Clare Give
is actually a self-described flaming London lesbian. She actually is spent the final 12 months currently talking about
queer women’s lifestyle
in her urban area. She files the atmosphere, songs, trends, feeling (are you going to get set or create new friends?), and people behind the nights.
Clare
chose it wouldn’t end up being to merely document dyke night life in one town, very she packed the woman handbags and strike the street. She is written about the thriving moments in
New York
,
Bay Area
, Bogota, São Paulo, Berlin, and Dublin up until now; this list keeps broadening. Keep close track of her
Dyke Nightlife Diaries
right here.
Evening One
The initial thing I do while I will an innovative new area is actually Bing my method to my personal peepsâ”Queer pubs inâ¦,” “Lesbian bars inâ¦,” “Gay bars in⦠.” Bogotá’s effects had been guaranteeing, with a lesbian nightclub labeled as Moza and a few homosexual barsâmainly inside city’s brand-new active cultural hub, Chapinero.
On monday evening, my gf and I whizzed anywhere in slightly yellowish taxi to Moza. We pulled up, strode out, and found that Moza had been no further. It sealed down not long ago, revealed the protection protect on (hetero) club that stands in its aftermath. El Mozo (Moza’s homosexual sibling club) had been just around the corner, so we nipped over here locate this had vanished also.
We chose to recover in a non-gay bar; the location was actually alive with Latin rhythms and passionately Salsa dance (right) partners. Lone guys, their own breaths nice with aguardiente (Colombia’s nationwide alcohol; just what tequila should Mexico), came in mosquito-like droves, each on a mission to access the unclaimed dames. They certainly were all very courteous and comprehended that a no meant no, nevertheless the heteronormative fat in this bar was actually plenty, particularly when we’d psyched our selves right up for every night of hanging out with hundreds of Latin-lesbians.
We eventually kept and moved old school. Switching on the queer-dar, we mooched round the roadways trying to find the peers. It failed to take very long before we found (what we should made the decision had been) three other lezzas. We approached and tentatively enquired about Moza and “bar homosexual,” while eying within the period of their unique nails, looking to maybe find a secret lesbian bar or something with the sort.
They certainly were really thinking about the convo and talked with us for some time concerning lackluster lesbian scene within city. In a short time, the dykiest-seeming of one’s brand new crew (who’d been many singing on the subject) remaining to visit a property celebration. We were remaining using various other two that hasn’t engaged in the black gay chat thus adamantly but had been keen to hang down with us.
âYou wish girls?” she requested enthusiastically.
We stated we did, assuming we were on a gay-level. Off we hopped in a cab, which whisked you away for a good few obstructs before finding yourself at an inconspicuous entrance in the exact middle of no place. The 2 protection guards (just who knew the chaperones) considered united states with total bemusement. “Qué?” they said continually to our tips guide, just as if she was wanting to take a few wildebeest into the club.
We ascended the mirror-covered stair case presuming we were proceeding up to a secret queer mecca but quickly realised we’d been taken to a brothel. However there’s nothing incorrect with brothelsâI’m all for safe places for intercourse staff members accomplish their own jobâhowever, the feeling in this location was actually awful; a number of ideal males, egos throbbing while they surveyed the bedroom of half-clothed women. Everybody provided us wondering appearance. They conducted the hope that we had been sometimes gonna purchase or promote sex when all we actually wanted would be to sip a cerveza and party to Sylvester. We remaining pretty quickly, strolled residence and mulled around unbelievable breakdown in our huge homosexual date.
Evening Two
Let’s try again. Theatron, Bogotá’s fourteen-room superclub, is actually ready to accept all, but it is a gay nightclub (are precise, the greatest homosexual pub into the Western Hemisphere) at heart. At 10 p.m., we had gotten in 200-people queue, which covered around the venue’s underground carpark like an anaconda. A techno bass thumped from threshold, and everyone jittered with enjoyment.
Once inside the house, we settled 55,000 pesos ($17) and were given a little synthetic cup for unlimited drinks through the night. This really is a typical part of Colombian organizations, and it has a truly good effect on the atmosphere inside; cash and exchange tend to be taken from the room, and no any concerns getting plunged into an existential crisis when checking their bank stability next day.
