Queer Austin is a hobby site about LGBTQ+ life in Austin, run by people who live here. It isn’t a business and it doesn’t sell listings. Nobody is paid to write for it. This page explains how it works, so you can decide how far to trust it.
What We Cover
Places, groups and services that matter more if you’re queer. A barber is a bigger decision when your haircut has to match your gender. A therapist is a bigger decision when you need one who won’t flinch. We write about Austin the way residents talk about it: the neighborhood, the parking, the bus route, the price, and what to ask before you go.
How a Business Gets Into a Guide
We don’t visit every business we name, and we don’t call to check. Instead, every listing says where its details came from, with one of four labels.
- Owner submitted. The business wrote to us through the contact form and gave us the details.
- The business states. Taken from the business’s own site or booking page, with the date we read it.
- Community recommended. Recent, dated recommendations from trans or queer people in Austin.
- Needs reconfirmation. The details are more than a year old, or something has changed.
We call a place queer-owned or trans-owned in our own words only when the business says so itself. When a newspaper or a community map reports it, we say who reported it. A flag in the window is a reason to look closer, and we don’t count it as evidence.
Some things never go in a label because they have to be asked: all-gender restrooms, whether the intake form has a pronoun field, staff training, sliding-scale pricing, private rooms. Where those matter, the guide gives you the question to ask before you book.
When the Answer Is No
If there’s no gay country bar in Austin, we say so. If a list of ten businesses turns into three once we check what each one publishes, we publish the three and say the list got shorter.
Who Writes This
Bylines on this site are pen names. Pen names let people write here who aren’t out everywhere. A pen name hides who someone is. It never invents who someone is, so no byline comes with a made-up neighborhood, history or experience.
We only write “we visited” when someone did. If a guide says “the business states,” we read it on their site. If it says “recent reviews describe,” we’re telling you where it came from so you can weigh it.
Write With Us
Queer Austin could use more help, and you’re welcome to help under a pen name. This is what’s needed most:
- Checking listings against a business’s own site or booking page, and telling us what’s changed since a guide was last checked.
- Writing guides to the same standard as everything here: each place linked to what it publishes about itself, with the date you checked.
- Taking photos of Austin places. The site has almost no photos of its own, so storefronts, venues, parks and streets help most. No one’s face unless they’ve said yes.
- Suggesting a group, business or event we haven’t covered yet.
It’s unpaid, like all the writing here. Use the contact form, say you’d like to help, and tell us which of these you have in mind.
Corrections
We get things wrong. Businesses close, move, change hands and change policies, and a guide written in March can be out of date by June. If you find a mistake, tell us and we’ll fix it and note the date. If you’re the business, the same form works, and “owner submitted” is the strongest label we have.
What We Won’t Do
We don’t score businesses on how safe they are. Ownership, stated policy, the culture of a place and one person’s afternoon are four different things, and a score pretends they’re one. You won’t see “100% safe” or “guaranteed affirming” here, or lists copied from other lists. Placement isn’t for sale.