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The following reports and interviews pretty much describe homosexual life in this small mountainous Buddhist country. In a word, same-sex activity is technically illegal but the anti-gay laws are being challenge and are likely soon to be removed. No one has ever been prosecuted for being LGBT

Note: This story about gay Bhutan consists of several parts. This first section is based on a recent tour of western Bhutan that my husband and I took in late 2019. We booked it online and were met at Paro airport with kind and attentive staff, guide Tashi and driver Dhendup (attired in traditional robes or ‘gho’.) of Windhorse Tours. All tourists entering Bhutan have to book a tour. We only had two people in our tour—ourselves. During our visit to this beautiful country I interviewed two gay activists in the capital Thimphu city about being gay in this culture. Their story is presented second here followed by other reports written a few years ago based on online interviews.

Intro: The Country

Bhutan is a pretty state of Himalayan mountains and forested steep valleys, of ancient Buddhist traditions, modern hotels with WiFi, layered temples, a benevolent former king and a reasonable parliament. Foreigners are limited to tour groups and guided itineraries. The little country (population about 800,000) is squeezed between India and China. The capital is at 8000 feet altitude and in early December, when we visited, there was mild sunny weather.

Nearly every man wears traditional dress during working hours: knee-length socks, robe-like cloth wrapped around their bodies and secured with a belt, known as a ‘Gho’. Women mostly wear an apron-like dress, called ‘Kira’ that has bright colors with intricate patterns and embroideries. These costumes are usually worn during working hours while non-working young men often wear jeans and western style shirts.

The unusual title of ‘Gross National Happiness’ often attributed to the country is both a touristic catch-phrase and only a partial truthful label. Most people in the streets and villages do not walk around with broad smiles; rather they are serious working class citizens who are not plagued with problems seen in other countries such as wide-spread air pollution, overcrowded cities, national debt, corrupt politicians, religious conflicts, environmental degradation, excess economic consumption and financial anxiety. Bhutan has free health care, is carbon neutral and is devoid of international tensions. In 1999 it banned use of plastic bags.

On the other hand the country has struggled with a Nepal-Bhutan refugee problem for a generation that resists resolution. Some of these settlers, Lhotshampas (‘southerners’), stirred up trouble years ago and demanded citizenship and independence within Bhutan, which was refused. The conflict caused the Bhutanese army to be activated; today there are refugee camps still operating which are sources of agitation and discontent. Many of these Nepali language-speaking Bhutanese southerner people have emigrated to other countries, especially India, as their only recourse.

In the past 20 years air pollution has increased due to industrial emissions from India. Domestically, air pollution from Bhutan’s four cement factories has been attributed to lower crop production in those areas. There are concerns about climate change and glacier melting. Scientific studies have offered ambiguous results. Other worries are deforestation, proper waste disposal and reduced water sources.

Most of the problems are of course not visible to visitors to Bhutan. The government manages them on a regular basis and has kept any one of the challenges from overwhelming the parliament. Most of the problems are inherent in any modern civilization despite happiness levels.

Meeting Tashi and Pema a modern gay couple.

Any accurate description of this small country must include the small LGBT rights organization Rainbow Bhutan directed by an articulate and handsome young man named Tashi Tsheten who showed up for lunch in a T-shirt and jeans along with his partner Pema Doji, wearing wide-rimmed glasses on his youthful face.

We ate healthy food of veggies, rice, chicken, egg plant and potatoes, with ice cream for dessert. (We turned down the offer to drink Coke.) These two lovers were a delight to see and hear as they described their lives and work, speaking perfect English, a school subject taught as the second language in Bhutan. They have been together for four years and currently both live in Tashi’s family home. Pema considers Tashi’s mom as his mom as well. They had a lot to say some of which I missed because they spoke quickly with a Bhutanese accent. But here is what I understood.

Professional Work
Tashi is the coordinator of Rainbow Bhutan. a small gay rights and advocacy organization that is not registered yet since homosexuality is technically illegal in the kingdom. No one has ever been arrested for offending the law inherited from India (imposed by the conquering British in the 19th century) but could be used to harass gay citizens. Despite the lack of persecutions the law casts a pall over otherwise healthy law abiding citizens for no common sense reason. This is in contrast with the modernization of the country initiated by the former king (who abdicated in 2016 in favor of a parliament).

In an interview on the ‘Vice.com’ website Tashi described how Rainbow Bhutan started: “The full LGBTQ movement actually started from 2015 onwards, when we started organizing programs on HIV. Then, in 2017, different LGBT communities and groups came together and we decided that HIV was not our only concern. That’s when we decided to form Rainbow Bhutan.” The most obvious challenge was to get rid of the laws that make gays criminals. Tashi said, “although we didn’t actively lobby for the removal of this law, we talked about it to people who were actually listening to us. That’s how it led to our current success to invalidate sections 213 and 214 of our National Assembly law; the lower house of parliament has approved the change. The finance minister [Namgay Tshering] stood up for us and pleaded to the NA. Now we are waiting for the upper house to follow with their own vote.” (photo left: our guide under a bodhi tree)

Pema is Outreach Coordinator with the Health Information and Service Center (HISC) under the Ministry of Health Bhutan, offering information and counseling regarding the disease. He does outreach to organizations such as police, teachers, businesses and of course schools. He is well suited for this since he appears school age despite being 27. Younger students listen as he describes not just the details of prevention, transmission and treatment of HIV but also the emotional drama of becoming HIV positive. (He himself is HIV-.) Despite widespread worldwide information some youth ignore it and engage in high-risk behavior then become traumatized if they sero-convert.

So when Tashi and Pema met at a health conference four years ago they found they had much in common growing up. Physical attraction also helped to pull them closer and keeps them in love. When Pema has an occasional anxiety episode Tashi understands and helps Pema soothe his way through it.

Although they do not work together their foci are similar: educating and raising awareness about health, human rights and tolerance toward gays and HIV, both highly stigmatized attributes around the world; making people aware of the social disease of homophobia and trying to change behavior and attitudes toward it. Despite the national slogan ‘Gross National Happiness’ the reality on the street is that many people have negative or indifferent issues about homosexuality. It is not common and is therefore misunderstood by the majority of heterosexual Bhutanese who mostly learn about it through negative gossip. Minimal sex education is taught twice a month in secondary schools. But there is little to nothing offered about diverse sexuality such as gay/lesbian, trans or bisexuality.

Rainbow Bhutan
Rainbow Bhutan comes into play here as Tashi outreaches to other LGBT Bhutanese to form a support network for personal and social growth through national seminars and meetings as well as public advertising (photo left), recreations such as ball games and fun walks. Funding for Rainbow Bhutan comes from generous friends, not yet from international charities since RB is not fully legal and not officially registered. Tashi’s work as RB coordinator is voluntary so far but there is hope for a salaried position soon. He sees the need for making RB more public with more educational activities.

Founded in 2014 with five members the community today has over 130 registered members. Initially it was called the ‘LGBT+ community in Bhutan’ to represent the community and assess the needs of the LGBT+ population living in Bhutan. In 2017 the community was renamed Rainbow Bhutan, which now functions as an independent LGBT+ network in Bhutan with its own Secretariat Office and management team.

In October 2018 the world-wide IDAHO day (International Day Against Homophobia) was commemorated at Hotel Migmar in Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan. Health officials, representatives from the civil society, health organizations, media, Lhak-Sam (Network of People Living With HIV & AIDS in Bhutan), UNFPA (UN Population Fund) and RENEW (founded by Her Majesty the Queen Mother in 2004; RENEW stands for Respect, Educate, Nurture and Empower Women). RENEW is a non-profit organization dedicated to the empowerment of women and children in Bhutan, with specific attention to the survivors of domestic violence and sexual and gender based violence. RENEW provides a wide range of care and support for women, men and children impacted by such violence and inequality. Also, individual supporters joined the events in IDAHO with the theme ‘Alliances for Solidarity’.

IDAHO is observed every year to bring attention to the discrimination and violence LGBT people face and also to recognize advancements in LGBT equality. Bhutan first observed IDAHO in 2016 so the presence of public discussion about human sexuality is still fairly new.

It would seem that such small country as Bhutan with its closely knit society would not have need for such a program as RENEW but this is a place where ‘Gross National Happiness’ does not reach into the minds of all citizens. Some people fail to sufficiently learn how to deal with the complexities of modern life and do not know how to solve interpersonal problems or social confusion. One of the most difficult issues for a rural population to comprehend is diversity of sexuality; for them and many urban dwellers, same-sex attraction and affection are alien concepts. It is confusing to people who otherwise are kind families and parents. Historically embedded in the Bhutanese culture, from Indian and British influences, ideas about homosexuality have been handed down through generations as suspicious and not ‘correct’, a ‘hindrance’ in Buddhist thinking. (This despite reports about ‘conjugal’ monk relationships in the monastic system, which of course are kept secret.)

So the work continues to educate against anti-gay prejudice and ignorance. Without thinking carefully, some people are elected or positioned in leadership roles of police or parliament, unintentionally perpetuate homophobia by not speaking against it or participating in prejudicial activity (mockery or joking or gossip) and in so doing demean innocent gay people.

Tashi and Pema (photo left) were joined by other rights advocates at a conference in Chiang Rai, Thailand in 2016. Bhutan MPs Madan Kumar Chhetri and Ugyen Wangdi also attended the Forum as part of a fact-finding mission because, “although there are clearly LGBT Bhutanese , they are not prominent in society,” as trans activist Ugyen Tshering shared with the Forum.

More recently, Bhutanese native Passang Dorji—a Bhutanese politician and member of the National Assembly of Bhutan since October 2018—came out as gay on TV in a public 2018 interview. “Coming out we hope can change other people’s behavior to us…we do exist… I have my scars from being the closet but now I talk about it to leaders and doctors…it pushes me forward…we now have a network for our community…”

Also, prominent Bhutanese Buddhist teacher, Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, also has spoken positively on LGBT rights saying: “Your sexual orientation has nothing to do with understanding or not understanding the truth. You could be gay, you could be lesbian, you could be straight, we never know which one will get enlightened first… Tolerance is not a good thing. If you are tolerating this, it means that you think it’s something wrong that you will tolerate. But you have to go beyond that – you have to respect.”

Lunch With the Activists
During our lunch with these two articulate and serious minded young activists Pema expressed himself as a shy person but it was hard to get a word in edgewise as he enthused about his own work and the future for LGBT life in Bhutan. It is not often he gets to speak freely to interested visitors and we appreciated every word.

A further consideration about LGBT and HIV work in this quiet country: here is not a hostile culture where differences in people are causes for suspicion or discrimination. The temperament of Bhutanese people is not edgy, not suspicious as found, for example, in Russia or Serbia where the mere mention of homosexuality is cause for combat and cruel words. Despite a reluctant social overlay in Bhutanese society regarding sex-talk I felt a vein of curiosity and respect toward us from these two gay guys, as we did toward them. We genuinely wanted to appreciate their experience of being different in their culture, insulated from foreign gay pride events in, say, San Francisco. Both men spoke with courage and vision about their educational work. They are pioneers in the advocacy fields of human sexuality and health care in Bhutan, issues that are politely avoided by most people.

During our visit with the activists, our assigned driver and guide (both straight and married) were gracious and unperturbed even as they drove us to and from our luncheon meeting knowing full well we were all gay. Perhaps as proof of their attitude came later that day when our guide (another Tashi) invited us to visit his home, a modest rented two-bedroom apartment in Thimphu city, to meet his wife and 6 year-old son. I felt it was a gesture of trust and welcome that reflected his culture. Nothing to fear; kindness.

Bullying
Bullying seems to be universal. Despite being a remote Himalayan country far from major cities in India and with a benevolent king that advocated happiness, Tashi said he was teased for being effeminate and the way he walked. ”People tried to change my behavior and even in my friend circle because I hung out with mostly girls. They questioned why I didn’t play sports.  He was told told to walk different: ‘you walk like a girl’ they said. He tried to be different but couldn’t pull it off all the time so he gave up. “I have to be me,” he said with a laugh. So my first response to bullying was to develop a defense mechanism: I ignored people. It worked well for me” as he grew bigger and more confident.

But it’s not the same for everyone. Pema developed self-doubt, and anxiety because of being bullied in school for his less-than-macho manner of being. “I became fearful of my schoolmates. I was not able to ignore people and their comments and move on, like Tashi did. But as I grew older and felt a deeper understanding about the naturalness of being gay I have recovered a lot from that. Being in partnership with Tashi has helped reassure me. My public work talking to groups about health care has also encouraged me. No young gay person should suffer like that. I had no one then to help me including my family.” His words were a universal plea often heard in every country where LGBT individuals feel alone with no social or personal support in their youth. Having a loving partner, in any culture, can provide comfort and strength. Pema is lucky in that regard.

Recent note: In early January 2020, Rainbow Bhutan and Amnesty International issued an international plea urging the Upper House of Parliament to follow the Lower House to decriminalize homosexuality:
“Historic Opportunity: Bhutan must seize an historic opportunity to secure equal rights for LGBTI people in the country, Amnesty International calls on the upper house of parliament to pass a bill decriminalizing same-sex relationships, following the lower house’s vote in favor of repealing discriminatory sections of the penal code last June. The bill proposing revised amendments will be presented to the National Council, the upper house of parliament, this month (January 2020).   “If the amendment bill is passed by the upper house, this will be an important step in recognizing that Bhutan supports the equality of all citizens regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. For a country that prides itself on the happiness of its people, Bhutan must without any delay rid itself of laws criminalizing consensual same-sex relationships,” said Babu Ram Pant, South Asia Campaigner at Amnesty International.

Bhutan’s Tourist Image

Flip open the Lonely Planet guide to Bhutan and read charming comments such as “nestling in the heart of the great Himalayas…for centuries remained aloof from the rest of the world… the environment is pristine, the scenery and architecture awesome and the people hospitable and charming.”

Bhutan is essentially a remote country with great PR, an ‘exotic’ place where virtually all travelers go in group tours to see the spectacle of snow-capped mountains and costumed farmers shepherded by a benevolent figurehead monarch who monitors the pace of progress in order not to disrupt the ancient ways.

“The largest and most colorful festivals (tsechus),” continues Lonely Planet, “ take place at Bhutan’s dzongs (monasteries) once a year, in honor of Guru Rinpoche who brought Buddhism to Bhutan. They normally take place in spring and autumn. Tsechus consist of up to five days of spectacular pageantry, masked dances and religious allegorical plays that have remained unchanged for centuries. As well as being a vital living festival and an important medium of Buddhist teaching, tsechus are huge social gatherings.

“The Bhutanese revel and rejoice together, dressed in their finest clothes and jewelry, in an infectiously convivial atmosphere where humor and devotion go hand in hand. For visitors, the tsechus provide an ideal opportunity to appreciate the essence of the Bhutanese character.”

What is not mentioned in the guide books and glossy brochures is what it’s like to love another person of the same gender as oneself.

The Government

(from Lonely Planet guide to Bhutan)
“The late king, Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, is regarded as the father of modern Bhutan because of the progressive development plans he initiated for Bhutan’s future. When China took control of Tibet, Bhutan’s policy of total isolation lost its appeal and the country was formally admitted to the United Nations in 1971. The current past monarch (he resigned in 2008), Jigme Singye Wangchuck,  continued the policy of controlled development with particular focus on the preservation of the environment and Bhutan’s unique culture. Among his official policies were economic self-reliance and what is known as ‘Gross National Happiness’–modern life yet in harmony with cultural traditions and religious morality.

“His coronation on 2 June 1974 was the first time the international media were allowed to enter the kingdom, and marked Bhutan’s debut appearance on the world stage. The first group of paying tourists arrived later that year.”

In a major political reform in June 1998, the king dissolved the Council of Ministers and announced that ministers formerly appointed by him would need to stand for open election. A rotating chairman now leads the cabinet as head of the government. On 6 November 2008, 28-year-old Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, eldest son of the, King was crowned King as a constitutional monarch.

But that was just the beginning of the reforms. What has really shaken Bhutanese society in recent times is the advent of television, since 1999. Although the government tries valiantly to produce as much local content as possible, the majority of programming is foreign, and is exposing the curious Bhutanese to the pleasures and perils of modernity. In recent years, it’s said that crime and domestic violence rates have increased, though it’s inaccurate to assume that the two are directly related.

Bhutan has been described as ‘a living museum’ because its ancient dzongs and temples are still the focus of modern life. Although it is a highly Buddhist Himalayan state (probably the last intact place to be so) it is not only a nation of saintly, ascetic, other-worldly monks, but a vibrant, fun-loving and well-educated population. Every aspect of life in the kingdom is guided by the ethics of its official religion, Drukpa Kagyu Buddhism, and without a rudimentary understanding of this type of Buddhism it’s hard to get a handle on Bhutan.

A more thorough description of politics can be read at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhutan

A Different Kind of Gay Bhutan Story

This story about ‘gay Bhutan’ is not what I had in mind when I started to write it. Often my stories begin with Internet contacts with LGBT natives of a country who are willing to speak about their experiences of living in their societies. Other times I meet native people by serendipity or by appointment after I arrive.

Originally, before I had visited the country,  I posted a story about gay Bhutan based on an e-mail interview with a self-proclaimed gay native Bhutanese man in his fifties, a medical professional educated in India now living in Bhutan; married with two children.

However, his was not a cheerful story. He was frustrated and emotionally lonely. He had been conditioned by his culture to take a wife and produce offspring despite feelings toward other men. So he had lived a dutiful life while going off on occasion to India for pleasure and intimacy to sooth his longings.

Perhaps because he had gone to school outside Bhutan and had experienced a democratic and pluralistic life very different from his rural childhood his view of Bhutan was quite negative. He felt the king (at that time) was dictatorial and tightly controlled the lives of his subject, such as only recently allowing TV into the country. My source person–whom I will call by the pseudonym Chong–was also soured against his government because, in his view, the government had expelled thousands of Nepales-speaking people to refugee camps in neighboring Nepal.  They were accused of fomenting rebellion again the King. The issue is still today controversial and debated.

Further, Chong claimed that homosexuals in Bhutan could be thrown in jail for life for being homosexual (no such penalty exists on the books in Bhutan which collect dust with no apparent action against gays).

Rebuttal
A few months after this story was posted, GlobalGayz received messages—polite and irate–claiming the story was negatively biased, inaccurate and incomplete in presenting Bhutan’s true face and temperament regarding homosexuality, the monarchy and its dealings with the refugee situation.

In fairness to the differing views presented to GlobalGayz I have re-written the gay Bhutan story to include these opposing descriptions. The original critical interview can be seen in Bhutan News and Reports (#1) on this site.

Deciding which version of gay Bhutan is more, or less, accurate is difficult for anyone without a substantive visit to Bhutan. Even then, evoking conversation about the private lives of people in this conservative country is delicate to say  the least.

So, given these odds of getting closer to some truth about gay Bhutan, here is what I have pieced together—incomplete, interpretive, tentative as it may be:

Another Gay Bhutan Story

A story about gay Bhutan is also a commentary about opening to the world, not just to India and China which enormously surround it geographically, but opening to the 21st century that is impinging on centuries-old hidden traditions and mind sets. Tourism, television, Internet and materialism have crept in as new experiences for young curious minds. Governance has peacefully shifted from monarchy to constitutional democracy (initiated by the king himself) with the King’s abdication in 2008, with the reluctant consent of the populace. Th King’s eldest son is now the ceremonial figurehead. (photo left: Tiger’s Nest temple built into the side of a steep cliff)

As the outside world brings new sources of cash, clothing styles and commerce, it also brings its categories and labels for sexual behavior.

A study of ‘gay’ Bhutan requires one to ease up on the use of the standard western words ‘gay’ and ‘lesbian’ as they apply to the Bhutanese way of life. There is no word for homosexual, heterosexual, gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered in the Tibetan languages, nor is there a word for blow job or cunnilingus.

Despite the presence among some age-old Himalayan monastic traditions in the mentor/apprentice relationship that sometimes involve (unspoken) physical intimacy there is no vocabulary for such an affiliation. It is said (by whom?) that some young men are ‘chosen’ as Chablum—acolytes–whose responsibility is mostly ‘incense’, selected by ranking monks to become ‘favorites’ without overtly saying so.  There is no particular dialogue or deliberation about this sentient aspect of monastic duties. (This does not presume ephebephilia (attraction to older teens) is widespread or common in Bhutan. These comments refer only to scattered anecdotes.)

To be sure, the vast majority of folks in Bhutan are heterosexual and have virtually no knowledge of sexual variations. The subject of homosexuality is not on the common tongue and there is no written or broadcast information about it in the home or school.