We roamed across the place bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and concluded that this is simply not truly a place. It’s a village that gives sanctuary to many pleasure-seeking folks every week. Staff members orchestrate the room meticulously; herding flocks of men and women, maintaining stairways no-cost and churning out mixer-after-mixer.
You’d probably require a week from inside the venue to essentially will grips with it. Home songs played inside central open-air region. Its created like an urban area center, with elevated DJ porches in the centre and cocktail taverns, food stores, and pubs on its outskirts. There have been at the very least ten DJs every night. They mixed many genres in various distinct areas. Reggaeton played in a chapel, pop in a huge amphitheater. Donna Summers played in psychedelic disco space, Celia Cruz is found on during the salsa room, and a DJ travelled in from Berlin to take control of the techno chamber.
From my personal observations that night, it seems that different styles attract different quantities of heteronormativity. Salsa and reggaeton happened to be about the heteros dry-humping under the chapel’s stained cup windowpanes. The pop music place had been mainly youthful, jubilant gay men flailing their particular arms while they drunkenly serenaded their unique pals. Techno seemed to entice more alternate lewks (piercings, died-hair, some fetish equipment). It had been one particular queer area, though reigned over by tanked homosexual dudes which popped supplements and de-clothed once the night changed.
People happened to be Latin American; there have been various gringos from regional hostels and just a few dark men and women. In general, there have been perhaps three some other queer femme couples boating the site. One duo had corresponding reddish and blue-dyed bobs. Another had been a Mexican couple I’d sat near to regarding jet to Bogotáâ we demonstrably relocate small circles.
We gravitated toward queerness from the techno roo but remaining at about midnight to visit (what we should believed had been) the ladies’s lavatories: a pink doorway, a safety guard out front side, additionally the phrase “Eve” authored over the door.
We figured this is an extremely glam access to a lavatory as we mounted the glittery-pink staircase. When we smack the leading, we realized this was actually no bathroom and in addition we had inadvertently found a secret lesbian club. Actually, Bogotá’s only lesbian barâperiod.
The area was kitschy: fuchsia pleather sofas, a hot red bar, pop-art mural art of dykons like Ellen, Gwen, Gaga, and Ginger lined the walls. There clearly was a pole dancing stage (that was undoubtedly getting utilised), an enormous dance-floor, and the sole feminine DJ in the building.
There were about thirty people within. To start with we all danced in a large kumbaya asexual circle, because it ended up being cold and not clear who was queer and who was simply merely enjoying the femme energy (in an effective way).
As evening developed and the DJ began pouring much more passionate Latin (Reggaeton and dancehall) rhythms around audience, partners started developing left, appropriate, and centre. The area soon evolved into what can only be called a clothed live-demo on the A-to-Z of waiting lesbian sex jobs. Couples brand new and outdated happened to be absolutely choosing it. It was natural, hedonistic, Sapphic secret.
Though we had been successfully encased in a massive gay club, the deficiency of home policy, safer room policy, or effective prioritization from the location’s primary entry meant this designated place showed a blessing for us lezzas. This secret lesbian bar was actually the actual only real devote the site in which a female could kiss a female without having the concern about starting an eye to a sniveling inebriated guy baring his teeth with glee. We accepted the freedom of Eve, regarding the secret lesbian club.
At the front in the bar (we’d also come in the medial side home) stood a large material gate, 2 meters by 2 yards (6.5 feet by 6.5 feet), with three door ladies saying “unicamente por chicas” on repeat. The majority of got it and managed to move on, but little batches of men lurked away from door, lingering for five or ten minutes, sitting on their own tip-toes like naughty meerkats, wanting to sneak-a-peak during the forbidden area.
Since the clock struck 3 a.m., we pried our selves far from Eve therefore we could experience a lot of site. While carrying out the rounds within this stunning, sprawling town of hedonism, we stumbled across Lotus, a “unicamente hombres” location (apparently meant to produce a safer room for homosexual dudes to explore away from the mixed crowd). Truly secure to say, there are no categories of ladies clambering to own a peek inside here.
We oriented down seriously to the techno space and spent the residual couple of many hours acquiring sweaty with your individuals. We remaining at 5 a.m., pleased having found this truly distinctive place, and also more content to possess revealed Bogotá’s key lesbian club.
Theatron Calle 58 #10-32, Bogotá, follow
@theatronbogota
.
