Boston tenderly embraces its history and American pride, structurally and culturally preserving the lessons and legends we learn about in elementary school - Paul Revere’s house (and the path of his Midnight Ride), the USS Constitution, the Boston Tea Party Ships, Harvard University, and the Kennedys. Whether visiting for the first or the fourteenth time, Boston imbues visitors and residents alike with a patriotic spirit and a sense of American enchantment. The 2 am bar curfew is a bit of a buzz kill, but Boston’s study hard/work hard/play hard mentality brings it on year after year, constantly keeping the “Cradle of Liberty” in style.

 

Historically, Boston has evolved as an American maverick in the GLBT rights movement, offering gays equal rights and treatment as first class citizens before any other state. The iconoclastic freedom-fighting juggernaut legalized gay marriage in Massachusetts via the case of Goodridge v. Department of Public Health nearly a decade ago. Flash-forward to today, the GLBT community lives relatively hassle free from bigotry and bullshit…so much so that even the city’s “ducks” are coming out of the closet!

 

In 2007, one of the big, butch, cropped-haired ducks of the original Boston Duck Tours (www.bostonducktours.com, 617.267.DUCK (3825)), “South End Sara,” publicly “outed” herself at Gay Pride in a ceremony with Mayor Thomas Menino. Rainbow-striped Sara now graces Boston’s streets daily in all her pompous glory.  Just like her fellow ducks, Sara offers the classic, entertaining and quirky amphibious tour of Boston, covering all the highlights for newcomers and repeat visitors. While Sara has no plans for a duet with New Jersey Housewife, Danielle Staub (at least not in her early years of fame), this lesbian superstar stands as a testament to the city’s social commitment to GLBT rights and unwavering respect for the traditionally gay South End. We’ll lift our cosmos and quack to that!

 

Despite attempts of a hostile takeover, Sara’s birthplace, the South End, indeed remains the epicenter of Boston GLBT life. In the past few years, Boston suburbanites have begun pricing out the pioneering gays who gentrified the South End tenement tragedy between the 1960s and the 1990s. While GLBT slawarts refuse to relinquish their strongholds deep in the hood, suburbanification of the neighborhood’s northern areas has effectively replaced homo American power couples like Ryan & Troy with Golden Anniversary sweethearts like Esther & Ira. Some of the resourceful gays have since taken their show on the road, disco dancing their way down to Southie and Dorchester, quickly colonizing a new gayborhood that encompasses Fields Corner, Ashmont, Melville Ave, Meetinghouse Hill and Jones Hill.

 

The heart of this fledgling gayborhood, Dorchester Avenue, locally known as “Dot Ave,” is all the rage with Boston’s hottest new gay bar, DBar (www.dbarboston.com, 1236 Dorchester Avenue, 617.265.4490), recent recipient of a Best of Boston award as well as a number of well-balanced gay/straight watering holes like the Irish themed Blarney Stone (www.blarneystoneboston.com, 1509 Dorchester Ave, 617.436.8223). This said, visitors will find little else of touristic interest off “Dot Ave.” and may very well stick to the more accessible city-center routine. Unstoppable favorites such as Club Café (www.clubcafe.com, 209 Columbus Ave, 617.536.0966) and the missing link of the Frederick Law Olmstead Emerald Necklace, the filthy action-packed “Fens,” remain two of Beantown’s busiest spots!

 

At the crossroads of the South End’s nightlife and residential districts, the moderately priced Chandler Inn  (www.chandlerinn.com, 26 Chandler Street, 1.800.842.3450) is the ideal crash pad for a fab Boston getaway that combines touristy sights with great partying. The recently renovated boutique hotel offers quaint, stylish accommodation and authentic Bostonian charm a stone throw’s away from renowned hotspots like Noche, 28 degrees, Club Café, and the Beehive. It is also only a five to ten minute walk from the flagship stores on Newbury Street. The hotel stands at the intersection of South End and Back Bay, surrounded by architecturally inspiring brownstones and aesthetically enticing South End hotties. The Chandler Inn’s adorable ambassador, Cupcake, work’s part-time on weekdays, available upon request for pets and kisses! Hotel rates include breakfast at the old school Billy’s Diner or the artsy Berkeley Café.

 

The city’s most popular gay sports bar, Fritz Lounge (www.fritzboston.com, 617.482.4428), occupies the ground floor of the hotel. Fritz is a relaxed, no frills hang out and then tends to draw a late thirties to late forties local crowd, but not the dirty old men types (they hang out at the Eagle). Fritz has six flat screen plasma TVs located throughout the bar to watch your favorite sports event or just kick back a few butch beers or girly martinis.