Clare Hand
is actually a self-described flaming London lesbian. She is invested the very last year authoring
queer ladies nightlife
within her area. She documents the environment, songs, trends, vibe (might you get set or create new mates?), and the ones behind the evenings.

Clare
made the decision which would not end up being straight to only report dyke nightlife within one urban area, so she stuffed the woman bags and smack the road. She’s discussing the thriving views in
Ny
,
San Francisco Bay Area
, Bogota, São Paulo, Berlin, and Dublin up until now; this listing will keep broadening. Monitor her
Dyke Nightlife Diaries
right here.

Night One

The first thing I do when I reach an innovative new city is actually Bing my strategy to my personal peeps—»Queer pubs in…,» «Lesbian pubs in…,» «Gay bars in… .» Bogotá’s outcomes had been encouraging, with a lesbian club labeled as Moza and some homosexual bars—mainly into the urban area’s brand new active social center, Chapinero.

On monday evening, my personal girl and that I whizzed anywhere in just a little yellowish taxi to Moza. We pulled up, strode away, and discovered that Moza had been no longer. It shut down a while ago, demonstrated the safety protect during the (hetero) club that appears with its aftermath. El Mozo (Moza’s homosexual cousin bar) had been just around the corner, therefore we nipped over here locate so it had vanished too.

We made a decision to recover in a non-gay bar; the place was actually live with Latin rhythms and passionately Salsa dancing (right) lovers. Lone guys, their own breaths sweet with aguardiente (Colombia’s national alcohol; just what tequila would be to Mexico), was available in mosquito-like droves, each on a mission to recover the unclaimed dames. They certainly were all really polite and comprehended that a no implied no, however the heteronormative body weight inside club ended up being a large amount, specially when we might psyched our selves upwards for per night of partying with hundreds of Latin-lesbians.

We soon left and went old-school. Flipping on our queer-dar, we mooched round the streets in search of the peers. It don’t take long before we stumbled across (what we should chose happened to be) three fellow lezzas. We contacted and tentatively enquired about Moza and «bar homosexual,» while eying in the period of their own nails, wishing to possibly get a hold of a secret lesbian club or something regarding the sort.

These were very thinking about the convo and talked with us for a time regarding lackluster lesbian world inside their city. Eventually, the dykiest-seeming of your new crew (who’d already been the essential singing on the topic) remaining to attend a property party. We were kept with the different two that hasn’t engaged in the homosexual chat therefore adamantly but had been keen to hang out with our team.

‘You desire ladies?» she requested eagerly.

We said we performed, assuming we had been on a gay-level. Off we hopped in a taxi, which whisked you away for a great couple of obstructs before winding up at an inconspicuous entrance in the center of no place. Both security guards (just who knew all of our chaperones) looked over united states with total bemusement. «Qué?» they mentioned over repeatedly to the guide, as if she was actually trying to just take a few wildebeest inside bar.

We ascended the mirror-covered stair case assuming we were heading around a key queer mecca but soon realised that we’d already been taken up a brothel. Without a doubt there’s nothing wrong with brothels—I’m all for safe places for intercourse employees accomplish their own job—however, the vibe in this destination ended up being bad; a handful of appropriate men, egos throbbing as they surveyed the room of scantily clad females. Everybody offered us interesting appearance. They presented the expectation that individuals had been both gonna purchase or sell sex when all we really wished would be to sip a cerveza and party to Sylvester. We left very quickly, walked residence and mulled on the impressive failure of your large homosexual date.

Evening Two

Let’s attempt once more. Theatron, Bogotá’s fourteen-room superclub, is ready to accept all, but it’s a gay dance club (to be exact, the greatest gay club during the american Hemisphere) at heart. At 10 p.m., we got during the 200-people waiting line, which wrapped all over site’s belowground car parking like an anaconda. A techno bass thumped through the threshold, and everybody jittered with excitement.

As soon as inside, we paid 55,000 pesos ($17) and received somewhat plastic glass for limitless beverages all night long. That is one common thing in Colombian organizations, and has now a truly positive effect on the atmosphere around; money and exchange tend to be removed from the room, and no any concerns being plunged into an existential situation whenever examining their bank balance next early morning.

