Do you dwell in a part of North America where winter just seems to be grinding frigidly on and on? Well, dudes and dudettes, it’s time for a sultry Caribbean break. But sun, sea, and even lots of cool stuff to see and don’t alone always add up to the perfect vacation; you’ll really want to look for islands whose cultures and governments don’t hate gay people. That means, sad to say, being wary about much of the English-speaking Caribbean – even if most of it isn’t as actively dangerous as Jamaica, where gays are still actively discriminated against, physically abused and even murdered on a regular basis; even as a travel journalist in the safety of an all-inclusive resort in Montego Bay I was once aggressively given the third degree by a manager who couldn’t understand “how you do that man-man” – I was like, “back off, bitch.” Even in less primitive, more sophisticated societies, things are so closeted the queens have mothballs up their asses. For example, in the Turks and Caicos, I found on a recent visit that the gay scene seemed to consist of Filipinos working in the resort industry on two-year contracts. It seems massa’s old prejudices are still rippin’ and roarin’ in many of those islands, praise the Lord.

Instead, you’re more likely to have a much more pleasant, comfy experience in the Dutch, French, and Spanish-speaking islands (most of which have plenty of English speakers these days), along with a couple of English-speaking exceptions like the U.S. Virgin Islands. Several of these islands even have their own little gay scenes, if you’re looking for a little “action” along with your R&R. Here are several top picks, in alphabetical order, for the Butt Pirates of the Caribbean (next week, several more):

Aruba More conservative than mother country Holland, but on the whole fairly live-and-let-live, with a popular gay bar, Jimmy’s (Kruisweg 15, 297/582.2250); several gay-friendly Oranjestad clubs including First Class Karma Lounge (Aventura Mall; 297/588.7928); and the gay Little David Guesthouse (see my November 26, 2007 post). The tourism web site, Aruba.com, even has a gay forum.

Cancun In the glitzy hotel-nightclub zone, there’s a freewheeling little bit of everything, but the specifically gay scene’s out in the town where the Mexicans live, where at hopping clubs like Karamba and Glow you’ll find not just other gringos but local resort workers and Mexicans from other parts of the country on vacation.

Cuba Here it’s a strange mix of open and closeted. There are no formal gay clubs at the moment, but there are gay-owned B&B’s like Havana’s El Ydalgo, and there is a poofter presence in places like Santiago de Cuba, Santa Clara, and Ciego de Ávila. In Havana, all you have to do is stand in front of the Yara movie theater on weekend evenings to find fags galore and get invited to the floating party of the evening. Raúl Castro’s daughter runs a pro-gay organization and the minister of culture even recently declared himself in favor of gay marriage, whee!

Curaçao The second of the three Netherlands Antilles gets fewer tourists than Aruba but has more traditional architecture and culture, along with a snappy little gay scene of its own that includes Willemstad’s Lyric’s Gay Café (Waterfort, Punda) and other gay-friendly venues with parties on various nights. And what’s more, it aggressively goes after the gay market with sites like GayCuracao.com, it seems practically half the resorts are members of the IGLTA, and two of them, the spectacular Kurá Hulanda and Kurá Hulanda Lodge, are owned by a highly respected philanthropist phag.

This entry was posted on 02.16.2008 at 4:30 pm by Dave and is filed under BabelBlog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.