Gay bars in tijuana mexico

The Best Gay Bars in Tijuana, Baja California on Unilocal. Read about places like Premier lounge, Latinos Bar, Caguas bar. Tijuana, Mexico's gay bars have historically centered cis men, but a DIY nightlife scene is making space for marginalized queer people. Best Gay Bars in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico - Premier Men's club, Baños La Toalla, Latinos Bar, El Ranchero Bar, Club Hawaii, Club Fusion, The Loft, Caguas bar, Colibrí, Camaleón.

Find the best hotels and gay bars in or near Tijuana, Mexico. Reviews, photos, gay map. Explore Tijuana's vibrant LGBTQ+ nightlife with QLIST! Enjoy performances at El Ranchero and karaoke at Yadira's Bar. Visit Tijuana for a vibrant cultural mix and events like its June Pride Festival. Discover the warmth of Baja California’s LGBTQ+-friendly venues. On Plaza Santa Cecilia in late May, rainbows reign supreme.

At the bars that line the plaza, under black lights and in the dark, men perform in drag and hold each other tenderly in narrow smoke-filled halls. Behind buckets of Tecate, they sing and sway along with Mexican love ballads from the s. They have an easy way about them, their shoulders relaxed, their face muscles smooth. Being so close to the border, Tijuana is a swirling site of transience and transformation.

The population is an amalgam; while official surveys count around 1. But for many, of course, what lies on the other side of the border is far from a promised land. Many will die trying to cross, or be separated from loved ones, or be disillusioned by a lack of opportunity. Threat looms over the city: of heartbreak, of violence, of petty crime and pickpockets.

Shots, shots, shots! As the rainbowcore would suggest, there are plenty of gay bars in Tijuana. But there are no explicitly lesbian bars. The city does, however, have a rich history of gay male mobilization, chronicled in a dissertation by social scientist Jesse Anguiano of Western Michigan University.

Laura Gonzalez, who moved to San Diego from Tijuana five years ago, says that nowadays, this slice of downtown is relatively progressive compared with the rest of Mexico. She attributes this to the culture of machismo that persists throughout Mexico—orienting public life, including the queer milieu, toward men. There are all-male bathhouses and strip clubs, some within a few blocks of the plaza. At El Ranchero, miniature cow skulls with lethal-looking horns keep watch over the bar as shy queens in pink and purple gowns lip sync to slow, syrupy hits from decades gone by.

Upstairs is a stripper pole that I imagine gets put to good use on busier nights; tonight, though, a lone pair of young men pull each other around the floor to sultry bachata rhythms. Latinos Bar across the street, meanwhile, can get downright raucous. Any gay bars that they might visit were centered around cis men. The walls are dressed in punk feminist murals by Colombian street artist Erre ; in the performance and gallery space, the center regularly platforms queer TJ-based artists, many of them women.

At the door, my friends and I are greeted by year-old Julia, a bartender here for the past 28 years. Julia brings us our drinks: a Tecate with extra lime for me, a tequila soda and a Dos Equis for my friends. We clink.

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There are no strobe lights or drag queen ballgowns. Where you can sing your lungs out and no one cares. We cross back over the border at 1 a. Tagged: culture , queer bars. Get our freshest features and recipes weekly. Related Articles.