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The New York Times
Americas
Buenos Aires journal
In Macho Argentina, a
New Beacon
for Gay Tourists
By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO,
nytimes.com from the Web, December 30, 2007
BUENOS AIRES — Home to the
sexy tango and strapping meat-eaters, this South American capital has long been
thought of as a bastion of macho attitudes. But a new hotel here is adding
to the city’s growing image as a bastion of gay-friendliness.
The Axel Hotel, a Spanish import that opened in November, has come to symbolize
Buenos Aires’s increasingly aggressive effort to court gay dollars and euros.
It is Latin America’s first luxury hotel built exclusively with gay customers in
mind.
That Buenos Aires would be chosen for such a marketing experiment is a result of
a marked change over the past several years in the acceptance of gay men and
lesbians in Argentine society. This city of three million people has come
a long way from the years of military dictatorship, when being openly gay could
lead to jail. Five years ago this was the first major Latin American city
to legalize same-sex unions, and this summer it was host to a World Cup for gay
soccer players, a first in the region.
“There is so much more freedom these days,” said Mauricio Urbides, a 28-year-old
fashion designer, who sipped red wine with two male friends at the hotel
recently. “You see gays on television here, in government. Just 15
years ago it was a completely different situation.”
The three friends were among a mixed crowd of homosexuals and heterosexuals who
laughed as Kyra and Sharon, drag queens from Barcelona, Spain, poked fun at
Argentina’s president-elect, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, and sang a Marilyn
Monroe-inspired “Happy Birthday to You” to a male guest.
In other parts of the world, like the Castro district in San Francisco, gay
people have struggled recently to maintain a cultural presence in the face of
gentrification. Buenos Aires has no traditional gay neighborhood, but
acceptance of gay people has slowly grown. The first gay bar here opened
in 1983. In 1992 President Carlos Menem signed a decree promising equal
legal protection for gay men and women.
Argentine social mores began loosening in the 1990s, when the pegging of the
peso to the dollar gave Argentines more spending power, allowing many to travel
abroad. “People traveled and found there were other ways of living that
were completely different than what they were used to,” Mr. Urbides said.
After Argentina plunged into economic chaos in late 2001, discrimination based
on sexual orientation seemed to many like a petty concern. “When people
are eating out of garbage cans it really doesn’t matter if you are gay or not,”
said Osvaldo Bazán, a journalist and the author of “History of Homosexuality in
Argentina From the Conquest of America to the 21st Century.”
The devalued currency made Buenos Aires a relative bargain for Western tourists,
including many who are gay and like the city’s European sophistication. In
recent years marketers have more aggressively sought to promote the city as a
gay tourist destination. Gay tango bars and wine shops have sprouted up,
and a new “friendly card” helps travelers and local residents alike to get
discounts at gay-friendly shops and restaurants.
Travel industry experts estimate that about 20 percent of the tourists here are
gay — 300,000 a year — and they spend $600 million here annually.
Even as tourism has been flourishing, so, too, has local gay activism. It
was young gay rights advocates who successfully pushed to legalize same-sex
unions, despite resistance from the Roman Catholic Church. At the end of
November the lower house of Congress in Uruguay, Argentina’s neighbor, legalized
homosexual unions there, too. If the Senate approves the law, Uruguay
would be one of only six countries with such a law. Advocates in
Argentina, meanwhile, are pushing Congress to extend health benefits to gay
couples.
Argentina’s more liberal treatment of sexual orientation on television has also
stoked acceptance. Florencia de la Vega, who is transsexual, made a splash
when she played a transvestite in the 2004 soap opera “Los Roldán.” In
2005 the dating show “12 Corazones — Especial” featured gay men who kissed on
camera.
Yet some visitors still complain of homophobic treatment, said Marcelo Suntheim,
secretary of the Community of Homosexuals in Argentina, an activist group.
He said the group received three complaints this year from gay couples who said
hotel concierges in Buenos Aires “asked them not to kiss in the lobby because
children were present.”
So some local residents say they hope that the Axel will offer another place
where same-sex couples can feel more comfortable. The hotel, which has
billed itself as “hetero-friendly,” is the second gay-themed hotel to be built
by Juan Juliá, an entrepreneur from Barcelona, where the first Axel opened three
years ago.
The 48-room Axel promotes itself as a place for fun, complete with a
glass-bottomed rooftop pool, and free condoms. “We provide everything for
you to have fun,” Mr. Juliá said. “Be safe, but have fun.”
He said he hoped the hotel became popular not only with tourists, but also with
local Argentines who would see it as a place to socialize.
“The majority of the gay community is looking more and more for hetero-friendly
places,” instead of exclusively gay places, said Luciano Fus, a 29-year-old
translator who watched the drag queen show. “But this will be another
after-work spot.”
Mr. Urbides said he would “definitely come back.” He smiled.
“Especially if the hotel brings Madonna back to Buenos Aires, or better yet, if
it brings Cher here.”
Vinod Sreeharsha contributed reporting.
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