Gay Guide to Santiago
On 2 March 2012 four men attacked Daniel Zamudio in San Borja Park in central Santiago. They beat and tortured him over several hours, burned him with cigarettes and cut swastikas into his skin. He died on 27 March, aged twenty-four. The case broke something open in a conservative country: an anti-discrimination bill that had sat in Congress for seven years was signed into law that July, barely four months later, and everyone still calls it the Ley Zamudio. Civil unions followed in 2015, and marriage passed in December 2021, with the first weddings held in March 2022.
Bellavista, wedged between the Mapocho river and the Cerro San Cristóbal, is the scene and also the city's general nightlife district, so the two run together. Bombero Núñez and the streets around it hold Bar 105, Contramano, Moulin, Zotano, Club Ámbar and Hangar, and on a weekend the whole quarter is busy regardless of who you are.
The clubs spread wider. Fausto is the long-running institution, with Blondie, Bal Le Duc, Club Soda, Illuminati and Club Burdel taking the bigger nights, and Sauna 282 and Il Palatino covering the rest.
Santiago's organizing is unusually visible for the region. MOVILH and Fundación Iguales led the marriage campaign, OTD Chile handles trans advocacy, and the Fundación Daniel Zamudio carries his family's work forward. The Marcha del Orgullo sets off from Plaza Baquedano at the end of June, which here means the middle of winter.
The city is walkable in its central neighborhoods, the metro is genuinely good, and the Andes sit at the end of most streets. It is also the easiest base in Chile by a distance, and worth more than the two days most itineraries give it.