Gay Guide to Bilbao
EHGAM, the Basque Gay Liberation Movement, was founded in January 1977 by Antonio Kintana and Imanol Álvarez, while the Franco-era social danger law was still being used against gay men; its provisions on homosexuality stayed in force for another two years. The group launched a magazine, Gay Hotsa, that same year. It was the first LGBTQ+ organization in the Basque Country, it was not allowed to register legally until February 1983, six years after it had started work, and it is still active. In Durango, half an hour from Bilbao, a marble monolith by Koldobika Jáuregui has stood since May 2009 in memory of the people the regime persecuted for their sexuality, carved with a large inverted G.
The Casco Viejo, the old town's Seven Streets, holds most of the scene, and Barrenkale holds most of the Casco Viejo. Manolita La Primera, Modesto, Paquita la de Barrenka, Pavoneo, Pepe por Dios and Pirineum sit within a few doors of each other on that one street, with Bizitza around the corner on Dorre Kalea. In the evenings the crowd spills out onto the stones, which in pintxo country is how every night works anyway.
A second cluster runs along Begoñako Andra Mari kalea, where Boxes, Dafne, Taberna Aiara and Taurino share a stretch of the street. Across the river, Badulake on Hernani Kalea is the drag and late-night room, Pub Key takes the club end, the Ego and Element saunas cover the rest, and the Axel Hotel sits on the Muelle de la Merced.
Bilbao Bizkaia Harro, the city's Pride, has run since 2015 and has grown from about 10,000 people at its first edition to around 50,000 in 2024. It is billed as a cultural festival as much as a march, and it lands in June.
Bilbao is compact enough that the Guggenheim is an easy walk along the river from the old town, and the pintxo habit of moving from bar to bar every half hour suits the scene perfectly: nobody stays anywhere long, so everyone ends up everywhere.