"[...] Tourism officials reckon that at least a fifth of foreign visitors to the city are homosexuals.In recent years, Buenos Aires has hosted a gay tourism symposium, a gay football tournament, a gay film festival and the first gay cruise in South American waters; it is now home to a gay hotel, a gay bookstore, and a network of stores providing discounts to customers wielding a “gay-friendly Buenos Aires” card. The influx of so-called “pink money” has become a pillar of the city’s economy. Gay tourists, most of whom are affluent and childless, spend on average around $250 a day on top of their hotel bill.
The city’s combination of European architectural elegance and Latin American flair at knock-down prices has attracted tourists of all sexual orientations. But unlike many other Latin American cities, Buenos Aires has established a reputation as being open and tolerant in a region where homophobia remains prevalent. It has been a regional leader in expanding gay rights.
The city council has approved a law authorising same-sex civil unions, and taken other measures that provide for benefits to pass to surviving partners in such unions and to require hospitals to refer to transgender patients by their chosen rather than legal names. And its array of gay-themed or gay-friendly venues comfortably eclipses the offerings in other Latin American capitals. [...]"
*photo - by AFP, via The Economist
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