Technically, there is a law on the books, imposed from India more than a century ago that was inherited from antiquated British Victorian morality laws that punished ‘acts against nature’ with prison (one year at most.) Not surprising, such laws have long been ignored in Bhutan and there is no report of anyone having been arrested for consensual adult same-sex acts.

What is ‘gay’?

That said, it’s hardly new knowledge that sexual varieties exist in all cultures, whether or not they are socially permitted or vehemently repressed; indeed, human behavior vastly pre-dates strictures of culture, politics and religion.  (photo right, native costume ‘gho’)

So it comes as no surprise that Bhutan has its own sub-culture of homosexuality, but again this simplistic label does not accurately represent the ‘practice’ of MSM (men who have sex with men) tradition here. What, then, do we call this ‘thing’ that happens occasionally between same-gender folks?

It has been suggested to me by more than one person that a better phrase might be ‘male intimacy’ or ‘male love’ to help avoid some of the implications of the ‘gay’ label.

One cultural researcher suggested, “it truly is inaccurate to discuss gay, lesbian, and bisexual men and women in Bhutan when they have no equivalent words and do not think of themselves this way.” (In the 21st century these words are becoming less true; our interview hosts, Tashi ans Pema, clearly identify as ‘gay’, as do most members of Rainbow Bhutan.

Perhaps MSM may be useful here but this moniker falls short of encompassing the ‘open secret’ of bi-sexuality among many Bhutanese men that has been reported; indeed, the label certainly falls short of any emotional or spiritual dimension of such a relationship.

Whatever the perfect marker–MSM or male intimacy–the behavior is clearly not an ‘identity’ in Bhutan. It’s not a political cause. It is not a religious ‘sin’ or a social dishonor or an emotional diagnosis. It is a matter of mystery and discretion due in no small part to the fact that the general population knows virtually nothing about same-sex sensuality—including those who engage in it. (In the 20th century that is changing,)

Absent as well is any tradition of homophobic rhetoric from lawmakers, educators, clergy or morality police. I am reminded, in an oblique way, of the scientists who first walked among the penguins and sea lions in Antarctica; the animals expressed no fear of humans because they didn’t know what they were. The encounter was peaceful and curious. It may fairly be argued that homoerotic behavior in Bhutan is equally peaceful, innocent and mostly free of shame, even as it is kept hidden.

Interviews with three Gay Men who have lived in Bhutan

This part of the story about gay Bhutan is based on communications with three ‘insiders’ who have lived in Bhutan for extended periods of time, although two of them are American citizens. One is an Americian cultural researcher, Regis, another is an American Buddhist monk from California, Tenzin and the third is a native of Bhutan, Chong, a discontent man whom I described above.

The two Americans, Tenzin and Regis, speak of Bhutan in loving and appreciative terms. Chong is critical and skeptical. However, his (non-political) gay views are included here since they are similar to the other two commentators.

Interview (1): Tenzin
The first response to my previous gay Bhutan story was from Tenzin, a American from California who is a Tibetan Buddhist.

He initially wrote: “I have lived in Bhutan and had a Bhutanese boyfriend. On my first trip to Bhutan my tour guide ask me to have sex with him though he told me he had a wife. I found that sexual attitudes among Bhutanese men were more leaning towards bisexuality.

“I’m a monk now, only looking for friendship with other guys with similar (non-sexual) interests. Why I’m looking for such friends is because a former boyfriend I had in California was Tibetan. He is one the most amazing people I have known in my life so that’s what brings me here.

“I’m not looking for boyfriend. I like being able to feel comfortable with friends when I talk and not have the ‘oh you’re a gay celibate and you had a partner!’ surprised reaction.

“I still consider myself as gay since, if I were in a relationship, it would be with a man.
I wanted to point out due to my and others (Buddhist University Bangkok, Thailand) extensive search of the Dharma that the Buddha never spoke against being gay. And I’m not here to try to teach Buddhism to anyone.
Yours in the Triple Gem,
Tenzin”

In a second message, Tenzin wrote:

“To be quite frank about my experience with my tour guide he really surprised me by his asking me for sex. After his shower in the early hours of the morning he stood erect wearing his chuba (Bhutanese national dress).

“But he also mentioned when he and his wife were having some problems he liked to have sex with men sometimes. As I was a guest in his country and also I had met his wife I did not feel comfortable having sex with him .

“I did find him attractive and maybe he picked up on that. As far as the norm for Bhutan this is not the first sexual experience I have had with a Bhutanese man. Some do tend towards being bisexual rather than gay, and if gay they are very discreet due to that not being very common. You would find that a small majority of Bhutanese men would enjoy having oral sex being the receiver or having anal sex being the top with another guy.

“Regarding the Royalty of Bhutan I am biased since I’m a personal friend of the Royal Family although not including the King. I met one of the Queens who had studied in the US and was very kind to me.

“I believe the King and the Royal Family love and care for the people of Bhutan and they personally oversee many projects to help the people such as hospitals, schools and hydro power plants and have a close trade and working relationship with Denmark and Japan.

“They are careful with foreign guests as they should be being between India and China, either of which would like to have Bhutan as part of their own lands.

“The King whom I did talk with said a constitutional monarchy is due to the support of the Bhutanese.

“He is trying to preserve the natural beauty and at the same time bring Bhutan into a more modern and stable economic situation. Not an easy task.

“With regards to the long term Nepalese and other refugees the King whom I spoke with on the issue has tried very kindly to help and extended every means of aid available even offering citizenship to some.

“However, before his abdication,  there was a small and violent Nepalese gurka minority of refugees who wished to see the King forcefully unseated but this was not tolerated. They were told to leave the Kingdom but they simply refused to go and continued to cause numerous problems and drain the resources of Bhutan. Some of them also illegally logged and smuggled which degrades the natural beauty.

“Another problem in this refugee issue is the Nepalese in Sikkim a former Buddhist Kingdom, now part of India. There is a systematic policy on the part of the Indian Government, through the Nepalese Governor, to flood Sikkim with Nepalese foreign nationals reducing local Sikkimese people to a minority, as is being done in Tibet with Han Chinese… In honesty and with respect I make these comments.”

Interview (2): Regis

Regis is a researcher for an international cultural foundation (based in USA) and has traveled and lived in Asia for extended periods of time.

GlobalGayz: Please give an overview of homosexuality in Bhutan and how it fits—or not—with the larger social fabric.

Regis: I am gay; I have lived and worked in Bhutan, and know that homosexuality is practiced there, as everywhere. Cautiously, I say that it is not uncommon in the monastic community (one of the last bastions of institutionalized monastic homosexuality, I might add) but everyone knows and understands this, including the families of boys who willingly, happily, send one of their sons to become monks.

I tell you this with some reluctance since it is too easy for outsiders to read these words and draw inaccurate conclusions. Sexuality is so much ‘softer’ here, like water, not fire, not ice. Perhaps another way to say all this is that the soft-core practices between monks is an open secret in Bhutanese society but due to the clandestine lives of the monks, very little about it is actually known, let alone spoken.

Humorously, I have heard more than once that women want to sleep with monks and actively pursue them for these reasons: they wear robes with no underwear so their cocks are bigger; their skin is soft like a woman’s from leading a monastic not a farmer’s life; they are strong and athletic from their rituals and dancing and so can ‘perform’ for hours; and they are virgins. Ha!

Not all monks practice male sex to be sure; I believe most are celibate. Occasions of inter-crural (between legs) sex with younger men–some assigned to higher ranking monks–is more about getting one’s rocks off than being gay. As a whole life system, it makes a lot of sense and helps keep monks monks rather than leaving to get sexual relief.

Many of the monks who do have boys would more willingly sleep with women, again demolishing our notions of sexual identity as set in stone. I allow the fluidity to teach me rather than impose my own cultural mores to these ancient practices. I do NOT know exactly what the monastic sexual behaviors are but I see it being revealed to me very carefully the more I live and work here–mostly believing that I am worthy of that most private information. The sexual attitudes of the Bhutanese are among the most open of any country I have seen in the world. (I have been to 53 countries.)

They are not offended or ignorant about sex. They just don’t make as big a deal about it as most western countries do. The ‘gay construct” of compete identity and exclusivity is a modern western notion, and there are many examples of male love throughout history and the world that do not conform to the modern western–mostly American–notion of ‘gay’.

I have had several relationships with Bhutanese men, open, fun, willing, not ones that reject the opposite sex or alter their fundamental notion of themselves. The upshot is rather that one of their kids would probably have my name as part of theirs.

Another example of this laissez-faire attitude here (as I call it), is that I recently learned of a gay youth in a border town who “loves sex” and apparently had has quite a lot, including with officials and high ranking monks, although some of them have insisted they travel into India for the liaison. Don’t know why. The salient fact to share here is that everyone in this boy’s village knows he likes boys; and he freely tells anyone (apparently his line is ” once you try a boy you will never go back to your wife” ) and no one is unduly shocked or morally outraged at his behavior although it certainly is not the norm.

At another level, the king’s uncle was Regent of Bhutan and ran the country for years after the death of the 3rd King. He hunts and fishes and loves young men. Everyone in the country knows it. He is considered by many to be ‘the happiest man in Bhutan’.

GG: What is the legal status of homosexuality in Bhutan and is it actively punished?

Regis: I have asked several top government officials about the criminality of homosexuality and one and all they have said they have never heard such a thing, nor have they heard of anyone homosexual being put into a prison. “No big deal” is their universal reaction.

Two officers in command of two of the largest districts ( these would be equivalent to top police enforcement in a US State) have told me they have never put anyone in jail for being gay nor have they heard of it. They added rape or forced sex or attempted rape or forced sex would get jail time no matter the orientation.

Most of the officials and others I have asked about the legality of homosexuality in Bhutan look at me with perplexed expressions: no one cares! why bring it up? They almost all say ” Everyone knows the monks practice homosexuality and sometimes add that the King’s uncle was homosexual.

There is a court system here with judges, albeit without lawyers. Everyone can make their case to whatever government authority they want. The humblest peasant can petition the King and get an audience. I know several people who work for me that have had audiences with the King. No one can indiscriminately be thrown into jail with no recourse for a defense. Anyone petitioning him as he drives by will be met by a officer who will then set a date for an audience.

GG: What does Buddhism say about homosexuality?

Regis: Gay is not a word here. I think there is a practical parallel in Buddhism; some scholars may tell you Buddhism prohibits homosexuality (I don’t agree ) but no Buddhist would ever make a stink about it like Christians and Muslims do. (See Buddhism and Homosexuality on this site.)

GG: What is your view of the monarchy system? (asked before the abdication)

Regis: This King, who has introduced democracy, travels the country advocating and teaching it. He has recently announced his abdication, and it is the population that wants him to stay as monarch.

FYI, ‘Gross National Happiness’ is not a nickname; it is formal government policy, well laid out and constantly implemented. Bhutan is a place with some of the most open sexual mores in the world. Any subject can be openly debated here. The King does not control the Newspaper; anyone can write anything. It is a privately owned newspaper. Human rights are regularly debated. Will and Grace aired here and Glee is popular. The Bhutanese are intelligent and proud.

Most of the pollution of the modern world from capitalism to the politicization of sexuality is not tainting life here. It will, eventually, and what sexual openness and fun loving attitudes the Bhutanese have long held, will fall prey to western morality and politics.

GG: So you agree that the western labels of sexuality are invalid in Bhutan?

Regis: Gay, homo/bi are not correct terms for most places on the planet when discussing the truth about sexual practice and sexual identity. ‘Male love’ makes more sense to me. ‘Homosexual’ as a self-moniker is used by no one in Bhutan, nor is ‘bi-sexual’. People can and do have a variety of sexual experiences without labeling themselves. I think it’s not easy for the western mind to grasp since we like our categories. It is tricky, as you say. It takes a while of living—and loving–here to let go.

But gays are perfectly welcomed here, and as long as no assault or rape is committed, no one in Bhutan will throw a gay visitor in jail. There are at least 3 tour operators catering exclusively to gays, and the gay couples I have seen here are welcomed. No biggie. Maybe we have something to learn from the Bhutanese comfort and fun attitudes toward sex.

GG: I’m sure you have something to say about the refugee situation.

Regis: In a nutshell regarding the citizenship issue: Bhutan’s monarchy was established in 1907 after 400 yrs of Theocracy, and more than 100 years of constant bloody civil war. At last there was order and peace: the very fundamental of human rights. Britain, once an adversary, became Bhutan’s staunch ally. (Thus, it made some sense to adopt their penal code, including anti-gay statutes.)

In 1958, Bhutan first defined citizenship including a 10-year land ownership clause for anyone of non-Bhutanese origin. Remember this is a mere 50 years into a new government: think USA 1826.

1958 was marked by big trouble in the Himalayas as everyone knew China would soon invade Tibet, which it did in 1959. Bhutan saw massive immigration problems looming. It is the tiniest possible buffer between two enormous countries. Tibetans made some inroads here after the invasion, but mostly they went to India where they could rebuild and were invited (where the Dalai Lama is now), and some went into Nepal. There are some Tibetans in Bhutan, mostly those who already lived in geographic regions linking Bhutan and Tibet for centuries even before Bhutan was Bhutan (pre 1616)

The first census was taken in 1988, during the 4th King’s reign. The citizenship law resorted to a 1958 standard of proof primarily because there had been a huge influx of Indians and Nepalese in the interim which threatened Bhutan’s identity and ability to manage.

Without a strict citizenship law, Bhutan today would be overrun with refugees and separatists from Nepal, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. It was only in December 2005 that the Bhutanese routed out the Assamese separatists who were using their southern mountains as terrorist training camps. The Nepalese Maoists were doing the same thing, and to compare, look at the complete Maoist mess that happened in Nepal.

So, while I can sympathize with those more-than 100,000 non-Bhutanese who moved into Bhutan since 1958 and owned land for more than 10 years, they nevertheless did not comply with the law which was written in 1958 and which was the marking date.

You must understand how tiny Bhutan is. It is a miracle it exists as a separate state at all while every other kingdom from Ladakh to Sikkim to mighty Tibet was be taken over by China. The citizenship law is a matter of cultural and political survival, something none of the other kingdoms could achieve. I understand why Bhutan is so strict about its borders, its ethnicity and its statehood. Everything around Bhutan is a mess.

Human Rights Watch confirms no one in Bhutan has lost life due to human rights violations. No one can remember anyone being executed since the perpetrators of the assassination of the Prime Minister decades ago. Bhutan is struggling to develop and raise the standard of living, education and joining the comity of nations – it is not interested to persecute homosexuals. It is very busy surviving. Some of the human rights stuff I read made sense in western terms but had no grasp of what is in many ways a medieval society.

GG: Any closing thoughts?

Regis: On a final note: life can be quite hard here: rural, farm work, much of it not modernized; there are only recently modern conveniences in few places that includes electricity and phones. Sex is not as present and on the mind as in the west. Life doesn’t afford that. One is happy to be fed and have a nice place to sleep after much work. Devout Buddhism (passivism) characterizes Bhutan. Society is not sexualized like America. It is different.

We have to learn about what we lost, like our ancient art forms—we Americans lost ours. Here they still have theirs. I am always learning more of the nature of their traditional art. Maybe we can learn more about what the nature of sexuality really is. Bhutan is a Buddhist kingdom; it is as benign as Buddhism is.

Interview (3): Chong
Chong (not his real name; mentioned above) is a fifty year-old gay Bhutanese medical professional who works for a non-governmental organization (NGO). He originates from a very rural mountain village where virtually nothing is known about homosexuality. He has been married for thirty years and has two children. His own self-discovery occurred during his boarding school years in India where he later studied pre-med courses and eventually chose pharmacology.

Since returning to Bhutan, about 25 years ago, he has remained in the closet to his family and professional associates. He works for an NGO based in Europe that offers health care to rural residents. He agreed to share his thoughts and experiences here providing his identity was kept well disguised. His view of Bhutanese attitudes toward homosexuality is more negative than the other commentators here. (Full interview: Click Here (Report #1)

GlobalGayz: Please give an overview of the LGBT ‘scene’ in Bhutan?

Chong: Yes I can give you all the details about homosexuality in this country, since the literacy rate is just 25% [not accurate: it’s 60%] out of 800,000 population, many have never heard of gay sex and homosexuality at all. As for gay tolerance, this is not known. Many don’t know anything. But men can hold hands, sleep in the same bed with another even in presence of parents or relatives and friends, yet many don’t know that gay sex exist at all. Married men can sleep together in same bed with other married or single men!

GG: What would they say if they found out you are gay? Would they throw you out of the family?

Chong: If some modern and new generation people know that we are gay, then that is the worst part; we will be cast out from the society. My parents are farmers and never heard of homosexuality at all, at least its existence in open society. I think here most of the gay men are married to cover it up. It is unfortunate but it is the only way to survive. If you are caught as homosexual, perhaps the government will put you in jail for life and society will outcast you. But as I said, a man can hold man’s hand and a man can sleep with other man in the same bed but they don’t think for sex.

GG: Is this secrecy ‘homophobia’ or something else? What is the reason for this? Religion? Legal laws? Social tradition?

Chong: It is not so actually ‘homophobia’ but mostly ignorance and not knowing what this strange sex is. In the small villages they don’t think about it and so do not know how to accept something so strange. But if they find it out they do not like it because it is not normal for them. In the bigger cities like the capitol more people know about gay sex but the government has said it is a crime. A person can go to the jail so people are afraid of that too. (This is soon to change.)

GG: Is there is an underground gay community who know each other?

Chong: No, there are no gay men who have sex in any underground; 98% of gay men are married. I am married too since over 30 years. If you are not married society will question you and ask you if you are abnormal man. Lots of pressure really, so all men marry and it’s mandatory due to social pressure.

GG: Do you know other gays in Bhutan?

Chong: I don’t know a single gay man in Bhutan personally nor anyone do I dare to ask and get to know one for so many reasons like being caught or known and outcast from office work, family and society. I am sure there are gays. They are married and have kids. I guess they might be finding sex across in India which is on our immediate border.
About Bhutan, as I told, you, only the new generation who study outside Bhutan are exposed and have heard of homosexuality. So they are very few overall. You can see the gay Bhutan web site where there are not any gay men who have put ads, except me, since many even don’t know that gay sites exist. I am sure that there are few gay men who are influenced by western tourists and must have had sex.

GG: Where did you go to college for your professional education?

Chong: I did study in India for many years and India has many gay meeting places in all cities. I also learned that one has to be very careful to have sex in India in metro cities. At times gay men acts as middle men with the cops to make money; you see the danger and irony of Indian gays!! I have been to all cities in India though. The cops often raid the secluded run gay bars also. (Homosexuality has been decriminalized in India 2019)

GG: How did you discover your homosexuality?

Chong: I discovered my homosexuality when I was in boarding school in India and one senior assistant slept and kissed me and looked after me like his very own brother. We kissed and slept many times together. I was 14 yrs when he was 24 years. I knew then I don’t like women or girls.

GG: Were you nervous when you discovered you were gay? Can you say more about coming out to yourself and where you were and what your early experience was?

Chong: The first ‘real’ gay experience was with a British guy who was my English teacher who was probably bisexual since he had his wife and kids. We met in Darjeeling St. Paul’s School, the best mission school in India, where I got converted into Christianity. Please understand that converting to another religion is punishable by the law of the land in Bhutan! (This point is disputed by others-ed.)

My teacher was 50 years when I was a teen and in fact I never knew that I had this man-to-man instinct until this teacher allured me with his affection and private tuition class in his home when his wife was away to London. Once at night he asked me sleep in his bedroom when suddenly he undressed me and starting kissing and cuddling. I was shocked and reluctant in the beginning but after a while I got aroused. I was just 19 years and full of virility. Then he was oral with me and kissed me.

Finally I also started kissing and cuddling him. We were lovers for 10 years during my stay in school and college until he went back to England in Birmingham. He died some years ago now.

Another interview (4) with a young gay Bhutanese man can be seen at GlobalGayz News & Reports (#6).

(Note about photos in this story: these images were taken randomly from the Internet and no presumption is offered regarding the sexual orientation of the persons pictured.)

Also see:
Gay Bhutan News & Reports 2003 to present

Gay Life in Bhutan
GlobalGayz.com -- Gay Travel, Life, Advice, Stories, Photos, News, Deals for LGBTs © Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

2 stories:

Venezuelans LGBTs Find Refuge in Colombia (1644 words)

Venezuela’s side of the border with Colombia near Paraguachón, Colombia, on March 7, 2018. LGBT Venezuelans who have fled their country’s economic and political crisis have found refuge in neighboring Colombia. (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)

MAICAO, Colombia — José Ferrer, 39, is a gay man who grew up in Mara, a rural municipality outside of the Venezuelan city of Maracaibo that is close to the country’s border with Colombia.

