and tourists the sights of San Francisco since 1989. The LGBTQ Walking Tour weaves through the Castro neighborhood and tells tales of San Francisco’s Gold Rush and the diverse community it created, to how the city was forever changed by the legacy of civil rights leader Harvey Milk and the devastating toll of the AIDS epidemic. The tour ends with looking toward the future and celebrating political and social art.
Cost: $30
Rainbow History Project Tour (Washington, D.C.)
The Rainbow History Project is an all-volunteer-run archive and community resource for the LGBTQ+ community in Washington, D.C. Founded in 2000, RHP offers several walking tours, including the Queer Black Broadway, which focuses on LGBTQ+ Black performers and the U Street Corridor. The newest tour is the LGBTQ History Walking Tour of East DuPont and 17th St, which covers the Gay Liberation Front, lesbian herstory and much more.
Cost: Free; donation requested
Roanoke LGBTQ History Walking Tours (Roanoke)
The Southwest Virginia LGBTQ+ History Project launched its walking tours in 2016 and now offers three LGBTQ+-themed tours of Roanoke, Virginia: Downtown, Old Southwest and Salem Avenue. Each tour has its unique history and themes, and tours are offered on a rotating basis monthly. Learn about Roanoke’s queer history and support a nonprofit at the same time.
Cost: Free, donations accepted
The Legacy Walk (Chicago)
Hosted by the award-winning Legacy Project nonprofit, this unique tour takes participants through the legendary Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago, also known as “Boystown.” Guided by 25-foot-tall steel pylons all along the North Halsted Street Corridor, the tour examines the lives of those LGBTQ+ advocates and icons featured on the pylons, like James Baldwin, Vito Russo and Sally Ride. The Legacy Walk is the only LGBTQ+ history installation of its kind in the world and was declared a historic landmark in 2019.
Cost: $40
For information about difficulty levels, sliding scales, private tours, and other questions, please contact the tour company.