Gay Guide to Milan
Italy is an unusual case. Homosexuality has not been a crime here since the nineteenth century, which put the country ahead of most of Europe on paper. The state found other ways. Under fascism there was no law to charge men under, so the regime used confino, internal exile, and in 1938 sent dozens of gay men to San Domino, an island in the Adriatic with no running water and an eight o'clock curfew. The bleak irony is that several later described it as the first place they had lived openly among other gay men.
The gap between paper and practice never fully closed. Italy legalized civil unions in 2016 and remains one of the few countries in western Europe without same-sex marriage.
Milan is where the country's gay life is least apologetic about itself. It concentrates in Porta Venezia, northeast of the center, which the city now signposts as a rainbow district: bars along and around Via Lecco, clubs, cafes with tables on the sidewalk, and a crowd that spills outside from early evening.
The wider scene is bigger than the district. Milan has a cluster of gay saunas, a serious leather and fetish contingent, and a large local branch of Arcigay, the national LGBTQ+ organization, which is headquartered in Bologna.
Milano Pride at the end of June draws well over 300,000 people, second only to Rome's. The MIX festival of queer cinema runs separately and has been going for decades.