Pool parties? Check. Parade? Check. Ponies? Check. They’re all LGBT events coming to Las Vegas

March Madness may be coming to a close, but basketball isn’t done in Las Vegas. The rainbow welcome mat is out as the National Gay Basketball Assn.’s championships move to the city April 22-24.

After 25 years in Chicago, the association chose Vegas as the place where 36 teams from the U.S. and Canada will compete in the Coady Roundball Classic at the Tarkanian Basketball Academy and Hoop City.

And that’s just the start of LGBT-themed events in Las Vegas in the coming months.

The big hotel-casino chains and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority have been actively courting the LGBT community for about a decade, and those efforts increase each year.

Other upcoming activities include:

— Dinah Vegas, April 28-May 1. The Flamingo and the Linq host this weekend festival for lesbians that includes a pool party hosted by Kaya Jones of the Pussycat Dolls. The celebration ran for 20 years in Palm Springs before relocating in 2012 to Vegas.

— Matinee Las Vegas, May 27-30. Memorial Day weekend will sizzle with this gay dance festival at Rumor Hotel. Guests will spend May 28 at the Cowabunga Bay water park in suburban Henderson.

— Las Vegas Pride, Oct. 21-23. This event gets bigger each year and kicks off with a parade through downtown Las Vegas from 7 to 10 p.m. Oct. 21. The next two days will be full of entertainment and other events at the festival’s new venue, Sunset Park.

— World Gay Rodeo Finals, Oct. 20-23. Smashing stereotypes, this rodeo celebrates its 30th anniversary with three days of barrel racing, bull riding and more at South Point’s Equestrian Center.

Find more events at the city tourism agency’s Out and About website.

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