LGBT life spreads through the capital
Gone is the gay scene a la Nazario or Terenci Moix of the 70s and 80s , acid, underground, clandestine and bizarre, with that dirty charm and politically incorrect transgression of venues (almost all closed) like Long Play, Alés, Medea, Café Oliver, Griffins, Heaven or Black & White. Also the 90s, when the movement became a pressure group that sought rights, visibility and media presence beyond the grotesque.
It was the awakening of the Chueca neighborhood, which went from being a marginal area in the center of Madrid, to being gentrified in a pioneering way in the city, becoming official as the new gay area, increasingly commercial and with a 200% rise in land prices . It was the era of drag, gay magazines, mainstream pink culture and Gay Pride as the city's great party. Everything was excess, everything was glamor (in its own way) and origin of the birth of a small lobby that has achieved legitimate civil rights and good money for Madrid , as a top gay tourism destination. Today, in 2016, the 'Madrid atmosphere' brims with possibilities.
Madrid, a world of LGBT possibilities
CHUECA
In 2016 it is recovering as a chic area. After a period of vulgarity and economic depression, is once again the favorite gay-friendly leisure area for straight people. To eat, there gastro options of all kinds - From the Mediterranean market cuisine of La Cocina de San Antón, the 'Latin freestyle' of **La Candelita**, the affordable menus of gay restaurant Vivares, the tapas of Mercado de la Reina, the burgers of Home Burguer or the caní style of The Tiger . Perfect places to have dinner before going out for drinks at the different styles of bars that flourish in the area.
for a posh gay atmosphere, of order and with purchasing power , highlights the terrace of the Hotel Room Mate Oscar , with its pool and favorite place of celebrities out of the closet; the revamped Ricks with quality commercial music and open until very late ; the Studio 54 cocktail bar, on Sundays in Chicote with its cocktails and morning sessions by fashion DJs; or rogue afters, like Why not?, where they usually end the night this type of gays fashion.
Terrace at the Hotel Room Mate Oscar
They have been going strong since the mid-90s in Chueca. With his beard, his corpulence and a look that reinterprets the Spanish lumberjack style, bears have gone from being the ugly backyards of the gay world to a kind of new sex symbols. They go to cheap restaurants like Vivares or Marsot, and get their beards trimmed at Bearbero or Barbers Crew. They usually go to the Hot bar first thing in the morning, a classic for the more mature; and al Enfrente, with sessions by modern DJs, such as Vurdalak Sound System. Later they go to the Zarpa Madrid Bear to dance to the rhythm of video clips of the most burned gay divas . They follow the route through Barbanarama, a commercial Tontipop bear bar; the Fuel , for more muscular, posing bears looking to flirt; Bear's Bar; and end up at Fraggel Pop, a bar mixed atmosphere with guaranteed fun and less 'osuna' pose.
After the bars close, the session of the bear nightclub par excellence prevails: the Bearbie , with a pop plant and a techno plant . Another option is the Kluster, a techno music club. And for lovers of mature people there is the griffins nightclub , anchored in the gay float scene of the 70s.
The nights are over at the Bearbie
Of course, transvestites are a must in the neighborhood with very lively bars where they do their performances, such as LL bar, Delirio, Delirio Live, Bearbie, Enfrente and the Ultrapop session of La Prohibida in the Boite room. The gay indies usually go to the Eight and a Half session.
must not forget about women's bars , increasingly visible and evolved to be more feminine in aesthetics and attitude, but without yet reaching lesbian chic. The Fulanita de Tal stands out above all of them. Neither of the bars that follow with the darkroom concept , like Strong Center , the gay nightclub with the largest darkroom in Europe ; or Boyberry , a mix of a sex shop with a bar and various darkroom floors.
Parties, carnivals, football... What else?
MALASANA
Increasingly less hipster and more gay, Malasaña fully enters the fields of alternative mainstream and trend. The bars are out of the gay clichés and fashion, 'posturing' and foodie take over the gay friendly places in this area . I mean, everything in the neighborhood is mixed for both straight and gay people. Places to eat? The new Casa Macareno, a food house of all life modernized; Hunter Bar, perfect for have a snack in a modern gay youth environment and even of the neutral gender (which are not defined as masculine or feminine); o Filete Ruso, the refuge of the old gay indies who populated the old Nasti Club.
For drinks, **the star venue is the Marta Cariño ** which has now expanded its domains with the opening of the Terrace of Marta Cariño and the Baila Cariño club. In another, more Malasañian style, there are the two Silvia Superstar bars: El Fabuloso and El Coconut, both decorated in kitsch and rock style.
A house of meals as always, but modernized
FOOTWASH
With the gentrification of Chueca and the impossibility of housing prices, many gays have emigrated to cheaper areas with extra attractions such as multiculturalism and castizo. This was found in footbath , where we find a gay atmosphere of young people with other types of less expensive and consumerist tastes . One of the favorite places for gays to eat is Los Chuchis, a small very cute and foodie eating house . Nearby are the San Fernando Market, a little more 'flute dog'; and the Gau Café terrace, in the historic building of the Pious schools , with a beautiful view of the rooftops of the neighborhood.
To have a few beers is El Rincón Guay , a traditional bar that has been converted into a neighborhood meeting point with a terrace and cheap tapas. The neighborhood has been forever lesbian feud , who had temples there like the disappeared Medea and the Mojito . Now they have Club 33, a lesbian session for the toughest girls. In the upper area of the neighborhood there have been several bars and saunas aimed exclusively at the gay community , As the Attack Bar , where there is flirtation.
Terrace view roofs
THE LATIN
A completely renovated neighborhood, which is changing to the Malasañero style by leaps and bounds, with a multitude of trendy shops, bars and restaurants. On Sundays it is the scene of a mini Chueca in the traditional Calatrava street , with mythical bars such as La Sixta , El Perla or El Atril , which at La Paloma festivities they take to the streets to delirium of the partying gay.
To all of the above, we must add the traveling sessions in various nightclubs scattered throughout the city of the wildest clubbing in Europe, such as ** We Party, Supermartxé, Diesel Party, My Pleasure, Goa, Ohm, Stardust, Churros con Chocolate or Bash**, among others.
Because yes, Madrid is very pink, and during Gay Pride it turns fluorescent pink p hear their nocturnal excesses, their brilliance and their extreme frivolity . Long live the diversity of this city.
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And long live the party!