Step aside, Spain. Monday, March 20th, marked the opening of the newly inaugurated Carlos Jáuregui subway station in Buenos Aires. So, what’s the big deal? In another giant step forward for gay awareness, the station, formerly the “Santa Fe” stop on the H line, is the first in the world to be named after an LGBTQ activist or AIDS advocate. Yes, you heard that right; the first gay subway station! It’s located on the corner of Avenida Santa Fe and Pueyrredón in Recoleta, the city’s gayborhood. For anyone who’s a friend of Dorothy Gale’s, “Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore,”couldn’t be more accurate.
The Station Makeover
This subway station is truly shouting out that it’s gay and it’s proud! The rainbow colors of the Gay Pride flag are artistically installed on the stairs and artist Daniel Arzola was responsible for a significant mural and works surrounding the station. Designed with great dimensions, the mural is composed of varying characters representing LGBT rights and achievements, diversity and integration. Balconies along the platforms display portraits representing equality and the whole station aims to be a space that recognizes the LGBT community. It’s a living celebration of inclusion, coexistence and non-discrimination to residents and visitors to Buenos Aires. Everyone rides the subway, EVERYONE should be accepted.
The Recoleta station’s opening was even lauded by Mayor Rodríguez Larreta on Twitter, who said he was “proud” of honoring Carlos Jáuregui this way.
The Man’s Legacy
Carlos Jáuregui was an outspoken defender of LGBT rights and the first president of the Argentine Homosexual Community (CHA). In 1991, he founded the Gays Association for Civil Rights and in ‘92’ he led the first Gay Pride march in Buenos Aires. He also helped promote the first civil union project and the inclusion of sexual orientation in the anti-discriminatory clause of the city’s constitution. He wore many hats during his brief 38 years on the planet – historian, journalist, commentator and activist – helping form a unified front in the face of the AIDs epidemic when it blew through the country, taking among its victims his partner Pablo Azcona and his brother Roberto.
The City’s Gay DNA
As the first country in Latin America to legalize gay marriage, Argentina set the bar for gay rights and Buenos Aires has led that movement within the country. The right to change gender has been in place since 2012 and anti-discrimination laws are in full force in Buenos Aires. LGBT travelers have long felt welcome in this progressive and beautiful city. And with the opening of the new station that feeling is expounded.
So, yes, the uber cool Carlos Jáuregui subway station is another reason to visit, but so are the late night restaurants serving legendary steaks, the tango classes and shows that amp up the passion factor, the bohemian neighborhoods selling artisanal products, the Evita Museum, and the best wine you’ll ever taste from the Malbec region. November’s Gay Pride Parade grows bigger every year and so does the enticing Queer Tango Festival.
Buenos Aires is a city that embraces an alternative life style and diversity of every sort; a city that most fall in love with, almost instantly.
