Clare Give
is a self-described flaming London lesbian. She actually is spent the past year authoring
queer ladies’ lifestyle
within her area. She files the atmosphere, music, trends, vibe (are you going to get laid or create brand new mates?), and people behind the nights.

Clare
decided that it wouldn’t end up being directly to only record dyke nightlife in a single area, so she packed her bags and strike the street. She’s discussed the thriving moments in
Nyc
,
San Francisco
, Bogota, São Paulo, Berlin, and Dublin thus far; this number will keep broadening. Monitor the woman
Dyke Nightlife Diaries
right here.

Night One

To begin with I do as I get to a town is actually Bing my method to my personal peeps—”Queer pubs in…,” “Lesbian pubs in…,” “Gay bars in… .” Bogotá’s results had been guaranteeing, with a lesbian club called Moza and a few gay bars—mainly from inside the urban area’s brand new busy cultural hub, Chapinero.

On tuesday night, my girl and I whizzed anywhere in some yellowish taxi to Moza. We pulled up, strode away, and unearthed that Moza had been no longer. It closed down not long ago, described the protection shield in the (hetero) bar that appears within the aftermath. El Mozo (Moza’s homosexual sibling bar) had been coming, so we nipped over there to obtain so it had vanished also.

We decided to recover in a non-gay club; the location was alive with Latin rhythms and passionately Salsa dancing (right) lovers. Lone men, their particular breaths sweet with aguardiente (Colombia’s national liquor; what tequila is Mexico), was available in mosquito-like droves, each on a mission to recover the unclaimed dames. They certainly were all extremely polite and comprehended that a no designed no, nevertheless the heteronormative weight within this bar had been many, specially when we would psyched our selves up for per night of hanging out with countless Latin-lesbians.

We shortly kept and went old-school. Switching on the queer-dar, we mooched across streets searching for our very own colleagues. It failed to take long before we found (that which we decided were) three other lezzas. We contacted and tentatively enquired about Moza and “bar gay,” while eying within the period of their own nails, wishing to possibly get a hold of a secret lesbian bar or something with the kind.

They were very thinking about the convo and talked with our team for some time regarding the lackluster lesbian scene in their town. Eventually, the dykiest-seeming in our new crew (who would also been many singing on the topic) left to attend a property party. We had been kept making use of the other two who’dn’t involved with the gay talk so adamantly but were keen to hold around with our team.

‘You desire girls?” she questioned eagerly.

We said we performed, presuming we were on a gay-level. Off we hopped in a taxi, which whisked you away for a good few blocks before finding yourself at an inconspicuous entrance in no place. Both safety protections (whom understood our chaperones) looked over united states with total bemusement. “Qué?” they mentioned continually to the tips guide, just as if she ended up being wanting to get multiple wildebeest to the club.

We ascended the mirror-covered stair case presuming we were heading as much as a secret queer mecca but soon realized that we’d already been taken up a brothel. Without a doubt there’s nothing completely wrong with brothels—I’m all for secure places for sex staff members to complete their unique job—however, the feeling in this particular place was actually terrible; a handful of ideal guys, egos throbbing as they surveyed the area of half-clothed females. Everyone offered united states interested appearance. They held the hope that people happened to be both browsing get or sell sex when all we actually desired were to sip a cerveza and party to Sylvester. We remaining fairly quickly, went house and mulled throughout the unbelievable troubles of our big gay date.

Evening Two

Let us attempt again. Theatron, Bogotá’s fourteen-room superclub, is ready to accept all, but it is a homosexual dance club (getting exact, the largest gay nightclub inside Western Hemisphere) in your mind. At 10 p.m., we got in the 200-people queue, which covered round the venue’s underground car park like an anaconda. A techno bass thumped through the roof, and everyone jittered with exhilaration.

As soon as inside the house, we settled 55,000 pesos ($17) and received a tiny bit synthetic mug for limitless beverages all-night. This can be a typical part of Colombian clubs, and has now a very good effect on the atmosphere inside; money and change are removed from the area, no one risks being plunged into an existential situation whenever checking their unique bank balance another day.

