Every business in a Queer Austin guide gets the same check before it goes in. This page says what that check is, what it can’t tell you, and how to tell us when we got something wrong.
What Every Listing Has
A way to book or get in touch, and enough to know the business is real. For a studio or a shop, that usually means a street address and a phone number. Some people who work from a home studio, especially queer and trans practitioners in Texas, don’t publish their address, and some use a separate number for work. That’s a reasonable safety choice, and it doesn’t keep them off our list. When there’s no public address, we list the area they serve and “address shared when you book.”
What we won’t skip is confirming they’re real. For licensed work that means a current state license in their name. Beyond that we check that the same name, phone number, license, and services show up across their own site and booking page, and we look at how long they’ve been in practice. A newer license isn’t a strike against anyone; we list the year so you can see it for yourself.
We also have to be able to tell it’s open, usually from a booking page that’s taking appointments. If we can’t tell, we leave it out. Sending you to a closed shop is worse than a shorter list.
Where “Affirming” Comes From
From the business, in its own words. When a guide says a practice welcomes trans clients, it’s because the practice says so on its own site or its own booking page (MassageBook, Vagaro, and the like), and we quote it with the date we read it. A rainbow logo, a directory badge, or a friend’s say-so is a good reason to look closer. It isn’t proof.
Each claim in a guide is labeled by where it came from:
- The business states: quoted from the business’s own site or its own booking page, with the date we read it.
- Owner submitted: the business sent it to us through the contact page.
- Community recommended: recent, dated recommendations or reviews from queer and trans Austinites. We say where they came from and when.
- Needs reconfirmation: anything older than a year. It stays only until we can check it again.
Licensed Work Gets a License Check
Texas publishes its licensing records, so for work that needs a license we look it up. Massage therapists, barbers, and cosmetologists are licensed by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. Counselors, social workers, family therapists, and psychologists are licensed by the Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council. Doctors are licensed by the Texas Medical Board.
Guides updated since October 2026 show the license type and the month we checked it. We’re working through the older guides now.
What We Can’t Tell You
We don’t make phone calls or visits to verify a listing, and we don’t claim to have been somewhere we weren’t. That means some things only you can find out, and they matter: whether there’s an all-gender restroom, whether the intake form asks for your pronouns, whether staff have training in trans care, whether there’s a sliding scale. Each guide has a “Before You Book” section that lists what to ask.
A listing here isn’t a guarantee of how any one visit will go. If something goes wrong, we want to know.
Who Writes Our Guides
Our writers use pen names. On a site like this one, that protects the people writing it. What we publish is meant to stand on its sources, not on a name, which is why every guide shows what it’s based on.
Our health guides are written by community members, not clinicians, and they don’t give medical advice.
Money
No business pays to be in a guide, and we don’t earn a commission when you book.
Tell Us What We Got Wrong
Use the contact page to send a correction, a closure, or a business we should look at. When we fix something, we update the guide and its “Last checked” date.