White Horse Inn

The White Horse Inn sits at 6551 Telegraph Avenue in Oakland, California, and is widely recognized as the oldest continuously operating gay bar in the United States. It officially opened in 1933, right after Prohibition ended, and is rumored to have run as a speakeasy before that. Close to UC Berkeley, it drew students and earned a reputation as a center of the East Bay's queer life. In the mid-century era of police raids, staff reportedly enforced no-touching rules to avoid being shut down. Nearly a century on, the White Horse remains an unpretentious neighborhood institution and a living landmark of LGBTQ+ history.