Amsterdam

Amsterdam has a compact, walkable LGBTQI+ scene: 40+ venues spread over 3 axes very close to each other. Reguliersdwarsstraat (classic gay) is 200m from Amstel/Rembrandtplein (mixed and lesbian) and 600m from Warmoesstraat (leather, in the Red Light District). The whole gay core is a 15-minute walk.

A mix of traditional brown cafés (Café 't Mandje, the oldest gay bar, opened in 1927), classic bars, clubs (NYX) and leather bars. Café 't Mandje is still an institution. The scene dipped somewhat between 2005 and 2014 but bounced back with the renovation of Reguliersdwarsstraat and the return of Soho and Taboo.

Pride Amsterdam runs for 9 days in the first week of August. The central event is the Canal Parade on the first Saturday: ~80 decorated boats sail the Prinsengracht and the Amstel, unique in the world. ~500,000 attendees according to the organisers, with spectators packing the bridges and canal edges.

Unlike other European Prides, Pride Amsterdam was born in 1996 as a celebration, not as a protest march (the rights were already secured). The 9-day programme includes the political Pride Walk, the Drag Olympics, concerts on Rembrandtplein and in Westerpark, and exhibitions at the Homomonument. Supporting calendar: Milkshake Festival (Jul, queer/inclusive, ~30K), King's Day (27 April), which without being LGBT-specific has a strong queer presence.

Reguliersdwarsstraat has been Amsterdam's historic gay axis since the 1980s, one block south of Rembrandtplein. The street is very small (250m end to end) but concentrates the classic bars: Soho (once a club, now a bar), Taboo, NYX. Revived after a 2014 renovation.

Complementary axis: the Amstel and Halvemaansteeg (lesbian and mixed scene). The historic Café 't Mandje (Zeedijk, near Nieuwmarkt), opened in 1927, is the city's oldest gay bar; it closed in 1982 and reopened, restored, in 2008. Warmoesstraat (in the Red Light District) is the leather axis. The gay neighbourhood is not a district but several streets a few minutes' walk from each other inside the Centrum.

Amsterdam has the most historic LGBT infrastructure in the world. COC Nederland (founded 1946) is the oldest continuously operating LGBT organisation in the world, headquartered here. Pink Point (Westermarkt, next to the Homomonument) has offered LGBT info, maps and souvenirs since 1998.

LGBT health: GGD Amsterdam (the public health service) offers free rapid HIV/STI testing and runs the national PrEP programme (free consultation and follow-up for people at high risk; the pills are paid for at the pharmacy). OLVG hospital has a nationally leading STI/HIV unit. The Homomonument is still an active meeting point and place of memory.