Lima

Lima has a discreet LGBTQI+ scene compared with Mexico City's or Buenos Aires's. The gay-friendly offer is concentrated in Miraflores, touristy and international, and in Barranco, bohemian and alternative, with fifteen or so identifiable venues among bars, clubs and mixed restaurants.

The night starts late, after midnight, and at weekends it stretches to dawn. The references are venues such as Downtown Vale Todo, the historic one, and the options that rotate through Barranco. Outside those two districts the visible LGBT offer is practically nil, because discretion is still the cultural norm.

The Lima Pride March has been held on the last Saturday of June since 2002. In 2025 it drew around 40,000 people according to the National Police, one of the biggest editions in its history. The traditional route leaves Campo de Marte, in Jesús María, and runs down Avenida de la Peruanidad and Avenida 28 de Julio to Plaza San Martín, in the historic centre.

The country's first LGBT demonstration was on 1 July 1995, in Parque Kennedy in Miraflores. The 2024 edition marked the centenary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Peru. It is organised by the Colectivo Marcha del Orgullo, with the support of MHOL, which has been in activism since 1982.

Miraflores is not a declared gay neighbourhood, like Chueca or the Zona Rosa, but it works as the reference tolerant area. It is a coastal tourist district of 116,000 people, per the 2023 census, and the one with the highest human development index in Lima. Parque Kennedy is the heart, with bars, cafés, restaurants and mixed life at any hour.

The area gathers the international hotels, from the Belmond Miraflores Park to the JW Marriott, the Larcomar shopping centre, hanging off the cliff, ten kilometres of seafront promenade to walk and access to the beaches. It connects to Barranco along the coast or via Avenida Diagonal. Inside, it walks end to end, and other districts are ten to twenty minutes away by taxi or Uber.

MHOL, the Movimiento Homosexual de Lima, is the longest-running organisation in Peruvian LGBT activism, founded in 1982 in the middle of the military dictatorship, and it still provides legal advice, psychological support and advocacy. Alongside it are Promsex, which does strategic litigation, Más Igualdad Perú, focused on marriage equality, and No Tengo Miedo, which works from intersectionality.

Among health services, Vía Libre, in Pueblo Libre, is the clinic specialising in HIV and sexually transmitted infections, with PrEP and trans hormone care. The Health Ministry's CERITS, the STI reference centres, operate in several public hospitals. PrEP has been available through the public system since 2024, though access outside Lima is limited.