Ferrer on March 7 said during an interview in Maicao, a city in Colombia’s La Guajira Department that is less than 10 miles from the border, that he was able to “make my life independently” by working at a hair salon in spite of the homophobia and machismo he faced. Ferrer told the Washington Blade his life improved when he moved to Maracaibo, even though his parents had accepted his sexual orientation.

“Gay life in the city is more open,” he said. “There are nightclubs where gay people can be free. They can live their lives openly.”

Ferrer arrived in Maicao 20 days before he spoke with the Blade.

He said he left Venezuela because his employment status was “very precarious” and he wanted to continue to support his elderly mother. Ferrer told the Blade he is working at a hair salon in Maicao and living with his boss in her house.

“My intention was to come here to stabilize myself and help her,” said Ferrer, referring to his mother.

Ferrer is among the hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who have entered Colombia over the last year as their country’s economic and political crisis continues to worsen.

This reporter on March 7 saw hundreds of people walking from Venezuela into Colombia with suitcases and backpacks at a border crossing in the Colombian town of Paraguachón, which is eight miles east of Maicao. People with suitcases and backpacks were also walking from Colombia into Venezuela.

One man who was walking into Venezuela shouted “people are hungry” when he saw this reporter recording a video on his iPhone.

Several buses and trucks that were overloaded with people and their belongings were waiting to pass through a Colombian military checkpoint outside of Paraguachón. Men who were selling gasoline — likely smuggled into Colombia from Venezuela — in liter bottles were a common sight along the highway between the border and Maicao.

Madonna Badillo is a transgender woman of indigenous descent who lives in Maicao. She is also a well-known performer who local residents have dubbed “la Madonna de Maicao” in honor of the famous singer who she emulates.

Badillo on March 7 told the Blade during an interview at her home that some Venezuelan women who have entered Colombia sell their hair to wigmakers for 20,000 Colombian pesos ($7.20) “out of necessity.”

Jenifer, a trans woman from Maracaibo who left Venezuela seven years ago after her partner was murdered and now works as a hairdresser in Maicao, confirmed these accounts when she spoke with the Blade earlier in the day. Badillo, who lives with Jenifer, also said there are “cases of famine in Venezuela that have never been seen.”

“There has been an exodus in La Guajira Department that was not expected,” she added, noting Venezuelans routinely return to their country with food and other items they bought in Maicao. “Venezuelans come with their goods each day and leave, but the situation that is happening right now in Venezuela is very critical. They complain, give their testaments about what is really happening in Venezuela.”

Madonna Badillo sits in her home in Maicao, Colombia, on March 7, 2018. She is a transgender woman and well-known performer in the Colombian city that is a few miles from the country’s border with Venezuela. (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)
The Colombian government last summer announced Venezuelans who enter the country at legal border crossings with passports can obtain permits that allow them to work and receive social security benefits for up to two years. The majority of Venezuelans who have arrived in Colombia over the last year have entered the country without documents and/or through informal border crossings that are known as “trochas.”

Urbe Jiménez, an LGBT rights activist from the Venezuelan capital of Caracas who is a vocal critic of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, is among the Venezuelans who have received Colombian work permits.

Jiménez has lived in the Colombian capital of Bogotá for more than a year and is currently working as a hairdresser. He told the Blade on March 12 during an interview at a Bogotá shopping mall that Colombians have “totally” welcomed him into the country.

Jenifer, like Jiménez, told the Blade she has “not had any problems” in Colombia.

Badillo said she once invited into her home a group of trans sex workers from Venezuela who had been “mistreated.” Badillo told the Blade they go to Maicao’s main square each night to get clients, but they also face harassment from police officers and “bullies” who she said force them to pay them money.

“The street belongs to everyone,” said Badillo.
Venezuelans with HIV/AIDS ‘are dying’

Jenifer said the economic crisis has impacted her relatives who still live in Venezuela, but “not to the point of other people.”

“The crisis has left other people very devastated in the sense that they are very thin, they don’t have any money,” she told the Blade. “It is not possible for them to acquire anything.”

Jiménez said he sends diabetes medication to his mother in Caracas because it is unavailable. Jiménez also told the Blade that Venezuelans with HIV/AIDS are dying because they don’t have access to medications.

“The government has refused to receive international humanitarian assistance, but people with HIV in Venezuela are dying,” he said, noting some people with HIV/AIDS have access to medications from relatives or friends who receive them while they are abroad. “It’s desperate because these are people who want to keep living, they are people who have a different life condition, but are in need. They need this help.”

“The government says that there is no economic crisis, that there is no health crisis, that there is no type of crisis,” added Jiménez. “It’s desperate. There is contempt towards people who are living with HIV.”
Urbe Jiménez, gay news, Washington Blade

Urbe Jiménez is a Venezuelan LGBT activist who has lived in Bogotá, Colombia, for a year. (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)
‘I don’t treat Venezuelans bad’

Venezuela, which has the world’s largest known oil reserves, was once Latin America’s most prosperous country.

Millions of Colombians who were fleeing the decades-long war between their government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia that formally ended with a 2016 peace agreement sought refuge in Venezuela. Edmundo Deluque, an activist who lives in Riohacha, the capital of La Guajira Department, told the Blade during a March 6 interview at a local restaurant that his father in 2008 went to Venezuela after FARC rebels killed his uncle because they thought he was a member of a paramilitary group.

The Wayuu people and other residents of Colombia’s La Guajira Department and Venezuela’s Zulia State, which border each other on the Guajira Peninsula that is the northernmost point in South America, regularly cross the border for economic reasons. Deluque earlier this week pointed out to the Blade that many of the region’s residents have dual Colombian-Venezuelan citizenship.

He said his mother and father both worked in Caracas until they returned to Colombia. Deluque told the Blade they were able to pay for his and his four siblings’ education with the money they earned in Venezuela.

“I don’t treat Venezuelans bad,” he said on March 6.

Colombian advocacy group works with LGBT Venezuelans

Deluque is among those who work with Caribe Afirmativo, a Colombian LGBT advocacy group.

Caribe Afirmativo Director Wilson Castañeda is one of three Colombian LGBT rights advocates who participated in the peace talks between the Colombian government and the FARC that took place in Havana.

Caribe Afirmativo has opened four “Casas de Paz” in Maicao and in the cities of Soledad, Carmen de Bolívar and Ciénega as a way to support the implementation of the peace agreement. Caribe Afirmativo has also begun to work with LGBT Venezuelans who have sought refuge in Colombia.

Jenifer, Ferrer and Deluque were among the more than 30 people from Venezuela and Colombia who attended an event at Caribe Afirmativo’s “Casa de Paz” in Maicao on March 7 that ended with them making a banner with handprints in the colors of the two countries’ flags. Caribe Afirmativo on March 8 held a similar event at a community center in Riohacha.

José Ferrer attends an event at Caribe Afirmativo’s “Casa de Paz” in Maicao, Colombia, on March 7, 2018. (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)
Deluque told the Blade earlier this week from Riohacha that his work with LGBT Venezuelans “comes from my heart because my parents worked there (in Venezuela) to pay for our studies here.” He added the economic and political crisis in Venezuela has profoundly affected them.

“They stand in solidarity with the country that helped us in our time of need,” said Deluque.

Edwin Nemes of Caribe Afirmativo told the Blade in Riohacha on March 8 that it is “very important” for his organization “to work on bolstering relations between (the) citizens” of Colombia and Venezuela. Nemes also said Caribe Afirmativo’s “Casas de Paz” also provide a space where women, Colombians of African descent, indigenous people and victims of the war between the FARC and the Colombian government can come together.

“They work together to build peace,” he told the Blade.

Edwin Nemes of Caribe Afirmativo prepares to speak at one of his organization’s “Casas de Paz” in Maicao, Colombia, on March 7, 2018. Caribe Afirmativo hosted an event with LGBT Colombians and Venezuelans. (Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)

=====================

May 10, 2017
By Kevin Truong (1225 words)

When Armstrong Santana still lived in Venezuela, he attended many protests against the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. As a student at one of the most prestigious public universities in the country, Santana felt the need to fight against what he believed to be a broken government.
Now living in France, Santana watches the current protests in Venezuela from afar, and feels a sense of sadness as civil unrest continues across his country.
“I left the country because living in the most dangerous city in the world (Caracas) is not propaganda, but a cruel reality,” Santana said. “I also realized [leaving] was the only way I was going to be able to be who I really was.”

People take part in the 35th Gay Pride Parade on Francisco de Miranda Avenue, in Caracas on June 30, 2013.Leo Ramirez / AFP/Getty Images
For Santana and many other LGBTQ Venezuelans living abroad, leaving the country was a necessary step toward living more openly as a gender or sexual minority.
“The basic issue is that we are not an issue,” said Isaac Perez, who left Venezuela in 2015 and now lives in Argentina.
“When basic needs [are not being met], when people are more concerned with finding a meal to eat, you don’t have time to focus on [LGBTQ rights],” he explained.

Activists Wendell Oviedo and Yonatan MatheusWendell Oviedo
Many times those who do fight for progress for the country’s LGBTQ community find their own lives and livelihoods put at risk. Activists Wendell Oviedo and Yonatan Matheus fled Venezuela in 2016 after receiving threats of violence to their personal safety.

The two activists believe the threats they received were in response to the work they did as directors of Venezuela Diversa — an LGBTQ civil society organization fighting for LGBTQ and human rights in the country, with a focus on hate crimes, police abuse and the violation of rights of transgender women engaged in sex work.
“Cases of violations of LGBTI rights [in Venezuela] continue to rise and are not reflected in official statistics,” Matheus told NBC Out. “Victims prefer anonymity rather than being doubly victimized by law enforcement.”
Related: LGBTQ Activists in Brazil Use Social Media to Spread Awareness
The challenges present when reporting hate crimes to local law enforcement as an LGBTQ individual in Venezuela is something that Venezuelan artist Daniel Arzola knows from firsthand experience.

Born in a poor community in Maracay, a city in northern Venezuela, Arzola suffered a violent hate crime for being gay while only 15.
“Some neighbors tried to burn me alive, and they destroyed all my drawings,” Arzola told NBC Out. When he reported the crime to the local law enforcement, he says he was told that he needed to act more like a man.
After the attack, Arzola said he didn’t draw again for six years. It wasn’t until he learned of a similar hate crime years later that he began to create art again.

Daniel Arzola
Today, the artist is known internationally for his art campaign titled “No Soy Tu Chiste” (“I Am Not a Joke”), a series of illustrations depicting the diversity of the LGBTQ community. Along with each image is a set of captions stating why sexuality and gender should not be used as a basis for discrimination or ridicule.

“All the time in Venezuela the media is used to ridicule the LGBT [community],” Arzola explained. As evidence, he points to the lack of positive LGBTQ characters on Venezuelan television and to comments made by President Maduro, who in the past has been accused of using a homophobic slur to ridicule his political opponent.
“So in that moment, I created ‘I Am Not a Joke,’” Arzola said. “The campaign went viral in the first six months.”
Soon Arzola was working with activists from across the world, and the campaign eventually caught the attention of pop icon Madonna, who included five pieces of Arzola’s work in her campaign “Art for Freedom.

“I became more recognized because of my work, which gave me opportunities to talk about what is happening in Venezuela,” Arzola said. “I exposed the government in Venezuela, because they are really homophobic.”

It was then that Arzola began to receive threats of violence against his own personal safety, and the artist was forced to flee the country in 2014. Currently living in Chile, Arzola said the threats stopped after he left Venezuela but that his work is still being obstructed in other ways.
Related: Argentine Filmmaker Brings Personal Touch to Gay Characters
Since November, Arzola has been trying to renew his passport with the Venezuelan embassy in Chile so that he can travel to upcoming art exhibitions of his work, but he said his efforts have been ignored.
Arzola said that planned exhibitions in San Francisco and Paris in June will have to be canceled if he is unable to get his passport renewed in time.

“Even when you’re out of your country, your nationality can be a jail,” Arzola said. “I’m trapped here. I can’t go anywhere, just because they don’t give me a passport.”
But Arzola is hopeful that the current protests in Venezuela are a sign that change can finally come to the people of his country — including positive change for the LGBTQ community.
As a sign of progress, Arzola points to the election of Tamara Adrian to Venezuela’s National Assembly in 2015. With her election, Adrian became the first transgender lawmaker elected to public office in Venezuela, and one of the first transgender legislators in all of South America.

Tamara Adrian (R) in Caracas, Venezuela, on January 5, 2015.Federico Parra / AFP/Getty Images
“It was a great responsibility,” Adrian told NBC Out of her election to the National Assembly. “Many people always tell me they have the intention of entering politics [because of my election].”

Since being elected to office, Adrian has found a cause in fighting for LGBTQ rights in Venezuela, recently introducing an amendment to the country’s Civil Registry Law. If passed, the amendment would bring marriage equality to Venezuela and recognize the preferred name and gender of transgender and intersex people. The amendment would also recognize same-sex marriages and gender changes done abroad and allow for gay people to adopt.
But Adrian said the current social and political situation in the country makes it difficult for her and other legislators to fulfill their roles as elected officials.
“During the past year, the government tried to impede the National Assembly to legislate or fulfill any of its functions,” Adrian said, referring to a move made in March by the Venezuelan Supreme Court that stripped the National Assembly of its powers. Though the decision was ultimately reversed, protests resulting from what many perceived as a power grab by the Maduro government have continued throughout the country.
“We cannot stop, we cannot get tired, we have to recover democracy and freedom for Venezuela,” Adrian said. “Everybody has a job to do in order to promote equal rights. That’s in particular to the LGBTI issues, but at the same time to fight for democracy.”

Gay Activists Leave Venezuela Because People Are Too Starving To Care About LGBTQ Rights

[1] https://medium.com/@darrenfedwards/growing-up-gay-in-venezuela-519cf4392309

[2] https://medium.com/@darrenfedwardshttps://www.voanews.com/a/living-in-venezuela-now-is-hard-being-lgbt-makes-it-harder/4772877.html

[3] https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/some-lgbtq-venezuelans-fleeing-home-was-their-only-option-n757431

Gay Venezuela
GlobalGayz.com -- Gay Travel, Life, Advice, Stories, Photos, News, Deals for LGBTs © Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Fernando Botero is a world famous artist with his own museum.

Colombia: Bogota, Botero Art Gallery
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Gay Caribbean–A Range of Experiences

Gay Bermuda is an easy find on the internet with  many comments and venues offered on the BBs and travel chat rooms, especially from LGBT folks who have explored the Caribbean aboard cruise ships. There are about two dozen destinations in the Caribbean that are variously praised for different reasons. The main ones are the climate, the beaches, clear azure waters for diving, a sprinkling of LGBT venues on certain islands–and the comforts of the ships or hotels.

Bermuda is also attractive because of its location, only 770 miles (1238 km) from New York. Although not actually in the Caribbean (a thousand miles away, with little trade or economic connections to it), it is usually considered as one of the vacation islands since it has a foreign feel similar to the Virgin Islands and the other four UK Carib territories. Bermuda is culturally British. Bermuda became an associate member of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in 2003.

Geography & History

It is the oldest and the most populous (around 65,000) UK overseas territory (the third most densely populated place on earth; it has less than 21 sq mi of land surface).  Its first and current capital, St George’s town (population about 2000) was established in 1612 and is the oldest continuously-inhabited English town in the Americas. Unlike most other Caribbean-area places with a native population dating back to the mists of time, Bermuda had no resident permanent population at all until 1609 when English settlers came by accident,
Hamilton is the capital and largest town and the territory’s financial center and a major port for tourist ships. It’s also one of the smallest capital cities by population with fewer than 14,000 people.

A July 2009 estimate put Bermuda’s population at 67,837. The ethnic makeup of Bermuda is 54.8% black (descended from slaves), 34.1% white, and 6.4% multiracial. A significant segment of the white population is of Portuguese ancestry (10%), the result of immigration from Portuguese islands (especially the Azores) during the past 160 years

Although usually referred to as a single location, Bermuda actually consists of 181 islands, with a total area of 53.3 sq km (20.6 sq mi). The largest island is Main Island, usually called Bermuda. When first discovered, Bermuda was uninhabited and mostly dominated by forests of Bermuda cedar, with mangrove marshes along its shores.

Why People Visit But Don’t Stay

Bermuda is a very high cost destination. The Bermuda Government makes no secret of the fact that it does not want low-income tourists, expects them to be earning good incomes and charges them accordingly. They are mostly 35 years old or more, 60 percent with college degrees and annual income of at least US$ 75,000 per person. A high 35% to 40% are repeat visitors earning much more each and staying an average of 6.2 nights, the majority in April through October.

Bermuda’s economy is primarily made up of Government employment, off-shore commerce and tourism. Off-shore finance and tourism are its two largest sectors. I supposedly has the highest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the World (more than US$ 99,500 per capita), according to the World Bank, but also one of the highest costs of living.

Most of its money comes from being an International Business center or ‘offshore jurisdiction’. It is considered a tax haven for corporate entities (not for their employees) of many foreign companies primarily insurance, reinsurance, investment funds and special purpose vehicles (SPV). Bermuda levies no taxes on their world business activities. It has no capital gains tax, but the other direct and indirect taxes it levies on managements, their staff, business visitors and tourists are many and  can be so very heavy that overall Bermuda’s cost of living is one of the highest in the world–nearly three times more than in the UK and nearly four times more than in the USA. All these taxes plus a direct income tax, in the form of a Payroll tax, payable by employers and employees. It is based on what is earned from employment. From April 1, 2011 it is 14%
Yet, it offers the least generous benefits and services to its senior citizens and to the disabled of any of the countries with a high GDP.

Tourism and Gay Tourism

Tourism is Bermuda’s second largest industry, with the island attracting over one-half million visitors annually, of whom more than 80% are from the United States. Other significant sources of visitors are from Canada and the United Kingdom, all arriving either by cruise ship or by air.

Part of the tourist crowd are LGBT people, of course. Like anyone else, they come for the sun, sand, foreign flavor and night life. Here are a few comments from these gay visitors:
“I visit Bermuda all the time and just love it!! It doesn’t have any gay establishments, buts there’s lots of local gays there. Public displays of affection aren’t recommended. However, the beauty of the island will amaze you!!”

“Bermuda is a great place to visit, but no gay places or gay friendly places to go. You will be safe there, as long as you don’t show open affection in public.”

“I have been maybe 50 times to Bermuda and the island is mega-friendly and has as well a gay scene. Maybe not as open as in the big US cities, but it exists!”

“I’ve been to Bermuda many times and yes there is a gay scene…although its not a huge one…heck there aren’t that many people that live there. And I have never had any trouble in Bermuda…and you won’t. ITs a wonderfully beautiful island and its incredibly clean and safe.”

“I went to Bermuda, it was one of the most beautiful islands I’ve ever been to and everyone was perfectly friendly, I even saw other gay people there that were having a good time and didn’t appear to be feeling persecuted. If you’re looking for P-town or Fire Island redux – this isn’t it. It is low-key and relaxed. But there is no problem with gay people in Bermuda except perhaps for a small minority of religous nuts. Isn’t that the case everywhere though?”

Looking More Carefully at Gay Bermuda

All is not sweetness and light of course here–as everywhere in the Caribbean. It is a conservative area of the world having been settled by Catholic and Protestant settlers and Africa slaves, followed by the Christian missionaries over the centuries.

In contrast to the cheery and playful comments above, other travelers to Bermuda have offered these more cautious observations.

“Homosexuality is legal in Bermuda, but the country has long held a reputation for being anti-gay; Discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation is legal… Bermuda has actually been the host of gay tourism for many years. The LGBT travel company Pied Piper, for example, has been organizing trips — albeit on a smaller and much quieter scale — to the country since 1990, without incident.”

“Bermuda is not a place you can expect to find a gay scene. The natives may be considered friendly, but somewhat homophobic. There was a report of a gay bashing incidents where locals accosted two ship passengers seen holding hands and kissing in public, which was very unwise thing to do anyhow. on the part of the passengers. I think they were drunk.”

“There are gay folks who reside there but they are mostly underground and have random bars they jump to with no one bar being all that friendly. However that being said, I’ve never had any comments or otherwise directed towards me. I would heed the advice about public signs of affection–don’t do it.”

