Buenos Aires

The porteño LGBTQI+ scene is not concentrated in a single neighbourhood, in the manner of Chueca or the Castro, but spread across several poles.

Palermo Soho is the core, around Plaza Serrano, with fifteen or so venues, among them Sitges, Glam and Casa Brandon. Palermo Hollywood, to the north, supplies the nightlife and the restaurants, with about eight. San Telmo takes the alternative end and LGBT tango, with half a dozen and La Marshall leading. Almagro is the trans pole, still emerging, with three. And Recoleta is residential and expensive, with no declared night scene. Palermo goes out seven days a week, and at weekends the party does not get going before two in the morning, which is the porteño convention.

The Buenos Aires Pride March is held on the first Saturday of November, not in June: the date commemorates the founding of Nuestro Mundo, the country's first homosexual organisation, in November 1967. It now gathers more than a million people, and the organisers spoke of up to two million in 2024.

The first march was on 3 July 1992 and drew around 300 people, a good many in masks to hide their identity, at a time when LGBTQI+ rights and visibility were far less common. It was led by Carlos Jáuregui, founder of the CHA in April 1984 and the movement's reference figure, and by César Cigliutti. Today the march leaves Plaza de Mayo and ends at the National Congress, the historic route. The calendar is rounded off by BAFICI, the independent film festival with a queer strand, and Asterisco, the LGBTIQ+ film festival.

Palermo Soho is the modern part of Palermo Viejo, around Plaza Serrano, and it runs on fashion, design, restaurants, bars and street life. It draws upper-middle-class young people and tourists after that atmosphere. It is the densest queer pole in the city.

The queer and LGBT-friendly venues are Sitges, the long-standing porteño gay bar, Glam, which is a club, and Casa Brandon, a queer feminist cultural space. Right to the north sits Palermo Hollywood, with expensive restaurants and a long night. Subte line D, at Plaza Italia station, reaches the centre in a quarter of an hour. The whole neighbourhood walks by day and by night with the usual care.

The Comunidad Homosexual Argentina, the CHA, was founded in April 1984 by Carlos Jáuregui and was the country's first LGBT organisation, decisive in marriage equality in 2010 and in the gender identity law of 2012. Today the national organisations are FALGBT, the Argentine LGBT Federation, and 100% Diversidad y Derechos.

On health, the Hospital Durand has a specialised HIV and trans service, and Fundación Huésped does HIV testing and provides PrEP on a sliding scale. The 2012 gender identity law obliges the public system to cover gender-affirming treatment.