Buenos Aires, Latin America’s top LGBT destination

Before embarking on an international trip, many homosexuals and transsexuals will be keen to find out how safe their destination is, whether they will get into trouble if they kiss their partner in public, and whether they might end up in jail if they meet somebody and sleep with them.

In Europe, such questions are largely redundant, despite recurring attacks on gay people, but in many parts of the world, such as Latin America, they are worth asking.

Colombia was the first Latin American country to legalize same-sex marriage, in 2009

“We wanted to know which is the best LGBT destination in Latin America, based on the opinions of people from this collective,” says Pablo de Luca, president of Argentina’s gay and lesbian chamber of commerce. So, taking advantage of the ninth edition of Gnetwork360, the annual international gay business and tourism conference being held in Buenos Aires last week, a survey was taken to sound delegates’ views on the matter.

Buenos Aires, the Argentinean capital, was chosen by 63% of delegates as the region’s preferred LGBT tourism destination. It was followed by Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, and Mexico City, which tied with Montevideo in fourth place. The Argentinean capital also came first in the most LGBT-friendly city, beating Sao Paulo. The best beach destination was Rio de Janeiro.

Colombia was the first Latin American country to legalize same-sex marriage, in 2009, followed by Argentina a year later, with Brazil doing the same in 2011 and Uruguay in 2013. In Mexico, same-sex marriage is only legal in some states.

But homophobic violence is a big problem in Argentina, particularly in the provinces. In 2014, seven LGBT people were murdered, while last year in just one month, three transsexuals were killed. Gay men were not allowed to donate blood there until 2015.

English version by Nick Lyne.