“Rosie O’Donnell chartered a ship for a Gay/Lesbian Family & Friends Cruise in July ’07. One stop was to be Bermuda. They cancelled this stop due to the fact that it was becoming very obvious that they would not be well received there when a couple of preachers protested at a rally. Mostly they cancelled for the fact that they did not want to expose the children to the negative attitudes.”

“And around and around it goes. I don’t think any two people have the same opinion here, and it seems they are usually completely opposite. It must depend on how you define “gay friendly.”

Prevailing Caribbean Attitudes Toward Homosexuality

For most gay and lesbian tourists only secondarily do they consider the prevailing local attitudes toward the LGBT community in the Caribbean tropics. Few LGBT tourist are aware that in nine (out of thirteen) of the independent Caribbean island-nations homosexual activity is illegal, an actual crime written into the law books of those countries.

In only four independent island-nations is it legal, as well as legal in the four multi-island territories ruled by the US, UK, France and Holland (which combined are about 24+ islands, which brings the total legal-island count to about 28. (See the list at the end of this story.)

The range of attitudes and amenities runs the gamut from overt public advertising and internet websites offering gay ‘Get Wet’ weekends in Dutch controlled Curacao to the colorful visible scene in San Jaun, PR and to the upscale style-scene in St Barthelemy and down to the palpable and edgy homophobia in Jamaica (if one ventures beyond the gates of the luxury resorts).

In between there are hit-and-miss playgrounds and beaches for lGBT travelers such as the US governed St Croix in the US Virgin Islands and the Dutch ruled St Maartin with it nude beaches. One can find a surface appearance of gay friendly bars and clubs and hotels with happy-hour parties (usually mixed gay-straight) and the rare clothing-optional beach. Without thinking locally, tourists from the north usually bring the scene with them so it is mostly ‘enclosed’  with LGBT groups of friends meeting up with other groups of friends for fun time of dancing, drinking, flirting, sexing and eating, mellowed out with hikes, swims, diving and island rain forest trips. Some folks actually chill out in a hammock or deck chair and read books.

Homophobia in Bermuda

This is not highly visible. There is rarely a bashing. Rather there is a steady stream of anti-gay sentiment in the press and from the Christian preachers who are convinced homosexuality is the work of Satan and gay marriage will destroy civilization. Historically same-sex behavior was illegal thanks to puritanical Victorian UK laws. It was decriminalized in 2000 due to another–opposite–UK government’s pressure to reverse those old laws. But decriminalization changes did not bring anti-discrimination changes so today anyone can rant and rave and discriminate against LGBT citizens with impunity.

There is also a racial influence in the homophobia: “Among the black community 42 percent support gay cruises while the white community approves at 64 percent. A total of 29 percent of black people listed themselves as opposed to such cruises, compared to just 11 percent of white people.”
Full story here.

The head of the New Testament Church of God has come out against any plans to extend human rights to Bermuda’s gay community.Bishop Lloyd Duncan, the pastor at the Heritage Worship Center firmly believes gay rights legislation will be followed by a push to allow gay marriages in Bermuda <followed by the end of the world?!>

Sexual orientation is seen as a vote loser, especially in constituencies with strong fundamentalist church membership… Past polls have shown support for a ban on discrimination. A majority of Americans now support gay marriage for the first time ever. While that idea remains a step too far for many in Bermuda, it seems likely that acceptance of homosexuality in Bermuda is advancing as well.

Fighting Back Against Homophobia

Single-handedly a young woman named Krys Assan has started her own campaign to end discrimination against LGBT in Bermuda. ““I am organizing ‘Home is Where the Hatred Is’ in order to raise awareness about discrimination against gay people on the island. Homophobia to this degree has no place in any decent civilized society. We are free to openly disagree with other forms of sexual expression, but that does not equate to any kind of right to abuse a person on this basis. “As chair of the HRC, I have regularly met with the most senior officers of the Ministry of Human Affairs…

There are two pro-gay organizations that advocate for gay/human rights and health in Bermuda.

(1) Two Words And A Comma dot com
In July 2007, a group of concerned citizens took human rights education into their own hands and launched Two Words and a Comma, a campaign to include sexual orientation as a protected grounds under the Human Rights Act. If you want to learn more about Bermuda’s human rights regime, you can join the Bermuda Human Rights Study Group by emailing bdahumanrights@yahoo.com.

Gay rights and life in Bermuda discussion/blog group supporting Two Words and a Comma
“we now live in a society where we have to start accepting that we cannot have one set of rules for one segment of society and another for another. We are facing the exact same situation that many of our forefathers were persecuted for. I’m not saying you do not have a right to be concerned after all you have the right to your own religious beliefs etc. but when does it get to the point that we stop repeating the mistakes of the past?

This blog includes a lengthy essay about homosexuality: Being Gay: A Life Style Choice?? by Allan N. Schwartz, LCSW, Ph.D.
“The question of what causes some people to be gay has been a topic of endless debate among the general public and the mental health community…”

(2) Rainbow Alliance of Bermuda started August 2012
“We want to show that there are people on this island, and abroad, who stand strong behind the LGBTQ community of Bermuda…  we are frustrated by the discussions around, and treatment of, LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) and queer people in Bermuda, using the word “queer” in its reclaimed meaning as an umbrella term for all sexual minorities. As epitomized through the recent “take note” motion in Parliament surrounding a new “Equality Act”, discussion followed by inaction continues to be too common a thread when it comes to rights for LGBT/queer people.

“However, more than that, the discussions in the House, in the media, on the internet, on talk shows and various other forums have demonstrated the disturbing absence of a safer space in which LGBT/queer people are given a voice to speak about their own struggles and rights. The discourse is often either drenched in openly oppressive, hurtful ignorance or diplomatically tiptoed around in apparent hopes that if the subject (ie actual LGBT/queer people) is made abstract enough, no one will be offended. It is time for this to end. These are real people whose lives are being used as rhetoric, political capital or scapegoats. We agree that Bermuda’s legislation needs to join the modern world and start protecting people of different sexual orientations and gender identities from discrimination by amending the Human Rights Act…

“Our first event, held August 17, 2012, was a total success! We had over 100 people turn up throughout the two-hour open forum, with dozens of people taking the microphone to speak or sing… Help us start taking small steps toward being supportive allies to an all too frequently silenced part of our island.

http://www.facebook.com/RainbowAllianceBermuda
A space for allies and supporters of the LGBTQ community of Bermuda.

Google images for Rainbow Alliance

(3) GoodMen Project
Junior Burchall, Bermuda writer and father, is putting his face and words behind an amendment to protect homosexuals under Bermuda’s Human Rights Act. This campaign is looking to add sexual orientation to the list of protected traits.  Read more here.
See the poster.

HIV support Group

The Allan Vincent Smith Foundation was registered as a Bermuda Charity on December 9 1992. Their mission statement follows that of the Terrence Higgins Trust the UK’s leading AIDS Service Organization: to support, educate and advise the people of Bermuda on AIDS and HIV  and to prevent their spread through the active distribution and dissemination of materials and information to all groups deemed to be at risk.”

Finally

So what appears to be–and is–a smooth cruise into a colorful palm-tree port for LGBT tourists is actually, at the same time, a walk in a field of nettles that stick and sting fed by ignorant fundamentalist religious anti-gay beliefs, legalized homophobia and criminalization backed by weak-willed government authorities  who cling to their inch of power and turn a blind eye to discrimination and human rights abuses.

From Bermuda in the far north of the Caribbean to Trinidad & Tobago in the far south adjacent to Venezuela (about 1500 miles) there are about three dozen islands that entice gay northern visitors. Ninety-five percent of these visitors will come and go with pleasant memories and appealing digital photos. Nothing wrong with that of course. The other five percent may pause  and notice the injustice beneath the pleasantries and appreciate and support the few LGBT rights groups in this huge vacation playground of the western world.

About Gay Marriage
Bermuda has had a difficult process about gay marriage. Two years ago it was illegal then the Supreme Court ruled that was unconstitutional. Then the legislature passed a law banning same sex marriage. Then the Supreme Court in 2018 declared that law to be unconstitutional. So now it’s legal again because of the “freedom of conscience” clause in the constitution.

Gay Life in Bermuda
GlobalGayz.com -- Gay Travel, Life, Advice, Stories, Photos, News, Deals for LGBTs © Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Introduction

Gay Russia is a vast subject with a short modern history. Life is not easy for LGBT Russians and most prefer to remain in quiet safe closets. But three LGBT organizations are challenging the old traditions and attitudes. It is not easy or always safe but the challenge is great and their determination is strong.

By Richard Ammon
GlobalGayz.com
Updated 2018
Note: This is a long report covering gay life in Moscow
and Saint Petersburg. The major sections are:
Finding the Scene–overview
Gay History–from 1700’s to present
Saint Petersburg–gay scene
Activist Groups–three organizations
Moscow–gay scene

A brief comment from 2018 sent by an activist in Moscow:
“As for me personally, I am doing well, job and home, that’s all my life. As for community, it remains underground now. Almost all its events are doomed to be held behind the closed doors and with passport control. Because of Putin’s anti-propaganda law, all LGBT events can be accused of being gay propaganda especially if any minor person might appear there.
Yet, even such a cautions don’t protect LGBT activists from attacks. Last week in Saint Petersburg opened LGBT a cinema festival ‘Side by Side’. The ceremony was behind closed doors, however the member of city parliament Vitaly Milonov, notoriously known for his aggressive homophobia, came there, and stood in front of the doors with his assistants, hooligans and cameras, demanding to stop the festival.
In the end of last year in Moscow we secretly opened a LGBT community center, just a couple of rooms, without any special signboard, very modest. Every week groups of LGBT people gather there for social contact. In the other room there is a MSM health service where one can get tested for HIV. That’s all news so far.

“As for Alexeyev, he is not going to flee from Russia. The point is that his civil partner is Swiss (and French) citizen. They live together about 15 years. And Alexeyev had opportunities to become Swiss citizenship many times before. However he refused many times. Now he sees that political situation in Russia is becoming worse and worse every day. Last year he was  jailed for 10 days by court for participation in banned gay rally. So I guess that he would like to receive some legal safety as a foreign citizen in the future. It doesn’t mean that he will leave Russia for good. No. He will live in Russia like before. The Swiss citizenship is necessary for him just as a kind of some security from legal prosecution by Russian authorities in the future. That’s my opinion.”

Finding the Scene

It’s not easy for an outsider to get a proper take on the LGBT ‘scene’ in Russia. This vast country of eleven time zones stretches more than ten thousand kilometers—6300 miles—from Western Europe to far eastern Vladivostok.

As the  world knows, the Russian Duma (parliament) fast-tracked an anti-gay propaganda law before the Sochi Olympics to stifle any LGBT demonstrations during the games. It is a pathetic, bigoted law that blatantly discriminates against the rights of LGBT Russians. It is a sign of the times there as repression has regained a strong foothold and many–not all–LGBT activists have receded back  into their closets. See interview with activist Nicolai Baev for more.

Several years ago we took the Trans-Siberian Railroad from Mongolia westward through Siberia to Yekaterinburg and back to Vladivostok. Except for closeted individuals and some secretive gay friendship circles in the large cities such as Irkutsk (population 600,000), Krasnoyarsk (1 million), Novosibirsk 1.5 million), Omsk (1.2 million) and Yekaterinburg (1.3 million) and Vladivostok (600,000), a visitor will find no signs of homosexual communities in this huge area that makes up about 77% of Russia’s territory (13.1 million square kms–5 million square mi). Only 25% of Russia’s population lives here.

In contrast, Russia’s two major western cities, Moscow (10.5 million) and St. Petersburg (4.6 million) are home to Russia’s visible gay community but even here the LGBT presence is miniscule. (photo below: Church of the Spilled Blood, St. Petersburg)

Gay travel magazine Passport reported on St. Petersburg in April 2010 with an entertainment piece describing the pretty palaces, impressive churches and the great Hermitage art museum. These descriptions are followed by comments about the gay club scene.

The story is useful if one is there for a few touristic days and a few hours for drinking, dancing or dark rooms. But this is hardly an accurate portrayal of gay life in St Petersburg or Russia. What the journalist, Bill Strubbe, chose to see was an after-dark and behind-closed-doors’ peep show of a virtually invisible gay life that is kept well hidden from public daytime view. Even the most popular club in St, Petersburg, Central Station, doesn’t open until 10 PM. And the author did not appear to seriously interview a single gay person (which I can appreciate since the language barrier is a serious issue).

Gay History (briefly)

Looking for more ‘pulse’ of LGBT life in Russia takes some digging, online research and interviewing of LGBT Russians since a casual visitor will see no visible signs of what gay life is like here.

As one reads the history of the gay movement–or rather gay ‘effort’ since no wide-spread movement has ever emerged in Russia—one sees a fragmented story of occasional unsuccessful efforts to organize in a hostile socialist environment or, since the fall of the Soviet state, in a decidedly homophobic society.

In his overview of Russian gay life, ‘An Approach to the History of Sexual Minorities in Russia’, Alexander Kondakov, a university social scientist in gay studies, describes the usual persecution of homosexuals under the various tsars dating from the 15th century’s Ivan the Terrible through rumored bisexual Peter the Great. (Many believe his close advisor Alexander  Menshikov was also his lover). Punishment for sodomy was usually imprisonment or exile.

Catherine, the Great (gay-friendly) Exception
The only respite from such punitive laws was during the 34-year reign of Catherine the Great (ruled 1762-96; photo right). She was the most enlightened and politically shrewd monarch in Russian history bringing in scholars, philosophers and thinkers of the Enlightenment such as Denis Diderot, Voltaire and Montesquieu from western Europe to her court.

She was apparently influenced much by Diderot who believed that “nothing that exists can be unnatural or perverted” (She was a contemporary of Frederick the Great, the enlightened ‘gay king’ of Prussia who ruled from 1740–1786.)

The Hermitage Museum of art, which now occupies the enormous Winter Palace, began as Catherine’s personal collection. She also wrote plays, fiction and memoirs. Her influence laid the groundwork for the great writers of the nineteenth century, especially for Alexander Pushkin, and her patronage of Russian opera helped bring it to world-class status.

During her time statutes punishing voluntary homosexual relationships were canceled on her instructions. A bit of reading reveals that she was a highly sexual woman who believed in the freedom to love and have sex with attractive men (married or not), of whom there were more than a few. No doubt such thinking casts her as a woman way beyond 18th century Russia in whose eyes the freedom to love included same-sex attractions and feelings.

Unfortunately her time passed and Russia went back to it long-standing homophobic traditions–not that they wholly disappeared under her rule.

A hundred and fifty years later, in 1917, the Bolsheviks abolished the Tsarist penal code that left homosesuality in limbo–not illegal under the new laws. But soon enough under Stalin in 1934 homosex was definitely criminalized. Sixty years later, in 1993 was it decriminalized, one of the conditions of joining the Council of Europe. In January 1999 homosexuality was excluded from the list of mental diseases and its treatment and diagnostics were officially ceased, but is still today considered a ‘deviation’. (photo left: Boris Kustodiev’s ‘Bolshevik’ 1920)

So it is no surprise that homophobia (internal and external) runs high in Russia. After five or six centuries of persecution, it has been less than 20 years since the law changed and activists have been pushing against the tradition of rough discrimination, ignorance and bigotry of tsarist and Soviet rule.

Gay Pride has barely begun in Russia. The lack of a strong ‘community’ is also not surprising given the reluctance of most LGBT Russian people to come out publicly from behind their own fear. The modern idea of a distinct gay identity does not appeal to many Russians. One gay man said “activism occurs here because Westerners put Russians up to it. My good friends know I am gay, but it’s my private business. I’m not interested in telling everyone that I like to sleep with men.”

Another informant added: “I don’t want to be part of a subculture. I know that’s the fashion in the West, but though I may choose to sleep mainly with gay men that doesn’t mean I want to socialize primarily with them.”

That means, if you want to socialize with your straight friends and not be considered an deviant person, keep your mouth shut and don’t come out and especially don’t advocate for change or equal rights. Archaic as this may sound to the Western ear, it is very much a controversial issue among gay Russians in 2010.

Coming Out in Saint Petersburg

St Petersburg is generally felt to be ‘softer’ than Moscow regarding LGBT issues, although this does not mean it’s tolerant in the Western European sense. There are half a dozen popular and trendy gay venues, including the most energized disco, situated literally in the shadow of the great Kazan Cathedral. (photo right)

But the scene is not limited to the night. A small group of LGBT activists, GayRussia.ru is the leading LGBT rights activist organization in Russia today. I met with two members, Maria and Sasha, at the opulently art deco Singer Cafe on Nevsky Street in central St Petersburg one afternoon for coffee.

Maria, a coach for people with speech disorders, is a cheerful enthusiastic GayRussia.ru member who had just returned from an organizational meeting in Moscow with Nicolas Alexeyev the chairperson of GayRussia.ru and other activists. Sasha is a 20-year old student in his fourth year at the St. Petersburg State University (“one of the best”) studying public administration. Maria is comfortably ‘uncoupled’ and Sasha has a boyfriend in Moscow, about 800 kms (430 miles) away.

Both are out to their parents who were upset at first but who came around to present attitudes that “it’s your choice… we want you to be safe and happy.”

(Also see this thoughtful commentary about modern attitudes toward gay parenting, coming out and tolerance in St. Petersburg.)
(photo left Hermitage statue)

One of the reasons why Maria thinks St Petersburg is softer is because their group has been more hidden and have not gone into battle—so far–with the local government over LGBT issues or events. Despite the presence of several gay venues in St Petersburg GayRussia.ru skirts around the authorities with its activities.

However the recent  2012 anti-gay statute banning any public ‘propaganda of homosexuality’ has made their public work virtually impossible. A similar anti-gay law was passed by the federal government for all of Russia in 2013.

The group mounts a yearly (indoor) film festival in the city; despite the ban an occasional brief rally against homophobia is occasionally held on a side street not far from Kazan Cathedral. In the past such small events usually happened without incident but now there is increased risk of arrest. GayRussia.ru local activists and international supporters are sometimes able to outsmart the police and perform a stealth ‘flashmob’ Pride demonstration with flags, banners and brochures for a short while then dispersing before the police arrive. So far no one has been arrested or bashed, but the threat is ever-present.

In Russia people have the right to assembly; the authorities don’t have the power to ban most events outright but they can procrastinate or make delaying excuses for not issuing a permit. But with the new law any LGBT requests will be denied.

Maria and Sasha (photo right) agree “we activists are considered ‘radicals’ even by most of our own LGBT community. They think we are trying to annoy people and we should stay in the closet. They don’t understand the higher principles of equal rights we are entitled to–that all Russians are entitled to. They want to accept that we are not equal.”

In addition to GayRussia.ru there are two other LGBT associations in Moscow and St. Petersburg. See ‘The Activists’ section below.

Raising consciousness and visibility was in the past the story each year for the past several years since GayRussia.ru started gay Pride in 2006 in Moscow.  In 2010 an attempt was made to hold the first Pride festival for St. Petersburg. Needless to say it did not get any support other than a few friends.

Maria had planned to keep that Pride event quiet and low-key but word got out and opposition mounted. One local St. Petersburg parliament member expressed his opinion that homosexual relations in Russia should be criminalized, and gay Pride should be prohibited. “If gays still decide to hold an unsanctioned rally in St. Petersburg,” according to the deputy, “it will be necessary to arrest them and bring them to justice.”

Before the anti-gay law, St. Petersburg human rights ombudsman Alexey Kozyrev  said gay Pride parades could be conducted in St. Petersburg.  Even the predicted failure brought attention and publicity to gay St. Petersburg. (Also see this report of a new St.Petersburg group named ‘Coming Out.)

Anti-homophobia Rally

The day after we met Maria and Sasha (2010) they participated in a local anti-homophobia rally in central St. Peterburg (photos right and left) wearing rainbow flags over their shoulders, carrying signs and handing out brochures that read: “Thus we express our civic right: homophobia is inadmissible. We urge city authorities to struggle with it. Support us–send a Rainbow letter to a city administration with the question: how does it deal with a homophobia?”

The rally was part of Russian LGBT Network’s weeklong anti-homophobia campaign during which they met no resistance, partly because the events were calm and small. The week closed with a day festival of lesbian poetry and songs in a club.

Some Venues in St. Petersburg

Passport magazine writer Bill Strubbe did more bar hopping than GlobalGayz usually does. Here are a few of the venues in St Petersburg according to him.

Dali’s, which GlobalGayz did visit for two minutes then left nearly deaf from the very loud salsa music, is a small, cozy café and bar with blood red walls and surreal touches. The waiter (a university student by day) laughed when asked if there was anything like a gay student club or organization at his college—an absurd notion.

