Queer tango, late-night clubs, and Evita—Buenos Aires is a thriving queer destination for Pride and beyond.
Buenos Aires draws you in , tear your eye forward , its street resembling that most beautiful of cities , Paris . reconstruct in Hausmann way for the land ’s 1910 Centennial , Argentina’scapital is lined with distinguished boulevard , engild marble beaux - arts concoction and plazas centered around monuments , including the iconic Obelisco .
Naturally , a city hyperfocused on esthetics produces movie maker , including directorMarco Berger , a aboriginal Porteño , as topical anaesthetic from this Rio de la Plata port wine city call themselves . Berger is a fertile theater director , releasing feature films likeAusente , Taekwondo , andUn Rubio , among many others . Plus , he has more in the works : The Astronaut Loverswill be released this summer and premiere internationally at the Guadalajara Film Festival , Perro Perrois in post - production , andEn El Bosqueis now film .
Berger ’s films are check off by their acute yet backstairs hungriness . Simmering , panic-struck glimpse men give when they are still exploring their gender , incertain of themselves and everyone around them . Crotch shots and homoerotic encounters . They ’re also notably root in dandy Buenos Aires : sleepy suburbs and rural exurbs , including the distant watery grass island paradise Tigre and the lone Pampas stretching beyond the city .
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When asked what micturate the metropolis such a haul for homosexual in Argentina and from around the world , Berger tell , “ Buenos Aires has always been a city that is very modern . Throughout its history it is also one that has had an show much like Europe . It is also a shoes that historically has been a center for many Italians , Spaniards . This lends a sense of a diversity of family , a culture that is wide , more open , more diverse , and this has avail over time to convert it into a city that is more modern , built from these remnants . ” For LGBTQ mass in particular , Berger enunciate , “ This has also made it into one of the most accepting cities of the gay domain . ”
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The city ’s current status as a welcoming property come up at tremendous cost . “ The truth is during the time of the potentate , a menses that was very difficult in our culture , from the 1980s , there was a sight of scrap , ” says Berger . “ This culture of the motive to contend , for the collective good of braw people , when you think of all these activists who were developing what we call the odd world . I believe you have to make out and see a little of this . ”
What Berger care about Buenos Aires is n’t of necessity club and eating house , but what is open and observable , masses interact in public spaces , day or night . “ I like hold up to the theatre on Avenida Corrientes , to the cinema in Palermo , to Plaza Italia in the Belgrano locality , ” he says . He loves to visit “ a neighborhood call Cortazar , which is very pretty , ” or Parque Agronomía and Parque Centenario , along withMALBA(the New art museum Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires ) . Berger foreground the giant mechanically skillful metal flower , Floralis Genérica , by architect Eduardo Catalano , which blooms throughout the day . He also loves Puerto Madero , a restored port orbit outdoors of downtown ring by a nature reserve he described as , “ very beautiful in the summer . ” His hometown is also a metropolis “ with so many festival . ”
Below are a few more of Berger ’s recommendation . I have also added some of my own darling — I first visited the city in 2000 , then know there on and off from 2004 to 2011 , when I was writing Frommer ’s Buenos Aires guidebook — along with those of Pablo de Luca and Gustavo Noguera , the homophile baron couple behind Argentina’sLGBT Chamber of Commerce , the LGBTQ travel conferenceGNetworks360 , and the websiteVisit Buenos Aires LGBT .
Queer Tango Festival Buenos Aires
As if this dance born in the Rio Platense part and honour with a UNESCO intangible inheritance appellation did n’t have enough sensuality , thisuniquely Buenos Aires festivalusually takes place in December on the sweaty cusp of Southern Hemisphere summer . Hosted at the milonga ( tango club)La Marshallin the Villa Crespo neighborhood , home to weeklyTango Queerevents , the dance blends African , European and aboriginal expressive style , with same - sex performance harkening to its blood line when man would often dance together in whorehouse .
Marcha del Orgullo LGBT de Buenos Aires
While you ’ll find queer June case , November is Argentina ’s Pride Month , honoring the 1967 creation of LGBTQ right group Nuestro Mundo ( “ Our World ” ) , which counted author Manuel Puig ofKiss of the Spider Womanas a member . In Buenos Aires , the parade normally takes billet on the first or 2d Saturday of the month . It ’s a nighttime pridefulness , with folks gathering for a 6 pm bang - off from Plaza de Mayo surrounded by historical edifice , like the Casa Rosada , the Presidential Palace that ’s home to Evita ’s illustrious balcony and where Iwitnessed the signingof the country ’s 2010 same - sex wedlock constabulary . There ’s also Catedral Metropolitana , Pope Francis ’s rest home church as Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio , when he was n’t the continuous tense we think of him as now . The resplendent onward motion heads down Avenida de Mayo , among the reality ’s most beautiful turn - of - the - last one C boulevards , to a mass meeting byComunidad Homosexual Argentinaand other organizations on the Congreso building footprint near the National AIDS Memorial .
