Intro: From the Pacific to the Andes, Peruvian culture spans centuries and rugged terrain. It also contains some different views of homosexuality. In Peru, sexual labels vary with an individual's behavior and self-definition. Meanwhile (since 2004) the gay 'scene' in Lima has become quietly lively.

Also see:
Gay Peru News & Reports 2000 to present
Gay Peru Photo Galleries

By Richard Ammon
October 1999
Updated April 2008


Beautiful Scenery, Negative Attitudes

It is not easy to see gay life on the streets of Lima, Peru. Hidden from public scrutiny, most Latino queers know better than to risk their honor and safety with demonstrations, public affections or political defiance.

Despite the magnificent scenic and historic wonders throughout Peru, from the stunning carved stones at Machu Picchu in the high Andes to the fascinating gigantic Nazco Lines near the ocean, unseen feelings run strong and hostile toward same-sex love and behavior.

A news release dated 19 January 1993 from the International Gay and Lesbian Association captured the atmosphere gays faced under the former autocratic President Alberto Fujimora: "President Fujimori of Peru has relieved 117 diplomats, ranking as high as Ambassadors, in an effort to purge members of government he sees as threats to his control. In justifying his decision, Fujimori explained to the press that diplomats relieved of their positions were homosexual, and referred to " practicas dudosas sexuales" (doubtful sexual practices). Fifteen of the diplomats have come forward as gay, and have condemned the government for a decision they characterized as "narrow minded and machistic". Most of the 117 who were relieved were neither gay nor lesbian..." (It is fittingly ironic that Fujimora was dismissed from office in 2000 for being "morally incompetent" and now faces indictment for corruption.)


Another sign of unwelcoming attitudes towards homosexuals in this poor and conservative country was revealed in the August 2000 (and continuing) flap over the unintended similarity of the Inca nation flag and the gay rainbow flag. Both are designed with horizontal stripes of colors graduating from red at the top with yellow and green in the middle moving to violet at the bottom. The only real difference is a seventh light blue stripe in the Cuzco banner instead of six bars in the gay one.

During our visit to Cuzco on the way to Machu Picchu, I noticed the flag fluttering in front of a municipal building and took a picture of it, wondering what its significance was. Even as a gay man I knew it couldn't be a gay sign in this highly Catholic society and it was only after I asked a shopkeeper that I understood the flag's local meaning.

A couple of weeks later, a news report said: "Many foreign visitors come here and feel a little confused at our flag. They stare at it, wondering,'' said Mayor Carlos Valencia of Cuzco, the ancient Inca capital. The city's municipal building raises the flag year round and in June and July--the high tourist season--Cuzco residents fly the colors atop their homes to celebrate both modern independence-day holidays as well as ancient Inca ''Sun God'' celebrations. Needless to say, the authorities disliked the similarity and briefly considered changing the native flag to avoid any association with homosexuality.

According to the report (N Y Times): "For Peru's small gay rights group, the conflict is a symptom of homosexual issues being largely buried in a country still struggling to forge a modern democracy, and where civil rights often take second place to questions of where Peruvians will get their next plate of food.

" 'It encourages homophobia,' Jose Ascencio, coordinator of Lima's homosexual movement, told Reuters. 'It's a stupidity of the people of Cuzco,' said well-known Oscar Ugarteche, one of the few Peruvian public figures who is openly gay. " 'This flag is a way of attracting more tourists.' He protested that the Inca flag is not historical at all and was merely designed for a Cuzco festival in the nineteen seventies. He is, of course, highly incensed at the official homophobic reactions which he has sought to counter for fifteen years.

A third source of insult to sexual minorities in Peru is the distinctly unfair and rude treatment by the authorities of transvestites, some of whom work the streets as prostitutes. This quiet long-suffering community of daring homosexuals takes bold risks in order to subsist. They are shunned, shamed and scorned by most Peruvian as misfits. Little compassion comes from the Church toward these individuals especially the sex workers who ply their trade perhaps less out of courage than the need to survive. Police harassment is common.

