explore the queer side of buenos aires
Join the first tour unraveling Argentina's LGBTQ+ history, from pre-colonial days to legal non-binary recognition.
Guided by members of the local community, this tour supports a school for gender non-conforming residents.
Book a private tour...
...or hop on a shared one!
The Culture
Argentina has some of the most progressive legislation in the world towards Queer communities, and specially Buenos Aires is considered to be a safe haven for Queer people.
Feel free to show affection in the public spaces of Buenos Aires and to be out and loud and proud. Some parts of the country are OK, but some, specially in the North are quite conservative.
Buenos Aires is teeming with gay, lesbian and queer friendly pubs, cafes, bookshops, restaurants and nightclubs. There's an amazing ballroom scene, historically established parties like Club 69 and queer cultural centers like Feliza and Casa Brandon.
Although there isn't a "pink area" in Buenos Aires, there's definitely a scene in the Palermo/Villa Crespo area and in San Telmo, where lot's of queer artivism happens daily, like the drag performances of Max Regueiro, who embodies the mythical tango singer Tita Merello and delivers a soul and drama-full show every Sunday in San Telmo.
The History
Of course, none of this would have been possible without decades of commited activists.
There's been sexual dissidence in this country as long as there's been people in it. But coming out of the closet was hard.
Cornered between dictatorships and a heavily Catholic country, it took a lot of courage and personal sacrifice to allow us to conquer what we have.
In our tours and in our lives, we honor people like Carlos Jauregui, creator of the Argentine Homosexual Community, who died of AIDS in the 1990s, only days before the city of Buenos Aires banned discrimination against queer individuals with a bill named after him. We also honor the indigenous, black and mestizo trans people like Mocha Celis, Diana Sacayan and Marcela Romero who carved a path forward for a society outside the gender binary.
We continue to fight to broaden our rights, so that trans folk can live and thrive, so that trans kids can live free childhoods and so that inclusion is part of every aspect of our lives.
The Legislation
This is Tani Fernandez, also known as Dhyzhy, one of the first people in the country to hold a non-binary ID card that marks their gender as an X.
Tani is the child of the current President of Argentina, Alberto Fernandez. When he ran for office they tried to weponize his child's gender: he shrugged it off and said we're beyond that kind of discrimination as a society.
Tani is allowed to be themselves thansks to the legislation in Argentina, one of the most advanced in the world: we recognize LGBT rights as human and civil rights. This has allowed us to pass laws to allow any two individuals to marry and adopt, to have a gender-neutral abortion law that includes trans and non binary people, that provides IVF treatment for Queer couples and so much more.
The activism, sacrifice and struggle of generations has created an unimaginbale present: if today, the president's first child is an out and open non-binary drag queen, then our future looks incredibly bright.
The one and only Argentine Queer History Tour
Explore the history of sexual dissidence from pre-colonial times into modernity, learn how this deeply entrenched Catholic country became an international flagbearer for LGBT civil rights, and help a school for trans and gender non-conforming students.
This "gay tour" is like no other: we'll talk about the revolution that's happening today as the concept of gender fluid, and finally entrenched in our laws, forever changing our country. Join us to discuss the history of lesbian visibility, saunas, the stuggle for non-binary legal recognition, the unexpected ally of Evita Peron and so much more.
Many of us in Lunfarda are Queer, and proud of what our country has achieved through our activism: let us share it with you. We are the first ones in the continent to run a "gay tour" that goes beyond the "G" to explore the history of Queer activism from an intersectional scope.
Oh, and did we mention 10% of the profits go to Mocha Celis, a school that caters to trans and gender non-conforming folk?
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Our tours are 100% designed by locals: Argentine stories, as told by Argentine voices. We taking back our narrative!