A gay man’s guide to Buenos Aires
By Will Stroude
Buenos Aires is one of our favourite gay destinations in the world. There are pretty boys everywhere.
Fresh off the plane, our Argentinian friends Pablo and Gustavo welcomed us, and took us straight to the Pepo Pepona gay restaurant in Palermo so we could have our first taster of the famous Argentinian steak.
Just as we were tucking into our bife de chorizo, the restaurant’s entertainment started. A handsome (and extremely well-endowed) Argentinian lad came gyrating from table to table, quickly losing all his clothes: At that moment, we knew we were going to enjoy this city a lot…
Buenos Aires is home to a very active gay scene, particularly across Palermo. There’s a bit of a blur between what constitutes a gay bar, club, café and even restaurant, so we call them gay hangouts. One thing’s for certain, they party late here. Bars/clubs don’t get busy until after midnight so you always need to factor in a dolly nap.
1) GLAM – party with the pretty Porteños
Glam Disco is the place to come and party with the pretty boys of the city. Porteños is the name given to the people of Buenos Aires, which comes from its history as a port town. Glam attracts a younger 20s/30s Porteños crowd and in our opinion is the best gay night here.
It has the perfect mix of a cool sexy crowd, electronic/latin pop music, spread over 2 rooms and just a super fun gay atmosphere. Glam is open only on Thursday and Saturday evening and located at 3046 Cabrera Street.
2) SITGES – the best drag shows in town
Sitges is one of the oldest gay bars in Buenos Aires and great for drag shows. Like most places, although it’s called a “bar” it doesn’t get busy until after midnight when the drag shows start.
Watching their drag show is also the best way to polish up some of your Porteño Spanish slang. We went when the hilarious drag duo Gonzalo Costa and Diego Moyano were performing.
They are open every Wednesday to Sunday from 11pm and their most popular evening is the Julepe party on Saturdays. Sitges is located at 4119 on Avenida Cordoba.
3) CONTRAMANO – to meet the Porteños bears
Contramano is the place to come and meet the local bears. The atmosphere is extremely friendly and we love the pop/Latino hits they play. It’s the sort of place you will be using Shazam a lot.
The crowd here is older compared to Glam with the majority in their 30s and over. Entry fee includes a free drink: the popular one all the cool kids have is called Speed con vodka. Speed is Argentinian red bull and perfect if you’ve neglected the dolly nap.
Contramano bear night is on Friday to Sunday evenings and as starts from midnight. It is located 1082 Rodríguez Peña street in Recoleta.
Photo: Nahuel Cortés
4) TANGO QUEER MILONGA – watch and learn to dance gay tango
What’s the first thing you think about when you come to Buenos Aires other than Madonna’s Evita? Tango!
And at its inception in the 1880s, it was originally danced between 2 men in the back alleys of Buenos Aires. Since the dance became commercialized, the same sex element was lost until 2002 when queer tango schools were set up.
A milonga is a dance hall where people come to dance tango and there are 2 milongas in Buenos Aires which offer gay tango evenings:
– La Marshall: has a class every Friday evening at 10:30pm with dancing from 11:30pm until late into the night. The milonga is at 416 Riobamba street in San Telmo.
– Tango Queer: has classes every Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 8:30pm followed by an evening of dancing into the night. The Tuesday evening takes place at the Maldita Milonga in San Telmo and the Thursday one at the Escuela Argentina del Tango in the Centro Cultural Borges in Recoleta.
5) PRIDE CAFÉ – if you don’t want to stay up all night!
If like us you get tired of the late nights in Buenos Aires and you prefer a day thing, Pride Café in San Telmo is the ideal place to hangout – no disco nap required!
Pride is a gay café open daily until 8pm. Although it’s a café, it’s more a place to come for cocktails as well as some killer brownies.
The best time to come is on a Sunday when the nearby San Telmo antiques market is taking place and the disco bunnies from the previous evening come to hangout and check their Scruff/Grindr/Hornet.
Pride Café is located at 869 Balcarce street, on the corner with Doctor José Modesto Giuffra street in San Telmo.
To find out more, check out our gay guide to Buenos Aires.
More information about gay Argentina
Argentina was the first country in Latin America to legalise gay marriage in July 2010, which also included full adoption rights. This made it the 2nd in the entire continent (after Canada) and 10th in the world. The right to change legal gender has been in place since 2012 and in the same year, legislation was introduced adding life imprisonment to hate crimes based on sexual orientation, gender identity or expression.
As such it’s also a destination completely open and welcoming to gay travellers with its own international gay travel conference every August called GNetwork360.
Nomadic Boys are Stefan and Sebastien, a gay couple travelling the world since they left their lives in London in 2014. They are currently travelling around South America and you can join them on their next luxury gay cruise to the Galapagos Islands.
For more visit nomadicboys.com or follow Stefan and Sebastien’s travels on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
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