We roamed around the site bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and concluded that this isn’t really a place. Its a village that offers refuge to many pleasure-seeking individuals weekly. Staff members orchestrate the area meticulously; herding flocks men and women, keeping stairways no-cost and churning out mixer-after-mixer.

You’ll need weekly in place to truly reach grips with-it. House music played inside main open-air location. It’s designed like an urban area heart, with increased DJ decks in the middle and cocktail pubs, food stores, and pubs on their outskirts. There have been no less than ten DJs every night. They combined countless genres in several unique spaces. Reggaeton played in a chapel, play a huge amphitheater. Donna Summers played when you look at the psychedelic disco room, Celia Cruz is on from inside the salsa collection, and a DJ travelled in from Berlin to take control the techno chamber.

From my personal observations that night, it seems that various genres draw in various quantities of heteronormativity. Salsa and reggaeton were exactly about the heteros dry-humping according to the chapel’s stained cup windowpanes. The pop music area had been mostly youthful, jubilant homosexual men flailing their particular arms because they drunkenly serenaded their own friends. Techno did actually attract probably the most alternative lewks (piercings, died-hair, some fetish equipment). It actually was one particular queer space, though ruled by tanked homosexual guys exactly who popped pills and de-clothed due to the fact night evolved.

We happened to be Latin American; there have been certain gringos from neighborhood hostels and simply some Ebony men and women. In general, there were possibly three other queer femme partners boating the place. One duo had corresponding yellow and blue-dyed bobs. Another had been a Mexican pair I’d sat alongside on the plane to Bogotá— we clearly relocate tiny circles.

We gravitated to your queerness of techno roo but left around midnight to attend (what we should believed was actually) the women’s commodes: a green entrance, a security guard out front side, additionally the term «Eve» authored over the door.

We thought this is an extremely glam entrance to a bathroom once we mounted the glittery-pink stairway. When we strike the leading, we realised this was no toilet and now we had inadvertently found a secret lesbian club. Indeed, Bogotá’s only lesbian bar—period.

The space ended up being kitschy: fuchsia pleather couches, a hot red club, pop-art mural art of dykons like Ellen, Gwen, Gaga, and Ginger covered the wall space. There was clearly a pole dancing phase (that has been definitely being utilised), a massive dance-floor, together with sole female DJ from inside the building.

There have been around thirty of us inside. Initially we danced in a huge kumbaya asexual circle, as it was cool and ambiguous who was simply queer and who was merely experiencing the femme energy (in a good way).

Since the night advanced therefore the DJ began flowing more steamy Latin (Reggaeton and dancehall) rhythms across audience, lovers started building kept, right, and center. The space shortly evolved into so what can only be referred to as a clothed live-demo of this A-to-Z of waiting lesbian gender roles. Couples brand-new and old happened to be absolutely choosing it. It actually was raw, hedonistic, Sapphic miracle.

Though we had been efficiently encased in an enormous gay club, the possible lack of door plan, better space policy, or active prioritization during the place’s major entrance implied this particular specified place showed a godsend for all of us lezzas. This key lesbian club was actually the only invest the place where a lady could kiss a girl without the concern with opening an eye fixed to a sniveling drunk guy baring his teeth with glee. We accepted the independence of Eve, with the key lesbian club.

In front of this club (we would may be found in the side door) endured an enormous material door, 2 meters by 2 yards (6.5 legs by 6.5 feet), with three door women claiming «unicamente por chicas» on perform. Most got it and managed to move on, but little batches of dudes lurked outside of the entrance, ongoing for five or ten minutes, sitting on their particular tip-toes like horny meerkats, trying to sneak-a-peak inside the restricted area.

Because time clock struck 3 a.m., we pried ourselves from the Eve therefore we could discover more of the site. While carrying out the rounds within this breathtaking, sprawling village of hedonism, we stumbled across Lotus, a «solamente hombres» region (presumably designed to produce a safer space for homosexual dudes to explore off the blended group). It is secure to say, there are no categories of females clambering for a glance inside indeed there.

We went as a result of the techno place and spent the residual couple of hours acquiring flushed with the help of our people. We left at 5 a.m., delighted having located this certainly distinctive site, plus more content to have revealed Bogotá’s key lesbian club.

Theatron Calle 58 #10-32, Bogotá, follow
@theatronbogota
.