We roamed round the venue bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and concluded that this isn’t really a location. Its a village that provides refuge to several thousand pleasure-seeking folks weekly. Employees orchestrate the area meticulously; herding flocks men and women, keeping stairways free and churning out mixer-after-mixer.

You’ll need per week inside place to truly reach grips with-it. House music played from inside the central open-air area. It is created like an urban area heart, with elevated DJ porches in the middle and cocktail pubs, meals stores, and bars on the borders. There are at least ten DJs each night. They combined numerous styles in several unique places. Reggaeton played in a chapel, play a massive amphitheater. Donna Summers played inside the psychedelic disco area, Celia Cruz is found on for the salsa room, and a DJ flew in from Berlin to take-over the techno chamber.

From my personal observations that night, it seems that various genres draw in different quantities of heteronormativity. Salsa and reggaeton had been everything about the heteros dry-humping in chapel’s tarnished glass house windows. The pop room was mainly young, jubilant gay guys flailing their own hands because they drunkenly serenaded their particular friends. Techno did actually attract many renewable lewks (piercings, died-hair, some fetish gear). It was the essential queer space, though ruled by tanked gay men exactly who jumped supplements and de-clothed while the night changed.

Many people were Latin-American; there had been a couple of gringos from local hostels and only a few Ebony people. In general, there have been perhaps three various other queer femme partners boating the place. One duo had corresponding red and blue-dyed bobs. Another happened to be a Mexican pair I’d sat alongside regarding plane to Bogotá— we clearly move around in small groups.

We gravitated toward queerness of this techno roo but kept at about midnight to attend (what we should thought had been) the ladies’s toilets: a pink doorway, a protection safeguard out front side, and term “Eve” authored above the door.

We realized this was a tremendously glam entrance to a lavatory once we climbed the glittery-pink stairway. As soon as we strike the very top, we realized this ended up being no commode and now we had unintentionally uncovered a secret lesbian club. In fact, Bogotá’s just lesbian bar—period.

The space was kitschy: fuchsia pleather couches, a hot pink club, pop-art paintings of dykons like Ellen, Gwen, Gaga, and Ginger lined the wall space. There clearly was a-pole dance level (which was seriously becoming utilised), a big dance-floor, as well as the only feminine DJ within the building.

There are around thirty folks inside. To start with each of us danced in a huge kumbaya asexual circle, given that it ended up being cool and ambiguous who had been queer and who had been just enjoying the femme energy (in a good way).

Since evening developed and also the DJ began flowing a lot more steamy Latin (Reggaeton and dancehall) rhythms over the audience, lovers started developing remaining, correct, and hub. The area quickly turned into what can only be referred to as a clothed live-demo associated with the A-to-Z of waiting lesbian sex roles. Couples brand new and outdated had been completely going for it. It was raw, hedonistic, Sapphic miracle.

Though we were efficiently encased in an enormous gay nightclub, the possible lack of home plan, less dangerous area policy, or energetic prioritization from the location’s major access suggested that specified location proved a godsend for us lezzas. This secret lesbian bar was actually truly the only devote the location where a woman could kiss a woman without fear of beginning an eye to a sniveling inebriated guy baring their teeth with glee. We accepted the liberty of Eve, regarding the secret lesbian bar.

In front associated with club (we would are offered in the side home) stood an enormous steel door, 2 meters by 2 yards (6.5 foot by 6.5 legs), with three home ladies claiming “solamente por chicas” on perform. Many started using it and managed to move on, but tiny batches of men lurked outside the entrance, ongoing for 5 or ten minutes, looking at their tip-toes like aroused meerkats, wanting to sneak-a-peak within the forbidden area.

Because time clock struck 3 a.m., we pried our selves far from Eve so we could experience more of the location. While performing the rounds in this gorgeous, sprawling village of hedonism, we found Lotus, a “solamente hombres” place (presumably built to make a safer room for homosexual dudes to explore off the blended group). It really is safe to express, there are no categories of ladies clambering to have a look inside indeed there.

We headed right down to the techno space and spent the remaining few hours acquiring wet with the help of our individuals. We left at 5 a.m., delighted having found this truly unique location, as well as happier to own revealed Bogotá’s key lesbian club.

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