“Central Station Club is on four levels connected by several stairways, a half-dozen bars, two stages, a sushi restaurant, comfortable nooks to chat in, and a dance floor. Sergey the manager explained that the security staff watch out for thugs waiting to attack people leaving the club late at night.”

“Greshniki (Sinners), three floors in an old mansion with a faux-dungeon ambiance (leather and chains) and a decadent, carnival-like scene.”

“Cabaret, located in the former Soviet Palace of Culture near the Baltic railway station”

“The smaller Mono offers a more intimate alternative with an older, friendly crowd.

Regarding the presence of gay venues in the city, Maria had this to say: “our homophobic authorities use this argument against us: ‘There is no discrimination of LGBT people in Russia. You have gay clubs’—they just don’t get it”.” Just don’t say anything in public.

The Passport story concluded: “While there is some increase in personal freedom, and entrepreneurial initiatives are certainly a boon for many in the new Russia, the life of the average person in the countryside has changed little. Meanwhile, the Soviet social safety net that once existed has been irrevocably torn away, leaving the poor and elderly to fend for themselves.” Many babushka women sell flowers or vegetables on the street corners.”

(A Room With a View)

GlobalGayz almost never recommends places to stay, but as an antidote to the expensive hotels suggested by Passport magazine, we stayed at the Pio B&B for only $85 a night for a double. They have two locations in the city. Nice clean modern digs.

The Activists

So who’s doing all the pushing and shoving to stir up trouble with the authorities and continuing the struggle for LGBT human rights in Russia today?

There are three LGBT groups in Russia: GayRussia.ru, Gay.Ru and the Russian LGBT Network.

(1) GayRussia.ru was founded in 2005 and is the main activist leader ‘pushing and shoving’ for gay rights in Russia. GayRussia.ru have no physical office space (they meet at members’ homes) but it is a busy ‘place’ nevertheless. Under the leadership of fearless Nikolai Alekseev, Anna Komarova and Nikolai Baev and about 30 others, GayRussia.ru has become a player on the world stage of gay rights. Their most ‘notorious’ action is the annual mounting of Moscow Gay Pride in May, which has been banned each year by the mayor.

As a full member of ILGA (International Lesbian and Gay Asssociation), GayRussia takes part in the regional and world conferences of the organization; they are the official coordinator of the “International Day Against Homophobia” in Russia; they submit legal cases against discriminatory agencies, government or private. In a landmark case, they succeeded in getting the ban on ‘gay blood’ donations overturned in 2007.

On their extensive website, with an English version, they report “due to the lack of serious queer information in Russia—especially for gay youth–we decided in March 2005 to create a new internet portal for the LGBT community. Our purpose was to offer something different than what was done before. From the very beginning, we decided to ban commercial activities and to focus on gay rights and advocacy. So, project GayRussia.ru was born.” www.gayrussia.ru.

GayRussia.ru have also published the first-ever gay map of Moscow and have participated in Western European Pride parades in Paris, Berlin and London.

They have organized the publication of two books, in Russian, about Oscar Wilde. They have also protested in front of the Iranian embassy in Moscow against gay murders; participated in the controversial Riga Pride events; sent representative to the OutGames Human Rights Conference in Copenhagen 2009; challenged the current law on Public Demonstrations for the last five years arguing in different cases of banned gay public actions that the law in its current form is not applied correctly by the Russian authorities; They offer LGBT social venues /clubs/bars on their website along with general cultural sites such as the Kremlin and Pushkin Museum. Their website offers insights into legal, political and religious life in Russia.

Over the last 3 years, the activists of GayRussia.Ru not only spoke against homophobia of Russian politicians, public and religious figures. They also conducted several legal campaigns to the European Court of Human Rights against officials and religious leaders such as the Mayor of Moscow (for his ban on gay Pride) and Mufti Talgat Tadjuddin (for his inflammatory anti-gay remarks). These are two examples among 200 court cases concerning legal and discrimination issues submitted by GayRussia.ru in recent years.

The visibility of the Russian LGBT community has increased, both locally and abroad. The conflict and confrontations around the Moscow Pride (photo left) has helped to attract attention of international participants and brought international media attention to GayRussia.ru and their work. More than one foreign supporter has had his nose bloodied in the tussle with police.

GayRussia.ru was featured in the gay documentary ‘Beyond Gay: The Politics of Pride‘ about the problems GayRussia faces each year in mounting Gay Pride. “The movie directed by Bob Christie is dedicated to the gay pride movements around the world. It emphasized the activity behind organizing gay prides, which often, are taken for granted by many activists in western countries while in other parts of the globe, such events are still banned.”

(2) Gay.ru was started in 1996 as an information and entertainment web site. They don’t deal with politics and are not affiliated with GayRussia.ru. Nowhere on their site is the activity of GayRussia.ru acknowledged (and vice versa).

Gay.ru is not a real organization with meetings. On their site they offer articles in English and Russian including a lengthy history of homosexuality. “We made Gay.Ru a place where our gay, lesbian, and questioning visitors can find such vitally important information as psychological aspects of coming out, coping with homophobia, safer-sex techniques; read life stories of fellow gays and lesbians and receive a response to their questions.”

On their site they also announced a successful gay film festival (poster left) in Novosibirsk in April 2010. They list available gay guides in English to Moscow and St. Petersburg, a useful idea since a foreign visitor is easily lost because of the language barrier.

Entertainment and night life venues are listed but the reliability of the listings is uncertain since two of the listed places—Eros sauna and Body-and-Soul club—have both been closed for a while.

Gay.ru also has useful brief commentaries on gay life in Russia regarding politics (“gays and lesbians have not been allowed to voice out their concerns as a community, but also they dare not to be ‘out’ and behave naturally”); law (“legal status of Russian gays remains precarious; they are often subjected to abuse and harassment both by government official and fellow citizens.”); community (“apart from Moscow and St. Petersburg, there is no gay community in Russia or in any neighboring ex-republic of the former USSR society”);  family (“Same-sex unions are not generally accepted in Russia… younger Russians now are fighting back”); religion (“the Orthodox Church still treats gays as depraved sinners who do not merit redemption”); history (“the official historiography has stonewalled the gay side of Russian social life”).

Also, bisexuality (“gays don’t accept them as ‘their kind’, don’t agree with the policy of ‘pleasing both’”); lesbians (“lesbian means deviation, period. So let us be the best naughty girls.”); trans people (“it should be added that both can be gay or straight”); art and culture (“great gay artists–what they had to go through in tough Russia to grant us the joy of their talent”); travelers guide (“our site features the most comprehensive list of gay venues in the ex-USSR.”); a Forum (mostly sex search listings), and online shopping (books mostly).

(3) Russian LGBT Network was organized in 2006 as a human rights monitoring association of LGBT people who wanted to bring rights violations to the public view as a way of non-activist education. It was formed in response to the worsening situation for LGBT people in Russia in 2004 and 2005. In their work they collaborate with the Moscow-Helsinki Group, which is Russia’s oldest and largest human rights group.

LGBT Network is based in St. Petersburg under its leader, Igor Kochetkov (Petrov). The have less of a presence in Moscow. LGBT Network claim to have 13 regional offices (Saint Petersburg, Tyumen, Pskov, Tomsk, Kemerovo, Omsk, Arkhangelsk, Perm, Volgograd oblasts, Khabarovsk and Krasnoyarsk krais, the Republic of Karelia, and Tatarstan).

LGBT Network feels strongly about people from the rural areas being included within the LGBT Network to learn how to organize and promote human rights. “They want to fight but don’t know how. The network’s most important task is to support and train them,” said Igor Petrov.

In response to this need, LGBT Network developed a human rights training course called ‘One Week Against Homophobia’ and was implemented. It has played an important role in giving rural gays the courage to organize and network with the larger Network in St. Petersburg.

In autumn of 2008, LGBT Network co-arranged with the Swedish-Helsinki Committee a large conference that was attended by about 100 participants from across Russia. The aim was to create alliances among human rights organizations. In addition to monitoring violations, LGBT offers a useful brochure titled ‘Domestic Rights for Gays and Lesbians in Russia’  (photo left) that discusses ways for gays and lesbians to create families with those whom they love. Actually, in the laws of Russian one can already protect relations, general interests and property of same-sex couples.  The brochure is written by a lawyer specialized in civil law.

Another notable achievement of LGBT Network was somewhat ‘activist’, despite their disdain for face-to-face actions. In July 2009 a meeting between the Russian Federation Human Rights Ombudsman, Vladimir Lukin, and representatives from LGBT Network took place. During that meeting LGBT Network presented an extensive 40-page report titled ‘Discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in Russia’  conducted by the Moscow Helsinki Group in cooperation with the Russian LGBT Network in 2007-2008.

It is a landmark report, the first specialized study of the legal situation of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered people (LGBT community) in Russia. The report included an evaluation of the laws with respect to guarantees of non-discrimination and a sumary of identified facts of violation of rights and freedoms of people with nontraditional sexual orientation and gender identity.

Ombudsman Lukin expressed a positive attitude toward lesbians, bisexuals and transgender citizens and said they are entitled to same rights as all other people. “If rights of specific people are violated due to their orientation, we are ready to protect their rights.”

Also within the Network, there is an smaller organization is called “Vykhod” (Coming Out), one of their most important functions.  Coming Out has an official registration from the Ministry of Justice as a legal entity, a very rare achievement for a LGBT associations in Russia, which are usually denied by authorities. Coming Out has real ‘activists’ (not the street variety like GayRussia.ru) in St. Petersburg, who are funded with money from abroad. The organization’s main goals are combating discrimination, defamation, and violation of rights, monitoring human rights compliance “in the sphere of gender relations” and in promoting gender equality in the society.

Differences Between the Three Organizations

Each of these three Russian groups has a different focus and mode of operating. GayRussia.ru is in the streets with overt activism and does political lobbying. “We believe that our visibility gives us more chances to be accepted and tolerated by society and to gain our human rights.”

Gay.ru is moderate and doesn’t think that active visibility of gays is useful. They prefer offering quiet internet information about LGBT life issues and social activities.

Russian LGBT Network also does not demonstrate in any public actions. Instead LGBT Network operates quietly, organizing meetings, networking, producing brochures and publicizing rights violations to the larger world-wide human rights organizations.

Are the three organizations antagonistic to each other? “They were antagonists some years ago,” said Nikolai Baev of GayRussia.ru. “There was a battle of issues on both sites in 2006 and 2007, as we started the Gay Pride movement in Moscow. GayRussia.ru was criticized by Gay.ru for such a politics and we accused them of passivism and collaborating with homophobic authorities. Now both sides (activist vs inactivist) just ignore each other, and try to be neutral. They entertain, we keep fighting.”

Cruising Through (Part of) Gay Moscow

I had arranged a walking interview with Nikolai Baev, a leading activist with GayRussia.ru and we strolled around the fashionable Tverskaya Street area where mostly straight trendy shops, cafes and bars are found. New money in Moscow means designer coffee and being seen in high fashion.

The feel of Moscow is different from St Petersburg. Moscow is a ‘hard’ city that moves fast; business is brisk for the small but prosperous middle class that has emerged since 1989. BMWs race around town for the lucky few while the other 8 million riders use the vast subway system.

There is an edge of intensity in the visible and invisible here. During our weeks (in 2010) in the city there were two (same-day) terrorist subway suicide bombings that killed about 40 people. (We missed being victims of one of the bombs by 15 minutes as we walked to the subway.) (photo left)

The next day a famous senior human rights activist. 88 year-old Lyudmila Alexeyeva who founded the country’s oldest rights group Moscow-Helsinki Group, was mysteriously assaulted as she laid flowers at the subway victims’ memorial.  A few days later a Moscow city court judge was murdered in his apartment building because he sentenced right-wing nationalists to long prison terms for their violent crimes against immigrants.

Separately, the most senior living Russia diplomat, Anatoly Dobrynin, longtime ambassador to Washington, died at the age of 90 in Moscow. On the upside, the following week Obama and Medvedev signed a nuclear arms treaty.

Then a few days later the President of Poland and his large entourage of ninety Polish officials were all killed when their plane crashed in eastern Russia as they were arriving to memorialize a World War II massacre.

It was indeed an intense three weeks—not to mention the major frustration of not understanding or reading Russian. Cyrillic letters are not easy for a visitor and there are very few signs in English.

Continuing with Nikolai

Nikolai, 35, is a lovely bear of a man, with a stylish light beard and moustache. He was dressed like millions of other Muscovites in dark clothes and carried a black shoulder bag. He was soft-spoken and self-assured in his advocacy work. Professionally he is a translator (3 languages) having majored in languages the Moscow University. He lives with his partner Nikita of 11 years, which is a very long time in Russia. Nikita is an architect in a small office where no one inquires about his ‘wife’.

I had arranged to meet Nikolai at the St. George column by the Trubnaya Metro entry, just in front of a huge luxury apartment complex being built of glass and steel and countless tons of cement and re-bar. He was quite willing to do a walkabout with GlobalGayz in the area and point out some local gay venues. Since it was early, 7-8 PM, few LGBT bars or discos were open. (photo right: Nikolai and Richard)

Tucking along alleyways and back streets, Nikolai led us to half a dozen anonymous gay and lesbian places including a visit to the only gay sex shop in all Russia–all 6.5 million square miles of the country. It’s name, aptly and courageously is Queer. From this shop is published the only gay magazine in Russia, also named ‘Queer’, (Kvir, photo right) and the only lesbian magazine, ‘Pinx’ (photo left). Both magazines are glossy monthlies with commentaries on contemporary issues and lots of fashion and skin. (As of 2013 both had stopped publication.)

Although not on a main street, Queer sex shop is unusual in that it has a large blue plastic sign out front that’s readily visible—a bold move. Inside, it looks as familiar as any shop in London’s Soho with videos, magazines (one brand, it own), T-shirts, shorts, underwear (expensive: US$50 for sexy shorts), books, sex toys, no ‘performance enhancers’.

Pornography is technically illegal in Russia but there are numerous imported porno videos on the shelves at Queer. Offering such merchandise is dancing on the edge of social tolerance but Nikolai hinted that the shop offers sufficient ‘gifts’ to certain local people. On the way out I saw flyers for the recent ‘A Single Man‘ video (pirated? authorized?). I bought a copy of the latest ‘Queer’ magazine for US$4. This shop with it bright lights and colorful merchandise was the liveliest place we visited on our stroll.

(See another (2013) interview with Nicolai Baev at Gay City News.)

Gay Life in Russia

We walked and talked about gay life in modern Russia, which only started 21 years ago with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989. Since then, there has been much or little progress, depending on how one measures. During the last decades of the Soviets, numerous furtive and short-lived groups, publications and individuals made efforts to gather a LGBT community but none succeeded for long. Such things were illegal and sporadic but as always there were furtive places that attracted gays, such as in front of the Bolshoi Ballet Theatre or certain parks at certain times.

Said Nikolai, “during Soviet times, Moscow’s size made it the safest home for underground gay nightlife, with certain bars and clubs serving as unofficial gay Moscow hotspots. Now that bars and clubs cater to gays without fear of reprisal, gay Moscow is getting louder and prouder. Homophobia is still present in Russian society, to be sure, but gay Moscow life is far more comfortable and accepted than ever.”

Today there are half a dozen lively and quiet LGBT places in Moscow but a visitor would never find most of them; they are literally underground, in renovated half-cellars where various ‘types’ gather regularly–youth, lesbians, bears, business types. Typically they are entered through a metal door in an unmarked entryway.

One was called 12-Volt, mainly a lesbian venue. As we passed by three women entered quickly and disappeared behind the door. (photo left) Nikolai said it was a rather small place with a small dance floor and a DJ. This cozy club, like others, has no street presence or any advertising that would attract unwanted attention.

Things change quickly in this city. Nikolai took me to another anonymous bar but it was closed down. A third one was not open yet for the night.

Since Nikolai and I are not bar people and time was short we didn’t pursue other places but online there are numerous websites that list LGBT venues. The major ones in Moscow are Propaganda, Tsifri (Digits), New Age plus 3 saunas. That said, it’s difficult for a foreigner to get an accurate take on the immediate scene because many websites are not updated frequently and closed venues are still listed. The most accurate information is from a gay guide once you arrive in the city.

A cruise on the internet reveals the following venues but I cannot verify the information. Some sites have not been updated since 2002. The listings here do not include saunas; there are two or three, or four.

Gay.ru website lists these Moscow venues: Tsifri (Digits) bar/club, Elf Cafe, Body and Soul, New Age (Three Monkeys), Propaganda,

Associated Content website lists these places: Bar 119, 12-Volt, Samovolka (Absent Without Leave), New Age (Three Monkeys), Daria Moria (Gifts of the Sea), Cafe Stereo, Baza

Way to Russia website lists these: Propaganda Pink Fly (website dead),

Gay Moscow.com website lists these: Shans, Three Monkeys, Central Station

Nightours.com website  lists these: 911 Cafe, Elf Cafe, Body and Soul, Chubabar, Propaganda, Three Monkeys

Finally

Moscow has a reputation of being intolerant to ‘different’ people, not just gays but to foreigners who come to Moscow from Central Asia. There are beatings and murders of these immigrants. Gays usually only get punched around by skinheads and arrested by police when they mount a ‘manifestation’ such as Gay Pride.

Noted Nikolai, “We would rather be arrested than attacked.” So GayRussia.ru usually lets the media know where they will have a Pride activity knowing the police will find them–hopefully before the skinheads. It’s a cat-and-mouse game that happens every year with international activists arriving to support GayRussia.ru in their combat with homophobic authorities and street gangs.

Gay Russia is fragmented among three major organizations that prefer not to join hands in unity. But that strategy is sufficient for now because there is so much work to do to bring the ‘new’ Russia into the modern world of LGBT rights. Each of the three groups is working in the same direction by different means using different tactics: activism, conferences and monitoring, and social networking and entertainment venues. The country is huge, the task is enormous, the active gay community is very small—but hope is strong and the rest of the LGBT world is with them on the side of justice and equality.
A Note About HIV/AIDS
AIDS is a serious epidemic in Russia. During my visit, I did not encounter or talk to anyone involved in HIV/AIDS care and prevention. This I regret. For anyone interested, Lsted here are some useful websites that give an overview and specifics of HIV/AIDS work in Russia.

AVERT is an international HIV and AIDS charity, based in the UK.
HIV in Russia from About.com
HIV and Aids in Russia from The Body AIDS Resource
HIV Organizations in Russia
GayRussia.ru and HIV
HIV Programs in Russia  and Yale University
USAID in Russia
Transatlantic Partners Against AIDS: “Russia has a well-developed HIV/AIDS infrastructure including the Federal AIDS Center (responsible for federal guidelines, normative direction, and epidemiology), seven interregional AIDS centers, 88 regional AIDS centers, and a growing number of municipal AIDS centers. AIDS centers provide HIV/AIDS prevention, testing and counseling, treatment, surveillance and laboratory monitoring…”

Also see: Gay Russia News and Reports
Also see: Russia Photo Galleries

Gay Russia 2010-18
GlobalGayz.com -- Gay Travel, Life, Advice, Stories, Photos, News, Deals for LGBTs © Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

By Richard Ammon
Updated July 2017

Also See:
Gay Ireland News & Reports 2000 to present
Gay Ireland Photo Galleries

Dublin’s Liberal Downtown

Dublin resonates with images and sounds both ancient and modern. As I walked into a gay/mixed café/bar called The Front Lounge, located only steps away from Dublin Castle, I could hear Christ Church Cathedral’s 18th century deep bell tolling six blocks away. Suddenly slicing through the sonorous chime like a jack hammer was the ramrod roar of a Kawasaki motorcycle charging past and round the corner of O’Neill’s Victorian pub with its stained-glass windows.

Inside the Front Lounge an assortment of patrons huddled over their Guinness, Cokes or Beaujolais chatting with friends as they gestured with cigaretted hands punctuating their talk. The Front Lounge is a gay/mixed place with high ceilings, (photo left) lots of floor space, comfortable sofas and a lunchtime food bar. Along the walls are paintings and sculptures bathed under display lighting.
(Unfortunately the Front Lounge closed in 2016 but I keep the story for its cultural value here.)

I listened for a while as four men in their twenties and thirties bantered and asserted their momentary thoughts about friendship, job security, a new outfit, changing flats, and gossip from a recent party. Each one of them had a cell phone that seemed to chirp every twelve minutes. From their accents it was obvious they were not all Irish. As it turned out no one in this little clutch was. One handsome dark man spoke Spanish. When I asked him from where he replied,”from Columbia—but my father is Irish”. Another member of their circle was from Brazil, a third from Paris and the other from Italy. Modern Dublin is busy, gay and very international.

