When Honolulu’s Legendary Gay Bars Closed
Out Traveler a piece on Waikiki’s vibrant LGBTQ+ nightlife.We booked a week in December, reached out to a bunch of people in the local community, and counted the days.
There was flooding in Honolulu about 10 days before our arrival, but it didn’t dampen our enthusiasm.We didn’t know it, but something more insidious was quietly throwing off our plans.
On December 3, there was an unusual COVID cluster traced to gay clubs in Waikiki. Within a week, contact tracing revealed 27 people had contracted the just-emerging Omicron variant.
One by one, LGBTQ+ clubs closed. Some had shuttered the day before our arrival. “We did it voluntarily,” explains Robbie Baldwin, owner of Scarlet Honolulu (above), a seven-year-old venue that features a stage, dance floor, and multi-level VIP seating. “Back in 2020 the Hawaiian government here was much stricter and kept us closed. …we helped write the laws to get the clubs back opened.