But they endure, partly out of their own willfulness but also, in no small part, due to the service they provide to this male-dominated culture that publicly proscribes-- especially from the pulpit--sexual behavior outside of marriage. 'Good' girls do not offer themselves to eager young men out of fear of dishonoring their families and incurring judgment from the Church. Consequently, since human nature is hardly contained by repressive rules, lady-men become an integral part of the private lives of many straight and bi men looking for temporary relief.

 

Counter measures

But despite such entrenched hostile attitudes, in October 1997 a small pride parade of sixty marchers was led downtown by Ugarteche, who is also a highly respected economist as well as a co-founder of MHOL (Movimiento Homosexual de Lima). After the bold demonstration which produced puzzled looks from onlookers and suspicion from the police, he declared, "This is definitively a turning point for our movement." Noting the news media present, he defiantly affirmed, "Tonight we will be on all the news programs. We are no longer invisible." He also proclaimed they were protesting society's attitude and laws which allowed gay people to be routinely bashed, fired and arbitrarily detained.

It was a defiant and bold effort that had more symbolic than real impact and highlighted the efforts of MHOL to raise awareness about injustice and discrimination against gays. "We claim Peru to be a democracy, so let us act like one and offer fairness to all people," he insisted.

Perhaps sensing the futility of such poorly attended public displays, Ugarteche and other activists continued to focus their efforts more quietly behind the scenes as they lobbied Congress to consider gay rights as human rights--"a democratic value". Much to their credit, within two years, they managed to persuade the government to pass, without fanfare, landmark protective legislation in June of 1999. The law prohibits discrimination against people for the usual reasons--age, race, religion, gender--and sexual orientation.


Voice of a 'Moderno' Gay

The effects of this legislation, of course, did not suddenly open Peruvian culture to embrace sexual varieties by any means. A handful of activists hardly constitute a gay movement with much influence, but a clean sense of 'pride' urges them on as MOHL continues as a grass roots organization pushing for enforcement and acceptance of the anti-discrimination statute.

For those accustomed to oppression and harassment, the years since the law passed have seen an easing of police attitudes towards lesbigays, at least in Lima. Such were the thoughts of Jose Cruces (not his real name), a 'typical' gay guy whom we met on the Internet before we arrived in Lima. Bright-eyed, energetic, occupied with friends, family, work and some play, he visited us one evening and talked for a couple of hours about his life in Lima and Peru.

He is a bouncy young man in his twenties with dark short-cropped hair, cornsilk smooth skin and full lips that typify modern descendants of the Inca nation. His English was half-good and we supplied the other half as we conversed about growing up gay in Peru.

He considers himself to be a 'moderno' gay man, more open about his sexuality, less fearful of the authorities (but not recklessly so), socially out and active with lesbian and gay friends. He said he is less ruled in the machismo-male role of being the dominant partner in bed. "For me being gay is how I feel with another man, not just sex and being on top", he explained. "My friends also think the same, but we are young and the older ones do not understand. For them it was pretending to be straight. But I am a man and I can enjoy my gay identity too."

Although the law is legally forgiving, Jose went on to note that most lesbigays live in fear and shame, especially regarding one's family. The 'sin' of being gay runs very deep here, but he was hopeful the new law would help gay people feel better about themselves and for straight people to be more open and more modern.

"Our Congress approved the new law and it acknowledges our sexual condition against discrimination; it's good, because we have rights and we can protest when anybody discriminates against us...but it will take time because gay people are still afraid of their families", he observed. Although he very much admired the success that MOHL has achieved, he felt that few would consider anything so bold as being publicly gay: "it's hard for anybody to go and walk in a parade, like you do, telling everybody that you're gay. It's almost impossible...maybe next year."


Changing Attitudes

Meanwhile, such fears have not stopped Jose and many younger lesbigays from forming networks of contacts, love and support in private in recent years.

Peru has been hobbled by nearly four hundred years of Catholic intolerance toward homosexuality. But laws and attitudes are eventually absorbed and shaped by newer myths, lifestyles and cultural changes that emerge from the vortex of everyday life. Love wills itself out, regardless of form or object or orientation.