The capital is a remarkably comfortable metropolis in which to be a gay or lesbian denizen. In no small part is this due to the esteemed former President Mary Robinson (former UN high commissioner for Human Rights) who as a young solicitor took her own government to the European Court of Human Rights because of its anti-gay statutes still lingering on the books from an obsolete moral era.

She and co-counsel David Norris won their case and the Irish parliament was left struggling to modernize their legal thinking about homosexuality or face censure from the European Union, something Ireland could ill afford. In the ten years since that landmark action, Ireland has made up for lost time with some of the most pro-gay protections and equality laws in the European Union.

Literary Dublin

Dublin is also unique in the prominence and visibility it gives to its literary figures—gay or straight. James Joyce’s visage has at least two statues around town (photo right).

In Merrion Park, gay icon Oscar Wilde (once imprisoned for loving another man) has a dramatic—if not a quietly flamboyant–presence in colored marble. His unusual reclining statue (photo left in Merrion Square) is located across the street from his childhood home, now a museum owned by the American College in Dublin.

A nearby book store sells postcards with the faces of Irish writers: in addition to the two well-knows with statues, there are J.M.Synge, Jonathan Swift, Sean O’Casey, Brendan Behan, W.B. Yeats, Samuel Beckett, Bram Stoker, and George Bernard Shaw.

And this literary tradition is not just an historic artifact. In the October ’02 issue of Gi magazine (Gay Ireland) four of Ireland’s most respected living writers are profiled—all happen to be gay: Jamie O’Neill (author of ‘At Swim, Two Boys’, recently made into a mainstream film), Colm Toibin (nominated for the Booker Prize in 1999 for ‘The Blackwater Lightship’), Frank Ronan (awarded a top Irish prize for his 1989 ‘The Men Who Loved Evelyn Cotton’) and Keith Ridgway (debuted in 1989 with the intense ‘The Long Falling’).

So it should not be surprising that in such a literate town would be found a gay bar called The Wig & Pen, a “straight friendly” pub where writers bring their works-in-progress to read or listen to other budding literati.

Perhaps not as poetic or academic, ‘Gi’ magazine is a trendy glossy monthly with slick international fashion pics, gossip and images of celebrities as well as thoughtful interviews. There are serious features about dating, gay families, politics, gay immigrants as well as adverts for more mainstream items as cars, liquor and watches. There are no sex ads in the back. For those, one has to read GCN (Gay Community News), the monthly newspaper which has here-and-now entertainment, news and events. The third gay rag is Free! which are strictly gay-scene happenings at the various clubs, bars along with party gossip.

Gay Dublin at Night

As well as being a vibrant colorful museum with traffic coursing among its antique Georgian (18c) architecture, Dublin buzzes with countless cafes and pubs, some with daunting names like ‘The Bleeding Horse’. Focused in (but not limited to) a section of the old downtown called Temple Bar is Dublin’s modest but vital gay night life. Half a dozen bars/pubs, two, B&B’s, a couple of saunas, four or five disco clubs and dozens of organizations abide quietly among the trendy non-gay cafes, department stores, crystal shops, the ubiquitous Spar convenience stores, souvenir stalls—and hundreds of straight pubs populated with serious Irish drinkers (beer/lager is drunk here in pint-sized glasses).

The best-known gay bar is The George. It’s not unlike other watering holes in its casual ambience, somewhat cliquish attitude and pricey drinks. Actually there are two Georges, one next to the other. The larger one has a late-night DJ spinning out disco tunes for the younger set as they shimmy on the dance floor. Some nights are film night and patrons watch flicks with gay themes: ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ was on when we stopped in. The other George one is half as big and serves up drinks to patrons twice the age without the dance.

Just across the river on one of the main streets is Panti Bar a spacious popular bar on two floors. More than a gay brew house this venue also offers live programs such as dance performances and stand-up comedy night. (photo left)

What makes these watering holes and dance halls additionally appealing is they are not exiled to seamier edges of town among warehouses or run-down apartment blocks. Rather, they are close in next to chic restaurants, fashion boutiques and countless non-gay pubs.

But neither are there rainbow flags to signal their presence either. Except for the handsomer-than-usual bouncer at the entry to George there are no distinguishing markings to set it off. It’s an appropriate decision, much like similar decisions in other European cities where homosexuality—despite its legality—is still a volatile and ambivalent stimulus to roughneck hets who love their beer more than queers. Gay bashing is rare but neither is it absent from the street scene, especially after midnight and a few pints of brew.

A few blocks away—in opposite directions—are the two openly gay B&B’s. Inn on the Liffey looks out onto the Liffey River, in the center of the old town. There is also Frankie’s Guesthouse which has been offering its hospitality for nearly fifteen years. Tucked away on tiny Camden Place, it appears from the street as a colorful row house with lavender paint and hanging flowerpots. It offers 14 rooms to visitors some with and some without bath. TJ Cunningham (Joe) and his partner Frankie from Malaysia own the residence. For the literate-minded, it is only a couple of blocks from the birthplace of George Bernard Shaw. Frankie’s gets poor ratings on the hospitality scale.

Add to these venues the hip-hop light and sound that emanates from the numerous clubs (on different nights) such as Club Soho which has theme nights such as Candy, Campus (students) and Atomic (80’s night). On Sunday nights a “homosocialite merry-go-round” happens at the Spy Club. Then there is another nightclub called Delicious at the Viva with its Red Room (“chill to mellow music”) and Blue Room (“camp classics and cocktails”). At the Temple Bar Music Center there is the monthly Club Tease with on-stage visuals (girth to drag), dance floor and two bars. Oil Can Harry’s pub and restaurant has food, live music and karaoke. There are currently two saunas for men in Dublin, the most popular one being aptly called the Boilerhouse.

And certainly not to be overlooked is the Alternative Miss Ireland pageant where, as I was told, “anything goes” from outrageous drag entries to coifed poodles. Billing itself as “the years most post-culturally-kinky event”, contestant vie in outlandish attire for the top prize. Check out their web site: (http://www.alternativemissireland.com/2002/index.asp?page=p review).

Heart of the Scene

The noisy and sexy gay scene may be found in the various bars and clubs, but the heart of the gay pulse in Dublin is found in the many quiet organizations that have formed over the past decade. All of these listings are found in ‘Free!’ and ‘GCN’, both published in Dublin. On the last page of GCN, I counted nearly 75 lesbigay listings of organizations and services offered in Dublin alone. This is clearly not a provincial city.

The range of special interest groups in Dublin is typical of a large urban gay community: sports, recovery, Amnesty International, bisexuals, naturists, leather, spiritual, parents, books/literary. Some of my favorites as I read the listings were Swimmin’ Wimmin and one called Clitoratae Sexualities (“sex, desire, gender, workshops, multimedia dance clubs, queer artists”—for women obviously).

Dublin’s most outstanding organization is easily the LGBT center called OUThouse whose administrator, Jim Lowther, told me there are approximately 18 groups that utilize the three stories of their recently purchased building on Capel Street in the downtown area. Their web site lists services and happenings that range from a drop-in café, a library-in-progress, counseling, telephone hotline, youth groups, a transsexual-support group as well as LGBT education outreach to the public.

Housed in one of the OUThouse offices is the highly valued Gay Men’s Health Project/Gay Health Network offering a variety of services and referrals for all health matters for the LGBT community. They also offer clinical services for STDs and HIV patients in association with Baggot Hospital.

Jim was especially proud that OUThouse is the only major LGBT center that actually owns their building, thanks in part to private donations and funding from the city of Dublin.. To cap this happy purchase, the President of Ireland, May McAlysse, attended the grand opening of the new quarters in 2002.

Lowther observed that much of the success of the center was due to a conscious effort to include lesbians and gay men equally in governance and offered services. “Exclusionary organizations, for men or women, often break down after an initial period of defiant excitement. So from the start we were sure to be inclusive in our efforts and it has worked very well here.” As well, OUThouse makes every effort to network closely with other LGBT organizations around the country including The Other Place in Cork city, Red Ribbon Health Project in Limerick, Foyle Friend in Derry (Northern Ireland) and the Rainbow Project in Derry and Belfast.

I asked Jim about gay activism in Ireland and how well it was organized.

“Homosexuality has only been decriminalized since 1993. Before that time there was considerable activity to change the laws; there was a big and constant push against that oppression. But once the law was changed there was a significant drop in activity. Many people thought that was all we needed, but in truth that’s just the beginning. Small town Irish thinking has not yet been liberated to the point where sexual varietion is acceptable.That’s why most gay people move to Dublin, to get away from small towns—and small thinking.

“It’s slowly changing as people are exposed more with TV and films and more coverage in the media. You find some organizations in other cities like Cork, Limerick, Galway, Waterford and even less in some other towns like Kerry or Sligo. But there isn’t nearly the force or presence here of funded national organizations like Stonewall in England or the Human Rights Campaign in USA. Ireland is still a conservative country. There is still a lot of personal fear in coming out and risking rejection from your family or the community you live in.”

Is there any good news in any of this, I asked?

“At the local level, there are a lot of organizations to be praised, considering we’ve had less than ten years of legitimate life. Surprisingly, the best news comes from the federal government and not just from the changes in legislation. There is an Equality Authority which just this year issued a significant report on the status and condition of gays and lesbians and transsexuals in Ireland. It’s an extensive analysis based on consultations with many groups regarding important aspects of life and how they affect gays. It makes positive recommendations about marriage, adoption, arts support, discrimination, health, finance and education as they relate to the LGBT community. It’s very well done.”

However, Lowther continued, the challenge is to disseminate and activate this valuable information at the grass roots level. “It’s great to have this report but now the challenge is to inform rural gay people about their rights and to educate straight people about the unfair treatment of gays. It’s an effort we’re working on, however slowly.” One small step, he noted, was at a recent choral concert given by the police where they invited a gay choral group to sing with them. This is a small but big step. It came about because of an open minded police commissioner following a gay bashing and the resulting demand for remedial action.

Lowther also noted that right-wing fundamentalism in Ireland is rare and is confined to fringe groups for the most part. Physical violence against gays is rare. This comment reassured me a bit especially; earlier in the day as I was checking e-mail in a Dublin Internet café I overheard some obviously non-gay surfers, four guys in their young twenties, react with “that’s sick” when they came across a site about ex-ex gays. Irish prejudice is ever present even in ‘liberated’ Dublin.

Update from Passport magazine

Perhaps the most surprising change in the EU-era Dublin is the exuberance of the gay and lesbian community. Just a decade ago, the conservative Catholic church still held sway; now, non-discrimination laws are on the books and their spirit is embraced by a young, liberal population. Bertie Ahern, the (former) popular Taoiseach or Prime Minister of Ireland, recently re-opened The Outhouse (105 Capel Street), the LGBT community center in Dublin, and took the opportunity to forcefully promise civil partnership status for gay and lesbian couples.

While boasting nowhere near the volume of venues in meccas like New York or London, Dublin’s gay nightlife has diversified with this new openness. The appealing George barwith its deceptively large floor and clutter-free décor, (33-34 Parliament Street) consistently attracts a sophisticated after-work crowd, then packs in even more hip young men and women for its Tuesday night karaoke party.

In residence at the impressive Georgian Powerscourt Townhouse Centre (also well worth a stop for a shopping excursion during the daylight hours), Spice invites revelers to take a turn through various sitting rooms and multiple DJ-driven styles.

The biggest news on the scene, however, has to be the exceptional new companion club to The George, cheekily named The Dragon Bar (64-65 South Great Georges Street). Red-eyed gargoyles peer down from vaulted, blue-light-flooded ceilings while a very attractive mixed crowd lounges in velvet warrens and along multi-leveled bars; it’s gay night at Dracula’s Castle. Although the décor could easily slip over the edge into theme park, the Dragon stays clear of the precipice and serves up a relaxed, modern atmosphere with just enough of a self-aware wink. For the latest events, including the popular but irregularly scheduled women’s night, Kiss, check out the bulletin board at the Outhouse or the comprehensive listings in GCN magazine.

Going out doesn’t have to mean just hitting the bars, though; there are plenty of cultural options in this city that has always been known for its creativity. To sample the full range of Dublin’s contemporary arts scene, check out the Project Arts Centre (39 East Essex Street). Dance, theatre, visual art, and music jostle for attention in multiple galleries and performance spaces, all under one roof.

Just around the corner, the Irish Film Institute (6 Eustace Street) is dedicated to preserving the best of Ireland’s impressive film making heritage and to promoting up-and-coming celluloid talents. Monthly screenings, one-of-a-kind discussions, and special events open up their fascinating archives to visitors. If art house cinema feels a bit highbrow, just step outside into the public spaces of Temple Bar and experience Ireland’s longest and largest festival of free outdoor events, Diversions Festival 2008 (information available at the Temple Bar Cultural Centre, 12 East Essex Street). During the festival’s run from June to August, markets, music, and movies spill into the streets throughout the heart of Dublin. To get up-to-the-minute listings of even more galleries, museums, and events, click over to Dublin Tourism’s detailed website.

For all the talk of a new, worldly Ireland, it is worth remembering that Dublin has been the center of fashion before; the sights of the late eighteenth-century city can compete with even the most stylish of current trends. Imposing museums and stately Georgian homes, including the fascinating Number Twenty Nine (29 Fitzwilliam Street Lower), line the streets around Merrion Square. A stroll through the park, with its evocative collection of gas lamps and twisting, tree-shaded paths, is the perfect romantic escape, culminating in a visit to a statue of Dublin’s own Oscar Wilde. Colorful and sarcastic, fashionable and gay, he seems to be looking out at the city he left behind with a sly grin, reveling in the fact that Dublin has caught up to him at last.

Gay Life in Modern Ireland–Dublin
GlobalGayz.com -- Gay Travel, Life, Advice, Stories, Photos, News, Deals for LGBTs © Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

By Richard Ammon

Also See:
Gay Ireland News & Reports 2000 to present
Gay Ireland Photo Galleries

Limerick

According to the gay Ireland web site and the opinions of some people in Cork—including the two gay farmers we met—there is supposedly no gay life in Limerick.

But a couple of questions asked at an Internet café in Limerick were cheerfully responded to by a pretty short-haired blonde attendant. “Oh yes,” she said without delay, “there is gay club called Yum Yum just two blocks down this street; and there’s a gay restaurant on the next turning right.” She was quite sure of herself so I followed her directions and found myself two blocks later with no visible pub and no discernible restaurant.

The White House ‘restaurant’ turned out to be a straight pub where I asked two women chatting up each other if they knew whether this pub was a mixed place. “I think it used to be several years ago but not any more,” she offered with a pleasant smile. From the bar tender I heard that the Yum Yum was a Friday-only club at the hotel around the corner.

Sure enough, at the Glentworth Hotel from 11:30 PM till about two in the morning every Friday night was lesbigay night. The cheerful desk clerk also offered that another club occurs at a disco upstairs from the Savoy cinema every Sunday late night.

In addition to getting oriented, I was impressed by the casual and non-judgmental attitudes of these straight locals who appeared quite friendly and willing to help me out–a far cry from the stereotype myth of sexually uptight Ireland.

So there is some gay life in Limerick—of course. In a city of 52,000 there are surely some pink folks around, but how many are brave or willing to show up in public is another matter. Not surprisingly, the younger gen-x and gen-y guys and girls go for it, for the music, the beat and the comradeship. Before I left the non-gay White House pub, the same pleasant straight woman told me my best bet was to call the Gay and Lesbian Switchboard. So apparently that service is well know in the city, another good sign of a rainbow pulse in downtown Limerick.

Checking the directory in GCN, I saw thirteen venues and services for gay Limerick, including the Gay Switchboard Limerick and the Lesbian Line Limerick. There are two gay university groups. Other support groups are for transsexuals and for youth; another group is the fortnightly Dining Club. OutFun is a social gathering for ‘alternatives to the scene’. Of importance are the Limerick AIDS Helpline as well as the Red Ribbon Project. The choices for party/disco venues are limited (according to GCN) to the monthly Glentworth party, the Savoy disco and a third bash called Cosmo held at the Vintage Club.

Main Street, Limerick

Along the main drag of O’Connell Street after 7PM young people (straight? gay? in-between?) start to invade the fast food eateries, ice cream shops, and sidewalks in their sloppy outfits of baggy jeans, oversize sweatshirts with wrinkled T-shirts hanging out and wearing clunky black shoes. It seemed their dress code was anti-style. Many of them were loud and acted goofy. The boys sported the popular haircut that’s shaved around the edge with a longer saucer of hair on top. Some of them looked as if they had done it at home in a mirror and the result was less than flattering.

Across the main street from the King George Hotel disco was St Augustine’s RC church. It was September 11, 2002, which occasioned a commemorative service. Inside the place was packed. A large hand-sewn American flag hung on one wall behind a tall wooden cross-hung with a white drape. Below the cross there were hundreds of smaller Styrofoam crosses pegged into an earthen mound. High on another wall was a large white cloth dove silhouetted against a blood red background.

On the other side of the main aisle, hundreds of votive candles flickered in red white and blue glasses. An adjacent TV monitor displayed a slide show with hundreds of faces (Irish or Irish descent?) of people killed in the terrorist attack. The congregation sang hymns like Amazing Grace; homilies were intoned asking to relieve humanity of its prejudices. More prayers were offered into the trust of Mary or Jesus. In front on the altar were clergy, police and firemen in their uniforms facing the congregation. It was a touching and unexpected ceremony. I had forgotten how strongly the Irish felt toward the USA. Considering how many millions of families had immigrated to America over the past hundred and seventy years—including the ancestors of three US Presidents–I should not have been surprised.

Galway

It didn’t take long to find signs of gay life in Galway. I stopped to buy a copy of the Irish Times at a downtown news stand and close by were recent issues of Attitude magazine and Gay Times (both from London), Out (from USA) as well as Gay Ireland magazine (Gi). Checking the listings in GCN newspaper, there were sixteen gay and lesbian venues, groups and services in town, two bars, three cafes, help phone lines, support groups and HIV care groups. A popular after hours club was called Bubblelove (n0w called Gaire). As we discovered over the next couple of days, eight of the venues were lesbian focused or lesbian owned.

One evening we stopped by one of the lesbian-owned bar for men, Zulu, and talked with one of the bartenders named John. It turned out that, without knowing he worked at Zulu, I had called him earlier in the day requesting a room. As we spoke at Zulu he said he had been the manager of the Rainbow GuestHouse which had closed recently because he lost the lease. He said he intended to reopen again somewhere else after he returned from a vacation in the Canary Islands.

Zulu bar is smallish place with cozy but unimaginative interior; colored lights on ceiling, seating for a dozen; the atmosphere is casual, quiet, friendly and definitely local. Meeting people was easy—you just start talking and they cheerfully talk back, especially when they hear a foreign accent.

I chatted with a man named Phil about this year’s Gay Pride weekend in Galway. It was a small parade, some parties, flags and lots of drinking of course. It came through town to the neighborhood near the queer bars Zulu and Strano a couple of blocks away (both are owned by lesbians). He thought Galway was friendlier than Cork and much friendlier than Dublin, although he had met his boyfriend at Taboo in Cork.

Walking from Zulu to Strano (now changed to Wildes) we stopped at the non-gay Monroe’s historic pub. The sound of music and the smell of pizza coming from the kitchen attracted us. The place was packed with men and women, some children—and lots of beer flowing. The music was provided by a quartet of red-cheeked middle-aged men with guitars, banjos, a flute, tambourine, hand drum and four hearty Irish tenor voices. The sound of Irish folk music is irresistibly engaging and we were happily captured for an hour. We also chatted with a handsome Japanese student who was in Galway for three months learning English. The crowd was very cheerful–laughing, talking and drinking. But the only dancing happened with two women who could not resist the engaging rhythms.

Strano was much quieter. It’s Galway’s most popular lesbian bar, a homey watering hole for the locals. From the outside, it appears that style is not important here but community is, as nearly everyone inside was huddled in groups with friends busily chattering away. As the only men in the place for a while, we felt welcomed by some smiles but we left shortly afterwards.

Galway Women

The highlight of our visit to Galway was a visit with the two women who own and operate the Side by Side B&B, a women-only place in Rahoon district of Galway.Located along a tidy street of houses with hedges, flower beds and manicured lawns Side by Side is a two story white house with six guest bedrooms. We met with the owners Berni and Sally. Both were cheerful, energetic and welcoming to us as we ‘invaded’ their feminine territory. Over tea and crumpets I queried them about their lives in Galway.

