Santiago

The Santiago LGBTQI+ scene is spread across several poles rather than concentrated in a single gay neighbourhood in the manner of Chueca.

Bellavista, bohemian and at the foot of Cerro San Cristóbal, is the nightlife core, with LGBT-friendly bars spread across its streets. Right next door, in Providencia, is Fausto, at Avenida Santa María 0832, open Wednesday to Sunday from eleven at night and running since 1979. Providencia is residential and expensive, with an already normalised gay-friendly scene and most of the hotels. Lastarria runs on culture and food, with queer cafés and plenty of daytime life. And Barrio Brasil is the alternative, student one. The night works mainly Thursday to Saturday and closes late, on the same convention as Buenos Aires: at weekends the party does not get going before midnight.

The Santiago Pride March is held on a Saturday in June, close to the 28th, and leaves Plaza Italia, Plaza Baquedano, to finish at Plaza de la Constitución, in front of La Moneda. The first was in 1999 and it has grown steadily since the Zamudio Law of 2012, and above all since marriage equality in 2022.

The event that marks recent Chilean activism is the murder of Daniel Zamudio, a 24-year-old gay man attacked in Parque San Borja on the night of 2 March 2012 who died twenty-five days later, on the 27th, from his injuries. The case shocked the country, not least for the swastika-shaped cuts inflicted on him, and became the symbol of the fight against homophobic violence in Chile. His death unblocked the Anti-Discrimination Law, which had been stuck in Congress for years and was enacted in July 2012. The calendar is rounded off by the Festival Mix, of queer cinema, and the Marcha por la Identidad de Género, also in June.

Bellavista is Santiago's bohemian neighbourhood, at the foot of Cerro San Cristóbal, and it has been tied to the city's LGBTQI+ nightlife for decades. The core is at Plaza Camilo Mori and along Pío Nono street, where the queer bars and restaurants sit together, from Thursday to Saturday. Across the river, already in Providencia, is Fausto, the city’s longest-running gay club, open since 1979.

The neighbourhood also holds La Chascona, Pablo Neruda's house-museum, now run by his foundation, and the funicular up Cerro San Cristóbal, with the panoramic view over the city. It all walks by day and by night with the usual urban care. By metro you arrive at Baquedano, on lines 1 and 5, and at Cal y Canto, on line 2. The crowd is young and mixes LGBT and general public, and closing times tend to stretch to four or five in the morning at weekends.

Movilh, the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation, is the reference organisation, based in Santiago and chaired by Rolando Jiménez since 1999. Today's Movilh was born at the end of that year as a split from the 1991 original, and it ran the campaign that repealed article 365 of the Criminal Code, the one that punished sodomy, also in 1999. Alongside it sits Fundación Iguales, more recent, which ran part of the 2022 marriage equality campaign.

On health, the public network treats without discrimination, and Vivo Positivo and Fundación Savia provide support and HIV testing in Santiago. PrEP is available to residents through the public network.