For straight Peruvians, the 'Love Park' that overlooks the Pacific Ocean from the cliffs of Lima is populated at sunset with entwined and handholding couples lounging in the fading amber light. Every bench and level wall space is usually occupied by these mostly young lovers whispering sweet nothings to each other.

No less motivated are the countless lesbigays who create their own meeting places, although more discreetly. Jose seemed pleased to inform us of Lima's new bounty of gay locations, some of them not far from our hotel in the upscale and touristy Miraflores district. "Oh yes, there are many." he announced, "there is Tivoli bathhouse in San Isidro and the Gitano Disco just around the corner from here; if you want strippers there is Disco Perseo--they also lip sync too..."

He continued listing a dozen venues where lesbigays folks cruise, dance, drink, sunbathe or swap gossip over coffee in this ancient buzzing city of five million. Increasingly, he declared, bold gay couples a beginning to live together without excessive worry, yet still with some caution toward spying eyes or wagging tongues. The way, as with most Inca secrets, is smooth discerning judgment cloaked in silence.

I was about to find out just what modern Inca discernment really meant.


Blithe Indifference

The most intriguing comment to slice through most of the bilingual conversation with Jose was that some 'Limeno' men liked sex with other guys but did not identify themselves as gay.

In their minds they were normal guys exercising their male prerogative to act on their sexual urges by performing acceptable 'active' guy roles. Among man-to-man sexual intimates this is a clever--and dubious--use of denial wrapped in disguise and relabeled: screwing around with other guys but not by queers, gays or homos.

Rather, they are 'hombres' who are blithely confident they are straight because they only perform the macho-insertor role during rowdy romps with guys. Apparently, as long as you're on top you're not queer--simply because you say so.

Jose did not think highly of these men. "I think they are ashamed but they are too old to change their thinking", he said as we sat in the trendy sidewalk Haiti Cafe the next day.

I was intrigued to hear about these men who behave the same way I do yet without accepting the label attached to same-sex orientation. It was certainly denial, but, as Jose described these men, it seemed a denial in the service of self-preservation and personal power. In a tightly proscribed Christian paradigm that forbade human nature from expressing its full truth, this denial and re-labeling seemed almost as clever as it was effective.


Sex vs Labels

What is real, the act or the meaning of the act? Much has been said about 'machismo' role in Latin America, so crowded with men who followed the church and state to the altar and produced little Peruvians.

As we sat in the popular cafe on the park in Miraflores watching the varieties of Limenos pass by, a friend of Jose's happened by. Stylish, lean, dark eyes and shiny hair, Isidro was one of the 'hombres' Jose had been talking about--guys who like sex with men but who deny they are gay.

Isidro smiled, sat down and leaned back confidently in his wicker chair as if he had possessed it for years. Jose told him what we were talking about, softening his attitude a bit so as not to offend his friend. Isidro ('Iso') seemed interested but a little apprehensive. He squinted at me when I asked him if I could ask him some personal questions. As a long-time friend of Jose's (he knew Jose was gay) he was willing to talk about his own private life.

I appreciated this glimpse into a shaded world of discretion and secrecy. Despite a well-documented history of quirky sexual practices among the old Incas modern Peru offers risky territory for men or women who stray beyond the straight moral codes and roles.

Over a tiny frothy cappuccino I commented about men who have sex with men. I asked him: "Can a man fuck other men with pleasure and not be homosexual?" Iso looked a little surprised. "Of course. You don't know this?" he said with a laugh. Then pointing at Jose, "he does the same but he likes to say he is gay. But that is not the way for me."

I replied, "you screw men and you are not gay?" With a backward wave of his hand he replied: "Of course not. I am a man and I do what men do. If my partner wants to be a woman with me, that's up to him. It doesn't matter what's between his legs..."