RAA: I am told that lesbians are the major gay business entrepreneurs in Galway. This is the opposite of most cities. Why is this so in Galway?

Berni & Sally: For several reasons: (1) lesbians saw early on (ten or more years ago) the value of the pink pound and moved to capitalize on it in a way the men did not; they just did not seem visibly motivated toward business enterprise. There were no places for women to gather whereas the men had, then, a bar and they had the cruising grounds by the sea. So we had to start our own.

(2) Women were sincerely moved by caring for their sisters to take the risk to create new venues. Also, I think the women were not as avaricious in that they did not envision making a large profit as they supported a women’s business venue; men seem to be more profit–minded, more commercially defined and women not as much.

(3) Historically lesbian women have earned less money and tended to go local for their holidays whereas gay guys were better paid and could afford to go off to Dublin or London. So Galway has both of Ireland’s women-only B&B’s, Malaya and Side by Side. People come here because it’s a beautiful area with the West Coast and Connemara wilderness.

RAA: So Galway’s gay history goes back quite a few years?

B&S: Oh, yes. There have been known gays in Galway for generations—in all of Ireland for all of history I suppose. But the major break came in the early 90’s when homosex was decriminalized and protective laws were enacted. Since then there has been a constant flow of energy in the form or organizations, clubs, early pubs such as Neachtain. It’s the oldest gay (male) place (about 20 years) which is still extant; it’s patronized by the older crowd.
And we’ve had a Gay Pride festival for about 10 years which goes right through the center of the busiest pedestrian street and in front of all the mainstream shops with all the mummies and kids shopping. New venues and events keep appearing such as Club Outrageous which happens once a month and is very popular with young people, gay and straight because it is an ‘alternative’ happening with an ‘anything goes’ attitude; There are lots of bizarre costumes at these events. Bubblelove is new. So now people feel they don’t feel they have to go out of town to have fun.

RAA: What’s it like to come out as a lesbian in modern Ireland?

Berni: It’s very different now since I came out about eight years ago. I was in my late twenties and was hesitant—it was not the easiest thing for me to do then. Now I see girls come out younger, especially in the cities. I think its still true that women in the rural west tend to come out later than in the cities.

RAA: Why is coming out easier now?

Sally: For one, the church has lost its power over virtue. There is so much more support now as well as more publicity about homosexuality. Women are more empowered partly because they earn more money now, and the younger ones are more courageous and daring and defiant of tradition than I was. Ireland used to be so Catholic and superficially virtuous and now it’s more secular with much fewer pretensions. Galway is not much for attitude and posing—if you are gay, well that’s the way it is and so get on with it. It doesn’t have to be loud or political.

RAA: I understand you are married and you are going to a lesbian wedding this week.

Berni: Yes, we had a ceremony of commitment three years ago with all our friends. Sally dressed up in a tux and I wore a white formal dress. We were the first lesbian couple to get married in Galway.

RAA: Do the guys have such weddings?

Sally: This coming October there will be the first gay men’s wedding–and I can tell you they are really fussing over their outfits to make the occasion perfect. We’re especially happy to see this because there’s an impression that gay Irish couples don’t last very long. Perhaps because so many visible gay guys are young and are just getting around, or perhaps they are students and not into settling down. Homophobia was strong in the past and older guys didn’t’ even think about marriage or ceremonies.

Our chat ended just as the heating oil truck arrived and sally went out to talk with the driver, a burly guy, about furnace things and fuel prices. With hugs and smiles from the girls we departed from the comfort and comforting atmosphere of their busy B&B home.

A note about Irish B&Bs

As we drove around the country staying at non-gay B&Bs our hosts were very amicable and accommodating to us as a male couple. At none of these homes—some nestled in little villages with red, green, yellow, orange or blue storefronts; others sitting elegantly on a hill overlooking an ancient abbey or a sweeping vista of the ocean–at none of these places did the hosts show the slightest hesitation of our sharing a double bed. Several hosts actually asked us if we preferred a twin or double-bedded room. Either they were oblivious or have seen so many tourists on their doorsteps that such arrangements are common and hardly worth the wonder. I’d like to think it was, arguably, social progress.

Each night was followed in the morning by a gut-packing Irish breakfast: juice, 2 bacon strips, 2 sausages, eggs, grilled tomato, black pudding, toast, cereal, coffee or tea and fruit. When you’re finished with that you need a good slog on the bogs!

Some of these home-stays and small hotels are located in historical places . One calm moonlit night we nested in the Beach Hotel at Mullaghmore harbor on the coast west of Galway. In front of the hotel was the picturesque marina where years ago Lord Louis Montbatten, the last Viceroy of India, berthed his motor boat. He was uncle to the current Prince Phillip and great uncle to Prince Charles. Montbatten had survived many military campaigns and oversaw the upheavals of India’s independence in 1948 and the terrible religious civil war that followed.

In 1974, Montbatten was out on a peaceful fishing expedition with his crew and friends when an IRA bomb exploded aboard and killed nearly everyone. They were only a short distance from the harbor and rescue boats rushed out from here but to little avail.
Nearby to our hotel can be seen Lord Louis’ castle Cassieford, which came into his family through his wife Edwina. The tall stone edifice can still be seen easily from a distance like a Disney fairy tale mirage on the nearby hill. A businessman now privately owns it.

On the outskirts of the city of Sligo there’s another comfy B&B with colored shutters not far from the grave of W.B.Yeats, the Nobel Prize Irish poet. The graveyard (left) surrounds the church in Drumcliffe where Yeats’ grandfather was pastor. It sits in a lovely grove of tall evergreen trees in view of the looming Ben Bulben Mountain where Yeats loved to wander.

Gay Life in Modern Ireland–Limerick and Galway
GlobalGayz.com -- Gay Travel, Life, Advice, Stories, Photos, News, Deals for LGBTs © Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

By Richard Ammon

Also See:
Gay Ireland News & Reports 2000 to present
Gay Ireland Photo Galleries

We arrived in Gay Ireland via Cork on a late afternoon entering the city along the Lee River lined with warehouses, dockyards, and a power plant that give way to an older city downtown with its modern opera house, Victorian office buildings and countless cozy pubs.

Arriving at Roman House B&B there was little question that we were in a gay B&B; with red plaid carpeting and a hall poster of Joan Crawford, Roman House B&B is a playful mix of kitsch and comfort. Owned by Richard and Kevin for six years the place danced with lighthearted colors on the walls, in the bed sheets and bedspreads. The furniture was casual and a de rigeur relief of a Romanesque male nude hung on the wall of our room. Located just a block from the river our rainbow room was also furnished with that universal ‘instrumentali sexualis’—a condom with lubricant and a brochure about safe sex.

After a chat with Richard about places to eat we strolled along trendy Paul Street with its hearty restaurants and cafes (as well as an Internet shop) and made our way to the gay Taboo bar for a drink and a chat. It’s located on a narrow lane off the main Patrick Street. Inside is an easy ambience, not ‘decorated’ but not dark and brooding; casual, cheerfully lit, with a bulletin board full of photos of local friends from the Pride event in August. (The next bash was an End-of-Summer costume party a week later.) Taboo also offers karaoke every Wednesday night. Sitting around little bar tables were friends in pairs and small groups gossiping, laughing or pondering serious issues with furrowed brows.

I struck up a conversation with one patron, a hotel manager named Colm who was originally from Kilkenny. He easily slipped into conversation and seemed eager to explain the easy life that lesbigays have in Cork. Colm thought that Cork was easy going and more accepting than Dublin perhaps because it has only half the population (about 400.000) and gay people tend to know each other more. Also, Cork is mostly a working class city with few pretensions and seemingly devoid of the “body fascism and fashion fascism” found among the gay urban trendy crowds of Dublin (somewhat) or London (definitely).

His accuracy may be debatable, but Colm was more assured when I asked him about the present influence of the Catholic Church. For years, I had believed the cliché that Ireland was a sexually uptight country living tightly within the puritan grip of religious Roman dogma. Colm, however, described how the Church has squandered its once powerful influence especially in the past twenty years.

“Before any of the present scandal about abusive priests and children there was a major scandal in which a Catholic bishop had affair with a woman which resulted in a child. Although the affair lasted only a week, years afterward, having moved to Canada, she wrote a book about the liaison dangereux partly out of anger. Her son had sought reconciliation with his father but was instead shunned by him.”

The book had a devastating effect, which of course she intended. In today’s secular world the Church, at best, is described as having only a modest influence on the culture. Coincidentally, a week after our talk the results of a national poll on Catholic church attendance was published on the front page of the Irish Times: fewer than 45% of Catholics attend services regularly on any given Sunday. There was no mention of how many Protestants attended Church of Ireland services regularly.

Colm has lived and worked in Cork for three years. He said he never had any doubts or fears of police or homophobic bullies. “People are very tolerant here; a strong attitude of live and let live. “Colm seemed satisfied with his present circumstances as a professional and as a gay man. Not currently with a partner, he is more interested in having good friends and a secure job than having a mate, although he is not turning a blind eye to a handsome white knight who might come riding through.

Cork is Ireland’s second largest city. (Belfast is bigger than Cork but it is in British controlled Northern Ireland.) It has a powerful history of independent thinking and willful thinkers. Michael Collins, the first ‘chief’ of the new Irish Free State is a big hero for many here. Unfortunately (depending on whom you ask) just after he signed the historic Easter Sunday agreement to partition Ireland in 1922 he was gunned down as he toured this area. Many local Black and Tan party roughnecks were vehemently opposed to independence, insisting that all of Ireland be free of British control.

Rural Gay Farmers

Over breakfast at Roman House B&B the next morning we chatted with another male couple—Tom and Mark– who lived near Limerick (about 50 miles away) and were in Cork for a few days holiday. Not surprisingly, since these were not ‘city guys’, the talk was devoid of gay references at first.

They were farmers with about a hundred acres and fifty beef cattle out in the green rural flatlands of the county. We talked about the skyrocketing real estate prices in Ireland and about families who purchased property with lifetime mortgages of several hundred thousand Euros. (1 Euro = 1.23 US$) These buyers don’t expect to pay off the loan in their lifetimes; the plan is to have their children carry the mortgage and hopefully pay it off. Even rural farmland, Tom said, was going for about a pricey thousand Euros an acre.
Tom said Ireland’s economy was very keyed to the USA economy especially regarding the three C’s: Coca-Cola, computers and chemicals. Ireland offers foreign companies a significantly lower rate of tax so many USA companies take advantage of this—including Pfizer who manufactures most of its Viagra here.

Hesitantly but nevertheless curious, I asked about living as gay people in a rural environment. It was  obvious from the drop in casual chattiness that they were not at ease on this subject. Mark especially was reticent and offered little comment about their private or social life. Tom was a little more forthcoming with some details. They had been together for three years. Gay ‘life’ is non-existent in such Irish hamlets as theirs. A few scattered friends on occasion make for socializing. But because Ireland is such a small country, it is common for rural gays to drive for a couple of hours and be in a city where there are friends, clubs, bars, discos or saunas for letting down their guard for a day or two.Their hesitancy in sharing these few bits of Irish queer farm life disinclined me from further pursuit.

Later, after Tom and Mark had finished breakfast and left, our host Richard commented that even under the cover of a ‘big’ city like Cork it was unlikely that the rural guys ‘indulge’ in the gay scene other than fringe spectators having a few beers and enjoying the music. “It’s very different ‘out there’. You just don’t want the neighbors to know. And a lot of these guys have never been into the scene so they are not really comfortable when they do come here. But they like to go. It’s like a show for them. Tony and Mike have been here several times this year.”

Richard continued, “clubs and pubs in Cork have theme nights like ‘fetish’ night or costume night or karaoke night. But these country guys are unlikely to participate; it would be too wild for them. They’d feel uncomfortable taking part but they like to watch and see the city queers be a little crazy.”

Gay Life in Cork

Richard and his 19-year partner James have operated Roman House guesthouse for six years. Before Cork, where they were raised, they lived in Dublin for four years then Amsterdam for ten years so their view and experience stretches further than provincial Ireland. Having sown a few wild oats in the big cities, they felt it was time to set a calmer pace and build a financial base for their retirement. Both men are in their forties. Having made Roman House a viable business, they plan to sell it next year and move to Brighton, England where Richard will again take up his brushes and pencils to continue his artwork. He feels he is not living at his best potential frying breakfast sausage and flipping eggs. Looking at his paintings hung around the dining room, I agreed.

Their life here in Cork has been fairly comfortable and without discrimination. Cork is big enough to support a reasonable number of gay venues, organizations and many circles of friends. This year, 2002, has seen the city’s first Pride Festival that lasted over a summer weekend and featured parties, shows and performances—but no parade. In addition to gay events, the city hosts events such as the annual jazz festival, which brings a lot of visitors to Cork including many gay folks.

According to him, the recent Day of Diversity (which invited the gay and lesbian community) was mostly aimed at racial minorities especially blacks who have arrived in large numbers in Ireland in the past five years. Ireland has become one of the most attractive destinations for Africans and Romanian gypsies who are given food, shelter, some money and health care when they arrive as their immigrant status in examined (which can take a year). Many of them are having babies and the newborns are given Irish citizenship thus making the decision to repatriate the parents much more difficult. There has been a degree of resentment toward such policies and what appears to some as “unwarranted privileges”. The issue is obviously controversial and divisive among traditionalists who want to keep Ireland ‘green’ and progressives who see Ireland as a land of opportunity for all including immigrants who come to work–especially in the lower tier jobs that nouveau-middle-class Irish no longer want to perform; it’s an issue now common in prosperous western countries.

Richard is one of eight children, two of whom are gay: his brother Steve is gay and lives in Dublin. Richard offered that some mothers secretly like having gay sons because such offspring often continue to pay attention to their mothers when straight siblings are off and gone to attend to their wives and children. Raised in a Catholic family he, like many other gay and lesbian people, has pretty much dropped the church out of his life.
For native gay sons and lesbian daughters, Irish life has been mostly free of discrimination, harassment and violence in recent years. Richard also thought that the enmity of the Catholic and Protestant churches no longer have such a powerful sting. Homophobic violence is rare. Spiritual venom from the pulpit is minimal since federal legal protections have been in place for more than a decade. Religious hate speech is not legal in the Emerald Isle.

Richard’s assessment of the Dublin gay scene was that it had been seduced by the ‘pink Euro’ into being too commercial and overpriced. He said the prices for drinks automatically are bumped up after midnight in the gay bars and pubs like George. In Cork, there is much more familiarity among the LGBT community. Locals mainly support the gay venues so there is not this rip-off attitude among the bar owners. When Richard did some renovations on his B&B, he readily knew a gay carpenter, gay electrician and a gay kitchen installer.

So it seems that gay life in Cork is active but contained. As long as one doesn’t expect more visibility, more flamboyance, more public space, LGBT people can live well amid the busy city. What else can the community want—marriage, adoption? Given the progress of change in Ireland (and the EU), even they don’t seem farfetched now.

Cork’s Lesbians

A visitor to Cork soon finds out that one of the most successful lesbigay organizations is Linc—Lesbian in Cork. It’s a community resource center “primarily for women who identify as lesbian, bisexual—this includes transgender people or those in transition–who identify as lesbian or bisexual.”

At its new offices in downtown Cork, Linc offers a web site (www.linc.ie). a drop-in-and-chat time several times a week, a film club, a help phone line, numerous activity groups such as a hiking (Bootwomen), an annual Irish Women’s Summer Camp, a Fantasy Ball, an upcoming Mural Project and a well-presented quarterly magazine ‘Linc’. There are also activist groups that do outreach education and political lobbying. Linc also marches in the St. Patrick’s Day parade.

Supported mainly by local private contributions Linc also receives funding from the federal government via the Health Board as well as the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs. It has also received support form the Cork City Partnership to help train phone line volunteers.

The July ’02 issue of ‘Linc’ featured an insightful series of testimonies about Irish lesbians who have moved to other countries or back to Ireland. One very interesting narrative points out that, according to one study on Irish gays and lesbians in 1995, almost 60% of respondents had emigrated at some point in their lives and that sexual orientation was a key factor in their decision.

However, since homosexuality was decriminalized in 1993 a dramatic shift has occurred. As Irish laws and attitudes have changed significantly in the ensuing decade, many Irish émigrés who had moved abroad now find, ironically, that Ireland offers more liberal laws regarding homosexuality. Consequently there is evidence that the migration has now shifted back toward Ireland.

The Other Place

The other major Cork lesbigay organization is Cork Gay Project. CGP offers diverse services and events for the entire community. It has a café, bar, a bookshop, social meetings as well as the city’s office of the national Gay Men’s Health Project, which offers advice and support for STDs and HIV.

In addition to CGP the directory of venues and services listed in GCN newspaper under Cork offers more than twenty locations and organizations.

Gay Life in Modern Ireland–Cork City
GlobalGayz.com -- Gay Travel, Life, Advice, Stories, Photos, News, Deals for LGBTs © Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

By Richard Ammon
GlobalGayz.com
March 2018

Despite the approval of gay marriage and adoption rights for gays, Colombia is not yet the place where gay couples show affection in public. That said, I saw two moments of public touching during my visit, in separate cities on separate days. Two couples, one holding hands, (photo below) the other sitting close on a park bench.

Given Colombia’s history, it’s strong religious and machismo roots and its place among Catholic neighbors in South America, it more accurately can be said to be ‘somewhat’ more progressive than its neighbors. “In large cities like Bogota and Medellin and Cartegena Gay pride celebrations and protests are mounted so the LGBT community has an active and visible but small voice.” An active voice, but is anyone paying due attention? Mostly not the masses so that’s why activists focus on the judiciary to get their agenda heard. “That proved to be a wise move. The Constitutional Court eventually ruled in favor of the gay rights issues on various occasions…” The first victory came in February 2007 when gay couples finally won property and inheritance rights previously reserved for non-married heterosexual couples. Now there was no need to go to any notary public for documents. Inheritance is automatic after two years of living together.

Later that year, social security benefits were authorized for same-sex couples and in 2008 the Court ruled in favor of partnership pension benefits. In January 2009, another decision came from the Court, granting same-sex couples more than 42 additional rights, such as visas for same-sex spouses. Then in 2016 gay marriage was approved by the Supreme Court, mandated by a legal decision since a popular plebiscite was not likely in the current culture. For many in the gay community these rights were acceptable and sufficient. Non-married heterosexual and homosexual couples would be treated practically the same under the law. The right of marriage also provided gay couples with the right to jointly adopt children.
(Source for the above quotations: http://www.colombia-diversa.org/p/in-english.html; https://thecitypaperbogota.com/news/colombia-says-yes-to-gay-marriage/10653)

Empowered LGBTs
That’s why public Gay Pride is important here, to be heard as well as seen. Cartagena is host to Colombia’s largest gay party called Rumors Festival held once a year. Medellin has a noisy colorful Pride event. These are not just colorful parades. They are urgent reminders to the Catholic hetero-macho majority not to forget the small minority of LGBT citizens who are often overlooked and scorned. Everyone is supposed to be equal under the law but legal rulings don’t always transfer to social attitudes. So homophobia continues and Pride parades become more assertive and flamboyant, as if to say ‘you cannot avoid us’.
(http://www.twobadtourists.com/2017/03/03/this-south-american-country-might-be-the-newest-emerging-gay-destination/)

In Bogota there is a huge anomaly to the usual homophobic social milieu. It’s called Theatron. It’s way over the top as a social gay-mixed phenom; it’s the biggest ongoing weekly event. It’s also the largest nightclub/disco in South America. This lively big-box converted five-story theatre rivals America’s and Europe’s biggest and best venues. During the day it a quiet anonymous building that does not display any influence in the culture. Rather it’s a ‘happy hour’ nighttime play space for dancing, drinking and mixing. Making political waves is not its function. That is left to the activists across town at Colombia Diversa.
(https://www.portaltheatron.co/)

Colombia Diversa
I visited the downtown office in Bogota of Colombia Diversa to interview two staff members about their work of being an LGBT activist organization. Jose Vargas and Daniela Franco were articulate and forthcoming about some of the issues that LGBT people face living gay in Colombia. Colombia Diversa was founded in 2004 in Bogotá. This is a courageous and assertive human rights organization with a clear mission One of the most significant achievements for the organization was the advocacy and lobbying for same-sex marriage, which was unlikely a decade ago given the heavy opposing forces of the church, dense homophobia and a raging civil war.