Museo Evita
No visit to Buenos Aires is complete without sympathize Eva Duarte de Peron . The controversial First Lady of Argentina , well bonk as Evita , has been portray by Madonna , Faye Dunaway , Patti LuPone , Elaine Page , and other Dior - clad actress enjoy by the LGBTQ+ community . Evita ’s gay gal - pal credential are real : She fence in herself with gay men from her early day as an actress , including designer Paco Jamandreu , whose clothes are here . Museo Evita , first curated bymuseologist Gabriel Miremont , is in Palermo near Plaza Italia , with exhibits highlight her dichotomously beatific and hat rise . The museum ’s eatery serve up delicious unification cuisine and is a terminus of its own , realise good word from de Luca and Noguera , in plus to myself .
Gay-friendly restaurants
Almost every restaurant in Buenos Aires is gay - well-disposed . Berger favors the parrilla or steakhouseDon Zoilo , near where he lives in Villa Crespo , to contact friends . Across town , in historic San Telmo , de Luca recommendsPride Café , “ especially on Sundays when they host a gay brunch . ” De Lucaraves online aboutAy Cariño , saying , “ It really is a hidden treasure not many know about . It stands out for its openness , full inclusiveness , and welcoming service for all letters of the LGBTIQ+ acronym . ”
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LGBTQ+ nightlife
Sure , New York is the metropolis that never sleeps , but Porteños are among the humanity ’s most nocturnal creatures . As a nighttime bird of night myself , I am in my element here . Clubbing does n’t get going until means past midnight . With three dance floor , Club Amerikais the metropolis ’s largest saltation venue , also popular with young straight people for the euphony . HistoricContramanoin Recoleta open 40 year ago after the military dictatorship ’s prostration . Small , intimate , and always fun , Glamis one of my favorites , just blocks from my old Barrio Norte apartment . There ’s also superhotClub69 in Palermo ’s Niceto Bar , which de Luca says “ remains an icon ” for the community . Not so much a gay infinite , we both also recommendMilión in Recoleta , one of the city ’s most beautiful resto - bars , in a stunning garden bench mansion . One of the most breathtaking bars in the city isSalon 23 , on the Palacio Barolo rooftop .
OK , so Berger , de Luca , and I can order you where the boys are . For the girls especially , there’sRose , a hebdomadary party atFrida Clubin the Palermo Hollywood neighborhood .
Cultural hotspots
What make Buenos Aires specially unique are all the other kinds of LGBTQ gather slur mix restaurants , bars , and finish , sidereal day or nighttime . De Luca recommend café and cultural spaceMariCafein Palermo — it has a drag brunch , bookshop , and other peripatetic offerings . Felizais another spot for festival and musical execution . Its name a lingual gender period of play , La Grecoin San Telmo offers daytime and nighttime activities . Every traveler should visitCasa Brandon , an LGBTQ community of interests center , with events for everyone .
Gay-friendly stays
Buenos Aires once had a few LGBTQ - focused hotels , including Spanish chainAxel . Now , head toEl Lugar Gayin San Telmo , a men’s - only venue . Still , almost every Buenos Aires hotel is gay - well-disposed , and de Luca mentions operate closely withFrench AccorandSpanish NHchains . The LGBTQ Chamber of Commerce create aTodos BienvenidosorAll Welcomeprogram on top of the city ’s ownBuenos Aires Convivediversity awareness program . I have never had an issue , and all major chains as well as theSmall Hotels Argentinagroup and localAmerianchain make for splendid choices . I ’d also recommend quiet luxuriousLegado Mitico , possess by a gay couple , where I remain in the Evita - theme First Lady elbow room . The hotel with the most important gay history isHotel Castelarwhere gay Spanish playwright Federico García Lorca survive inRoom 207 , now a miniskirt - museum . There ’s also a Turkish sauna that is like a step back in time to the 1920s .
As you get around , make certain to confabulate the LGBTQ subway station , Santa Fé – Carlos Jaúregui , on the xanthous H Line , which honour a founder ofComunidad Homosexual Argentina . It ’s at the intersection of Avenida Santa Fé and Avenida Pueyrredón , known for tenner as the gay corner for cruising and its one - time concentration of jovial venues .
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I know you will fall in love with Buenos Aires , as I did myself on my very first see most a quarter of a hundred ago . All you have to do is research and leave yourself open to fresh experiences and multitude — whether it ’s your first time in the metropolis or a return visit .
“ The matter I care most about Buenos Aires is that it is a enceinte metropolis with a few places that are still a little hidden , ” says Berger . “ This is what I find the most charming . ”
Tango Queer Buenos Aires
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Museo Evita
PRIDE CAFE
Maricafe
Legado Mitico Buenos Aires