I asked, "Do you have a regular guy you see? Someone special?"
"I see several guys, but I see one more."
"Do you love him."
"Si, but not all the way." There was a vague uncertain bend in his voice as he replied. It seemed his feelings pressed against his words
"Is he your 'boyfriend', you know, like a serious girl you might want to marry?"

He gave me a puzzled look: "What are you talking about? A man is only serious about a woman, not a man. We make children and the woman is happy, my family is happy."
"You are married?", I said, trying not to sound surprised.
I looked at Jose who shrugged: "you didn't ask."
"Yes. Of course. It's what a man does here", said Iso.
"But you prefer to be with men?"
"For sex, yes, why not. It is more pleasurable. Men give me better sex than my wife."
"But you are not gay?"
"No. I am a man"
"So you are bisexual?"
"No, because I do not really like sex with women. But I can do it and makes my family happy. And I love my children. They also make me feel sure I am a man..."

I restrained an impulse to challenge him on his self-deception. But, I thought, this protective seal, this not-gay label was imperative to his self-image and I had no permission or need to question it. He lived within that frame of identity, privately, and no one seemed harmed (deceived but not harmed?) his take on reality worked the way he needed.

Nevertheless, my thirty-year experience of gay-pride warfare across the globe, including violence and death, felt somewhat offended at this man's simplistic denial of the truth about homosexual human nature. I felt proud of and a part of the greater struggle for that truth and dignity. Iso was a man who simply brushed off this great crusade to validate our (his!) natural sexual reality. The struggle, for him, simply didn't exist. He sought no validity for his gayness; he simply liked sex with men. Stonewall had no existence for him.

"I'm a man--give me a man, but I'm no queer!" The deception did not sit well with me. But I recalled Jose's comment that Iso was probably "too old to change."


Revision of a Revision

Fortunately, after Iso left, Jose helped to sooth my wrinkled thoughts. He shrugged his shoulders, not unaccustomed to such men. He suggested we call them 'not-gay queers', laughing at both my puzzled brow and Isidro's denial.

I felt beamed back into ordinary reality by Jose's easy reduction of Iso's doppelganger reality. "Lots of these guys are married but don't want to be at home, so they make outside arrangements. Usually they rent a hotel room, and they avoid fems and nellies. They are very afraid of association--always afraid of their families or straight friends."

I had to appreciate the careful choreography and creative logistics that served Iso in his double life and his gay-not-queer orientation. I reluctantly admired his blithe indifference to reality as defined by others, especially his Catholic-Macho-hetero world models, yet while satisfying his deep homoerotic desires.

So, in Lima I saw an intricate humanscape with different faces, different roles and divergent attitudes. The game played by a closeted married man of forty wove a very different pattern than my young friend Jose. This young 'moderno' was openly gay to himself and his circle of friends, comfortable with top or bottom or three-ways, resistant to parental pressure to raise a family, dressed casually, well educated and well employed.

He was also quite savvy with the Internet having built a web site last year (GayPeru.com) that greets a visitor with the requisite flesh for attracting others of the gender. He was, also, for me a moderno of courage and integrity.

The ancient and modern city by the sea was a surprise study that reminded me, again, of the wondrous complexity and diverse expressions of being gay around the world.

 

Comments from a traveler (March 2006):
I stayed in a very nice gay B and B in the Miraflores area.It just opened in January and is owned by an American ex-marine. It's called Mansion San Antonio. The same guy owns a small gay bar in another part of the city.The night I went there with him they were having a karaoke contest. It was fun with a mixed gay and lesbian crowd. Also went to a good size disco called Downtown that was very busy both nights I went. (In June 2007 Downtown is not listed in http://lima.queercity.info/discos.htm.)
I suppose Lima like any big city is a bit more open to alternative lifestyles. And these days especially the younger gay crowd isn't as inhibited about being themselves.
I did however talk to more than one young guy who told me that they were either hiding being gay from their family or were out but that they had been rejected by one or both parents. Of course the Catholic church is a big influence here which doesn't help.
There's a small bar in Arequipa and a weekend-only disco.
In Cusco there's a mixed restaurant called Fallen Angel and a couple of gay friendly bars.