My conversation with Jose and Daniela (photo left) focused on the issue of heterosexual machismo in the culture which traditionally and currently has a denigrating effect on women, gays and especially transgender people. “There is no place for diversity in the thinking of men raised to be the dominant gender in Latino culture. Physical spousal abuse is high in Colombia especially in urban areas while at the same time the pressure to marry and have children is fixed firmly in the minds of most young people. Some officials think spousal abuse should be settled privately, in the family, outside of protective services of police and judges. (https://colombiareports.com/most-colombian-officials-say-domestic-violence-should-be-solved-in-privacy/).

This is hardly a useful remedy since a couple who are locked into a problem usually do not know how to resolve it by themselves given the emotions involved. Getting professional help is often avoided because of cost and because of the resistance of the couple to let outsiders know about the trouble. So it persists until the situation explodes into violence or the husband walks out leaving the wife and children, sometimes without financial support. It is felt as a man’s prerogative to dominate women at home and in business. Downtown at lunchtime out on the public square I noticed many more men dressed for business than women.

Marcela Sánchez (photo below) is co-founder and current executive director of Colombia Diversa. Three years after its founding, following persuasive efforts by Marcela and other Diversa lobbyists aimed at city hall, Bogotá became the first city in Latin America to open a separate LGBT social community center—Centro Comunitario LGBT, in 2007. Since that modest start, the city government has tripled its commitment with two more centers. That was then, before recent elections. Today in 2018 the current mayor of Bogota is less supportive of LGBT programs and has not increased its funding. But this has not stopped the driving commitment of LGBT activism.

From 2007 to 2018, more than 50,000 people, young and old, have been serviced with psychological counseling, legal and medical advice and other social/community activities at the Centro  in the district of Chapinero. Originally the Centro was supported by Colombia Diversa, Theatrón and Profamilia (Colombian Planned Parenthood), in conjunction with the city government; today the Centro is financed by the city.

One of the Centro locations is in the working-class neighborhood of Bosa and is dedicated to LGBTQ youth. “Young people in Bogotá, whose parents often don’t accept them for who they are, who are told by church leaders that they are sinners and who must hide their sexuality in school for fear of bullying need spaces where they can talk about life issues in a safe and non-judgmental environment,” said Marcela. “They need places where they can simply be themselves. LGBT community centers are such places and are making a positive impact on their lives.” A second new center is located in the Los Mártires neighborhood and serves transgendered people.

The situation of LGBT persons in Colombian jails and prisons is a subject of ongoing concern for Colombia Diversa. In its annual LGBT Human Rights Report, the organization has documented several cases of psychological and physical abuse of LGBT persons in Colombian penal institutions. These often include transgender or transsexual men; cases of solitary confinement for lesbian couples have been described as well. One of those cases in the city of Valledupar tragically resulted in suicide.

Also at Diversa, ‘Voto Igualdad’ is a campaign that seeks to inform LGBT people to become better voters. The office follows the proposals made by current parliamentary candidates and analyzes how inclusive they are as well as evaluating their Twitter accounts with an algorithm to see if their social media accounts are inclusive or not.

Caribe Affirma
Caribe Affirma is another Colombian human rights organization, this one based in in Barranquilla, the northernmost province of Colombia. The city is known for its enormous Carnival, which brings together flamboyantly costumed performers, elaborate floats and cumbia music. Tragically, their former leader, Rolando Perez (photo left) was assassinated 11 years ago and his murder has still not yet been solved. Most likely he was the victim of the Bloque Colombia mafia, or a sympathizer, for his outspoken demands for LGBT equality. Bloque has long sought to see homosexuality disappear from Colombia. Wilson Castañeda is the current director of Caribe Affirma.
(http://caribeafirmativo.lgbt/; http://caribeafirmativo.lgbt/2018/02/22/memoria-rolando-perez-11-anos-impunidad/)

Pérez was murdered on February 23, 2007 in the apartment where he lived in the city of Cartagena. He was passionate about social causes and an excellent teacher. After his death close friends decided to create Caribe Affirmative, as a social organization that defends the human rights of LGBTI people. Since then, the organization has assisted LGBTI people who are victims of violence and their families in their criminal proceedings. It has also developed comprehensive training initiatives with a public prosecutor and police with a view to confronting the prejudices that may interfere with investigations and to identify cases of violence.

Today, in memory of Rolando, Caribbe Affirmative urges the investigation and prosecution of crimes against LGBTI persons to discern if the victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity was the motive of the crime. Rolando’s case represents hundreds of other cases where the actions of the authorities have been misguided by unspoken prejudices. Caribe Afirmativo works to see that all legal channels are used to investigate suspicious homophobic crimes.

Machismo and Homophobia
Ever present and pervasive is homophobic aggression against LGBT citizens, especially against lesbians who are felt to violate the machismo code of feminine submission. Daniela and Jose call this prejudicial attitude against women ‘gender ideology’ to describe an attitude of male self-claimed entitlement to a superior position in the culture, in the work force and in the family. Independent-minded lesbians do not subscribe to this second class status and resist the constraints that hold them back from equality of opportunity. Society says they ‘need a man’ to fit traditionally in this society.

Daniela said, “it’s better to be a gay male than a lesbian in this patriarchal society. They are more discriminated against than men.” Political homophobia as well has been strong against lesbians and especially regarding gay couples’ adoption; in the past it was easier for a single person to adopt than a gay couple—not any more.

Mark Reynerus is a campaigner who tirelessly advocates for reform to allow gay couples to adopt children succeeded in his tireless efforts: in 2015 Colombia’s Constitutional Court ruled that gay couples can adopt children just like any other couple. As often is the case now, a well-educated, fair-minded judiciary looked beyond the emotional prejudice and saw the social injustice in the out-dated law and ruled on behalf of modern reason, reality and equality. It has helped that threats from the gang forces have laid down their arms.

Ignorance of Gender Ideology Perpetuates Discrimination
Gender ideology, as described by Daniela and and Jose, is an emotional issue; it’s an attitude that feels sexual orientation is a learned behavior and is not inherent, so that prejudice against gays is justified against their anti-social behavior; the prejudice is irrationally entrenched in many heteros’ minds, absorbed from the larger culture without reason or thoughtful consideration. Such people don’t see that it is bigotry that is a learned prejudice not sexual orientation, which is inherent. But few people are educated enough to understand the different issues of sexual diversity.

Most people simply accept the general stigma against LGBTs without much thought since it doesn’t apply to them, so homophobia is carried from generation to generation with little change making Diversa’s work difficult and endless. “People don’t want to learn new ideas or go against mass thinking. Even thoughtful people who don’t agree with popular thought do not speak up because they fear the stigma may be applied to them,” said noted activist Jose Canon. “It even influences their attitudes about the peace treaty to end the civil war; right wing groups, Catholics and Christians voted against the peace accord.”…they ignorantly believed the fake propaganda that the accord was trying to ‘promote homosexuality’.

As a result, many voters opposed the inclusion of LGBT rights in the peace accord because of blind prejudice. “The majority of Colombians minimize or ignore the scope of abuses that the LGBT population endured during the 50 years of warfare. Gay, bisexual and transgender Colombians faced displacement, threats, sexual abuse, torture and homicide”, according to a 2015 report by the Center of Historic Memory, one of the few organizations that has researched the subject. (http://www.centrodememoriahistorica.gov.co/en/about-the-national-center-about-the-national-center)

We Are Liberal
It depends on whom you ask about LGBT rights and progress in the country and how they interpret the evidence. “We are liberal,” insists Marcela Sanchez of Colombia Diversa; “please don’t say Colombia isn’t liberal!” Nevertheless recent polls estimate that two-thirds of Colombians still oppose same-sex marriage, “but that is less opposition than in many Latin American countries, including neighboring Ecuador.” Not surprisingly, support for same-sex marriage is highest in Bogota which is the secular capital, where, in a 2010 poll conducted by local newspaper El Tiempo, 63 percent of residents endorsed the right of same-sex couples to marry in civil ceremonies.

“Support for LGBT rights is spreading across the country” is one interpretation of the data. Yet, the estimated 80 percent of Colombians who are Catholic are not highly welcoming of such input. Noted another observer, “the struggle continues. A recent study by Bogota’s municipal government found that 54 percent of LGBT residents say they have experienced discrimination. That number jumps to 73 percent among transgender people.”

Jaime Ricardo Cadavid, the co-founder of the Collective Prisma in Bogota, a pioneering organization in the promotion of respect for sexual diversity has said that “the sight of two men kissing or holding hands in public is still more likely to upset public sentiments… the love is forbidden here, but the violence isn’t,” he said. Colombia was tormented by conflict for decades so suspicion and mistrust are still in the air.

However, optimistically he predicts “The LGBT movement has an opportunity to show that we can build a better society when we respect diversity.” Opposition has been more vocal and robust among the nation’s evangelical Christian community who insist that homosexuality is a choice and that the high court’s justices should not have fallen into judicial activism (“like America”) by issuing a decision for the country that does not honor the beliefs [i.e., backward prejudices] of the ‘moral majority’ of Colombians.

Indeed, the opposite should rule: discrimination is never moral.
(https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/colombia-lgbt-community_us_55db8b3ae4b04ae497042167)

Interview With Jose Canon
The publication ‘Latin Dispatch’ posted an interview with Jose Cañón,, an LGBT activist for the Green Alliance Party, written by Monica Espita in 2017. Entitled “Escaping a Homophobic War in Colombia” Canon described the danger he and his family faced when he tried to oppose the infiltration of another mafia-like gang trying to take over illegal businesses in the country. Needless to say, such gangs also disapprove of LGBT life. (http://latindispatch.com/2017/04/15/escaping-a-homophobic-war-in-colombia/)

“There are still dangers for LGBT people,” Canon said. “There is a largely invisible war against gays, a residual hostility from the country’s decades-long brutal conflict.” On the surface, Colombia appears to be a progressive leader of gay rights movement, having extended legal rights to same-sex couples and transgender people. Those rights, as mentioned before, included property ownership and inheritance and marriage equality.

“However for many Colombians who are gay, these rights have a hollow meaning because of deep-rooted prejudice that occasionally results in violence. Cañón was used to constant insults and bullying from ‘Bloque Capital’ (Capital Block—a sort of mafia) when he started his activism job in 2007. But he had never been threatened at gunpoint before, he said. “Bloque Capital wanted to cleanse society of homosexuality. LGBT Colombians have also been actively persecuted by armed groups that evolved from the historic conflicts.”

According to the ‘Victims’ Unit’, a state institution that keeps track of the armed conflict, “gay, bisexual and transgender people are four times more likely than the rest of the population to be threatened and abused by both legal and illegal armed forces,”

Another voice, from Luis Fernández, an armed conflict researcher at Colombia Diversa, spoke out recently: “Many of the people who voted against last year’s peace treaty with FARC think that the accord was trying to promote homosexuality. Some people even went so far as saying that the government wanted to impose a homosexual dictatorship, whatever that means.… many voters opposed the inclusion of LGBT rights in the peace treaty because Colombia is still a very conservative society and the majority of Colombians ignore the scope of abuses that the LGBT population endured during the conflict.” Gay, bisexual and transgender Colombians faced displacement, threats, sexual abuse, torture and homicide, according to a 2015 report by the Center for Historic Memory, one of the few organizations that has researched the subject…”

Effects of War
Echoing other activists, Daniela Franco said that 50 years of bloody civil warfare (including countless murderous drugs battles and dirty politics), began in the mid-1960s and contributed to the prejudice against gays today. “For years criminal behavior was distorted into normal behavior. Rape, theft, torture were common including excessive brutality against gays (sex organs of gay males were routinely cut off). Cruelty against gays was wrapped in socially approved machismo.” In war, hate crimes are perversely rationalized, especially in rural areas where there is no enforcement of justice, equality or fairness. Marauding gangs of armed rebels and military vigilantes acted without control or authority against people considered enemies.

So any peace process reasoning got mixed up with sexual/gender politics. Gays became tokens in the mix of war, politics and crime. “LGBT Colombians were actively persecuted by armed groups involved in the conflict. According to the Victims’ Unit, ”gangs like Bloque Capital distributed pamphlets that promised to cleanse the country from ‘undesired members of society,’ including drug addicts, criminals and members of the LGBT community”, Fernandez said.

Even after the peace treaty, among police and military personnel “gays were scorned, punished and beaten” reported Jose Canon. “Repressive torture and humiliation practices like the “baño de María” (a bloody torture ritual) were allowed by the authorities until 1999, until the Colombian Constitutional Court ruled that sexual orientation was a fundamental part of the right to self-expression and therefore could no longer be forbidden in the military and the police. Despite this ruling, homophobia was and is still widespread within these organizations.” (http://latindispatch.com/2017/04/15/escaping-a-homophobic-war-in-colombia/).

FARC Abuses Against LGBT People
“During the war because LGBT people were stigmatized as likely carriers of HIV. FARC guerrillas forced all men and women older than 12 to get tested for the virus. Those who tested positive, the majority of whom were LGBT, were forced to leave the demilitarized (neutral war )zone.” FARC forcefully displaced gay men and transgender women because they were seen as weak and feminine and therefore useless as potential fighters. But in some cases, they allowed them to stay in exchange for sexual favors or to work as collaborators planning kidnappings, growing cocoa and committing extortion. (http://latindispatch.com/2017/04/15/escaping-a-homophobic-war-in-colombia/)

“Although homosexuality was explicitly prohibited in the ranks of the FARC, absurdly, lesbian women were often forced to enlist because they were perceived as tough and masculine — traits the FARC looked for in its soldiers. But once they became part of the guerrilla group they were not allowed to acknowledge their sexual orientation,” said Fernández.

It is impossible to know how many LGBT victims of the armed conflict there are partly because the National Protection Unit, the public organization in charge of protecting vulnerable populations, doesn’t recognize LGBT people. (It does include journalists, human rights activists and indigenous people.)

Nevertheless the peace accord signed in September 2016 explicitly recognized that LGBT people were victimized throughout the conflict. “But what Colombians weren’t expecting was that this recognition would spark a fierce debate over morality, the constitution and the country’s religious traditions. Large protests arose demanding resignation of the openly gay Education Minister Gina Parody. She refused and instead distributed a handbook recommending tolerance to counteract social media’s exaggerated false hysterical claims of her engaging in gay sex, exposing children to immoral behavior and promoting homosexuality. Most vocal protests we led by religious groups.

Sexuality as an Anti -War Issue
The first peace accord failed to pass in no small part because of the publicized distortions about gay marriage but a second more thoughtful and inclusive accord was approved by FARC and Congress several months later that ruled against the stigmatization of vulnerable groups including Afro-Colombians, indigenous populations, people with disabilities, members of the LGBT community and religious minorities. “No social group has the right to use the 310-page document as a platform to discriminate or limit the rights of other social groups. Instead of eliminating protections, the law added safeguards to prevent the violation of the democratic system.”

Opponents pushed back saying “the agenda that the LGBT movement is promoting cannot be imposed on the Colombian people”. But this completely ignored the fundamental truth of human sexual orientation that it is not a chosen belief or political position; it is intrinsically inborn like hair color. “A culture must be progressive or move backwards,” urged the government. “Irrational beliefs must be restrained by the science of human sexual diversity, which in the past was perverted and falsified by myths and distortions of Biblical interpretation of centuries ago.” There is nothing from Jesus about human sexual diversity but there is about treating different others with love.

Opponents of the new referendum insisted their intention was to protect the family and save Colombian children from ‘gender ideology’ which they imagined the government and the Constitutional Court were trying to impose. But LGBT rights advocates like Green Party Senator Claudia López, insisted “the referendum opponents’ proposals are just a political effort to legitimize discrimination.” López, who is openly lesbian, is also one of the possible candidates for the 2018 presidential election.

The number of attacks against LGBT individuals by armed organizations has not slowed since 2007. ”Officers at the border with Mexico used to determine if new arrivals seeking asylum had credible fear of persecution in Colombia. But they have been so overworked in the last few years that they have delegated that responsibility to asylum offices all over the country, which has resulted in an overall slowdown of the process…”

Gina Parody, (photo left) the lesbian politician and (later) senator mentioned above was the victim of a homophobic scandal when she was the Minister of Education: her educational books with instructions on how to help and support young teenagers dealing with gay issues were hijacked and the original content was removed and replaced with gay porn. These tampered books were then delivered to the schools, which made it seem like she was trying to push a gay agenda to convert the children.

Brigitte Baptiste, a famous transgender woman, a biologist and renowned expert on biodiversity, exposed the book scandal. Another famous gay celebrity was Eurosong winner Conchita Wurst. Although the singer is Austrian, her public persona is of a lady born in the mountains of Colombia who married a French burlesque dancer. True or not she used her reputation to oppose the book fraud.

Social Media
Everyone has a cell phone in Colombia virtually.  Social media has become a weapon to be used in favor of as well as against an individual such as posting fake news to harm their reputation or family affiliation. Gender ID politics can get mixed up with machismo and homophobia to create emotionally unstable relationships for individuals or families. Such social influence can influence governmental politics, gay rights efforts, public marches and distorted anti-gay electoral campaign rhetoric. Verbal abuse and victimization of LGBT people is an easy and cheap form of fake news because it has an emotional and hysterical value; blaming gays as a cause of any conveniently targeted issue such as crime, religious deterioration, immorality, social deterioration. During political campaigns where parties use exaggerated accusations against one another social media is a weapon and a blessing.

More information about the LGBT Community
http://www.washingtonblade.com/2017/03/08/exclusive-colombia-congresswoman-seek-higher-office/
https://victoryinstitute.org/international/colombia/
https://outincolombia.com/
https://outincolombia.com/2017/02/20/colombiatex-brings-big-business-to-colombias-fashion-industry/
https://outincolombia.com/2017/02/15/medellins-main-party-zone-becoming-a-gay-nightlife-hotspot/
https://outincolombia.com/2016/07/07/167/
https://outincolombia.com/2017/01/30/could-colombias-next-president-be-a-lesbian/
https://outincolombia.com/2017/01/24/colombia-is-one-of-the-best-emerging-lgbt-tourist-destination-for-2017/

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American Tourists’ Comments
An American gay travel writer duo called Nomadic Boys (https://nomadicboys.com/gay-life-in-colombia/) visited Colombia in 2017 and observed a few things:

“Colombians are so mixed and diverse. There is no one “type” of feature or skin color here. As a result there is not much racism, which has led to society being more tolerant and accepting of one another, despite it being so heavily Catholic.” However, they cautioned, “there is still a lot of machismo culture, particularly by the coast.” Their idea of tolerance—from their tourist perspective—was based on the passage of gay marriage and laws against intolerance.

Other miscellaneous observations which these two tourists wrote:
–“Colombia is kinda like the backyard of the USA because we have a lot of trade and tourism with them. So whatever happens in the States, is heavily influenced here. During the Obama years, there was a lot of progressive change for the LGBTQ community in the USA, which positively impacted on Colombia, culminating in equal marriage laws being passed in 2016.”…
–“Everyone uses gay dating apps like ManHunt and Grindr. We love the gay scene of Bogota, especially Theatron club. It’s huge – a paradise for the gay boys. We also love the gay scene of Medellin, which has a fun gay club called Viva. There is a small gay scene in Cartagena with bars like D8 and Le Petit”…
–“most cities of a certain size in Colombia have a gay pride parade in June/July/August. The largest ones are in Bogota and Medellin. The gay pride of Cartagena coincides with the “Circuit” style festival called “Rumours… An annual carnival in Barranquilla in February is always very colorful and popular. It takes over the entire city, everyone joins in, dresses up for it and parties away…”
–“Some slang words include “pojito” (twink), “flete” (sugar daddy) and words for big dick include “vergota” and “cola”. A “cigaronnes” is a guy who leads mostly a heterosexual life, but loves having sex with other men: he likes to go to gay clubs, fool around with trans girls and even gay guys, but would never establish any emotional relationship with them; “just sex”…
–Finally, “peladis” is a fun slang word used in the coastal areas— an average guy who doesn’t have any decent qualities and you’re too ashamed to introduce him to your friends.

Immigration is also a current unsettling problem regarding Venezuelans crossing the border to escape chaos, financial crisis and danger; using machismo and national protectionism some exaggerations are made regarding Venezuelan LGBTs, that they will bring more immorality to Colombia in addition to consuming social services. But that’s another story.

GlobalGayz personally observed hundred of Venezuelans waiting at the Ecuador-Colombia border for visas. Some said they had been there for days.

Also see this special report about rural Transgender Women in Colombia published in the Washington Post recently: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-sight/wp/2018/05/14/colombias-indigenous-transgender-women-find-refuge-freedom-working-on-the-coffee-farms/?utm_term=.8e720c209d82

Gay Life in Colombia 2018
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