Showtime brings on a drag queen wearing a dress that looks like a wraparound
neon Scrabble board. She lip-synchs a song and then turns the stage over to an
angelic dancer, who strips off her white mini-dress and wings to become a
little devil in a red bikini.
I'm jet-lagged, sleep-deprived, altitude-sick, but the night is young and the
dance floor has reopened.
One of my gang is a screamer. When her favourite songs come on, which is often,
she lets out a guttural roar like a woman in labour.
I make it through a few more tunes and then collapse at a table, while my
friends keep grooving.
These are exhilarating days in Mexico's capital and there's a lot to celebrate.
Last year, the city government passed a registered partnership or Convivencia
law, allowing same-sex couples to sign up and get inheritance rights.
It's already illegal to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.
The Zona Rosa, between the Insurgentes Metro stop and Paseo de la Reforma, is
gayer than ever. One block of Calle Amberes is rainbow-saturated with
hand-holding couples and open-air coffee shops like Bgay Bproud (Amberes #12B).
From there the scene spreads downtown and to the suburbs with dozens of meeting
places everywhere.
Trends are set for the nation in this city, so I ask a couple of community
members what else is new.
"You have to have a trans friend," says Agustin Villalpando Sanchez, who
co-organizes a research and travel service called Enkidu. Their web magazine
documents the growing visibility of transgender and transsexual Mexicans.
Another trend is the increasing playfulness between young lesbians and gay men,
holding hands, embracing, kissing on the mouth, blurring the boundaries.
Martha Cuevas, who runs the www.eventoslesbicos.tk website, says that femme
lesbians are coming out and taking their space, especially at events like
Thursdays' "Solo para Ellas" at Cabaretito V.I.P. It's part of the general
openness that has brought in a lot of new bars and cafes in the past few years.
Most of 21-year-old Pablo Herrera's gay friends are out to their families, and
many are receiving acceptance. He was with his mother at a party when another
young man planted the kiss that changed his life. His grandmother simply tells
him that whether he has a boyfriend or girlfriend, he should be careful.
Surprisingly, not many of his lesbian friends are out to family ¡V they're
under intense pressure to marry men and have children. This is the last bastion
of Mexican machismo, where progress trickles down slowly.
Visitors probably won't encounter the complexity of unwritten rules underlying
the huge scene in Mexico City. Locals speak of a rivalry between the Cabaretito
bar patrons and those who prefer Boy Bar, Lipstick, and Living. Accusations of
drug use and underage prostitution fly across the divide. Some people claim
there are corresponding gay mafias fighting over turf around the city.
The men pack in more drama and intrigue than the lesbians, says one guy, his
eyes aglow.
"The fights are wonderful!"
