via theage.com (australia)
[LifeLube vouches for everything in this article, including the glowing report on the new "heterosexual-friendly" Axel Hotel, which was just down the street from our apartment in the funky neighborhood of San Telmo. We stopped by a number of times to enjoy...]
Home to the sexy tango and strapping steak eaters, this South American capital has long been thought of as a bastion of macho attitudes. But a new hotel here is adding to the city's growing image as a bastion of gay friendliness.
The Axel Hotel, a Spanish import that opened last month, has come to symbolise Buenos Aires' increasingly aggressive effort to court gay dollars and euros. It is Latin America's first luxury hotel built exclusively with gay customers in mind.
That Buenos Aires would be chosen for such a marketing experiment is a result of a marked change in recent years in the acceptance of gay men and lesbians in Argentine society.
The city of 3 million has come a long way from the years of military dictatorship, when being openly gay could lead to jail. Five years ago this was the first major Latin American city to legalise same-sex unions, and this summer it was host to a World Cup for gay soccer players.
"There is so much more freedom these days," said Mauricio Urbides, a 28-year-old fashion designer, sipping wine with two male friends at the hotel. "You see gays on television here, in government. Just 15 years ago it was a completely different situation."
The three friends were among a mixed crowd of homosexuals and heterosexuals who laughed as Kyra and Sharon, drag queens from Spain, poked fun at Argentina's President-elect, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, and sang a Marilyn Monroe-inspired Happy Birthday to a male guest.
Buenos Aires has no traditional gay neighbourhood of its own, but acceptance of gay people has grown slowly. The first gay bar opened in 1983 just as the military dictatorship was being toppled, then in 1992 President Carlos Menem signed a decree promising equal protection under the law for gays.
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