Plaza de Chueca was named after Spanish composer and author Federico Chueca.
It is located in the administrative ward in the downtown Madrid neighbourhood of Justicia.
Chueca is very lively, with many street cafes and boutique shops. Lonely Planet describes it as extravagantly gay, lively young, and always inclusive regardless of your sexual orientation.
Places Worth Visiting
- Museo del Romanticismo
- Mercado de San Anton
- San Anton Church, which contains the bones of Saint Valentine
- Plaza de Chueca
During the last years Chueca has become a centre for gay art. The Festival Visible which takes place every year during the Gay Pride, has included works by Jean Cocteau, Wilhelm van Gloeden, David Hochney, Tom of Finland, Roberto Gonzalez Fernandez or David Trullo.
Shows such as De bares hacia la exposicion by Daniel Garbade in 2011 or the Illustrations : Chueca by Miguel Navia 2014 reflect through drawings and paintings the gay neighbourhood.
Chueca is a favourite set for movies. Eloy de la Iglesias’s last production: Bulgarian Lovers 2003, an adaptation of the homonymous novel by Eduardo Mendicutti, was shot in the neighbourhood.
As were other films such as Truman by Cesc Gay, Boystown by Juan Flahn, Cachorro by Miguel Albaladejo, and Chef’s special by Nacho G. Velilla.
Men taped stiletto-heeled shoes to their feet and race down a narrow cobbled street in Madrid as part of the city’s Gay Pride festival, one of the world’s largest LGBT pride celebrations.
Competitors in the annual male only event make the precarious dash under rainbow bunting and cheered on by crowds clutching pink balloons who lin the street in Chueca, a gay neighborhood in central Madrid.
Rules state that mens’ heels must be at least 10 cm (4 inches) high and the shoes are measured before the race.
Many men don wigs and skirts for the event, while a few increased the challenge by running the 100 meters or so wearing platform boots.
The race is part of the World Pride Madrid festival, which also features concerts and other events to celebrate diversity.
Madrid Pride Parade, known as Fiesta del Orgullo Gay or simply Fiesta del Orgullo, Manifestacion Estatal del Orgullo LGTB and Dia del Orgullo Gay or simply Día del Orgullo, is held the first Saturday after June 28 since 1979.
The event is organised by COGAM or Madrid GLTB Collective and FELGTB or Spanish Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals and Bisexuals and supported by other national and international LGTB groups.
The first Gay Parade in Madrid was held after the death of Franco, with the arrival of democracy, in 1979.
Since then, dozens of companies like Microsoft, Google and Schweppes and several political parties and trade unions, including Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, PODEMOS, United Left, Union, Progress and Democracy, CCOO and UGT have been supporting the parade.
Madrid Pride Parade is the biggest gay demonstration in Europe, with more than 1.5 million attendees in 2009, according to the Spanish government.
In 2007, Europride, the European Pride Parade, took place in Madrid. About 2.5 million people attended more than 300 events over a week in the Spanish capital to celebrate Spain as the country with the most developed LGBT rights in the world.
Independent media estimated that more than 200,000 visitors came from foreign countries to join in the festivities. Madrid gay district Chueca, the biggest gay district in Europe, was the centre of the celebrations.
The event was supported by the city, regional and national government and private sector which also ensured that the event was financially successful. Barcelona, Valencia and Seville hold also local Pride Parades. In 2008 Barcelona hosted the Eurogames.
In 2017, Madrid hosted the WorldPride. It would be the first time WorldPride was celebrated in a Spanish city. At the same time, it celebrated its 10th anniversary of Mr Gay Pride Spain with the winner going on to represent Spain in Mr Gay World.
Pride parades also known as pride marches, pride events, and pride festivals are outdoor events celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) social and self acceptance, achievements, legal rights and pride.
The events also at times serve as demonstrations for legal rights such as same-sex marriage. Most pride events occur annually, and many take place around June to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City, a pivotal moment in modern LGBTQ social movements.
As of 2017, plans were advancing by the State of New York to host in 2019 the largest international LGBT pride celebration in history, known as Stonewall 50 / WorldPride, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots.
In New York City, the Stonewall 50 / WorldPride events produced by Heritage of Pride will be enhanced through a partnership made with the I ❤ NY program's LGBT division and shall include a welcome center during the weeks surrounding the Stonewall 50 / WorldPride events that will be open to all.
Additional commemorative arts, cultural, and educational programming to mark the 50th anniversary of the rebellion at the Stonewall Inn will be taking place throughout the city and the world.
At the beginning of the gay rights protest movement, news on Cuban prison work camps for homosexuals inspired the Mattachine Society to organize protests at the United Nations and the White House, in 1965.
Early on the morning of Saturday June 28, 1969, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons rioted following a police raid on the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City.
The Stonewall Inn was a gay bar which catered to an assortment of patrons, but which was popular with the most marginalized people in the gay community: transvestites, transgender people, effeminate young men, hustlers, and homeless youth.
Many parades still have at least some of the original political or activist character, especially in less accepting settings. The variation is largely dependent on the political, economic, and religious settings of the area.
However, in more accepting cities, the parades take on a festive or even Mardi Gras-like character, whereby the political stage is built on notions of celebration.
Large parades often involve floats, dancers, drag queens, and amplified music; but even such celebratory parades usually include political and educational contingents, such as local politicians and marching groups from LGBT institutions of various kinds.
Other typical parade participants include local LGBT-friendly churches such as Metropolitan Community Churches, United Church of Christ, and Unitarian Universalist Churches, Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), and LGBT employee associations from large businesses.
Even the most festive parades usually offer some aspect dedicated to remembering victims of AIDS and anti-LGBT violence. Some particularly important pride parades are funded by governments and corporate sponsors and promoted as major tourist attractions for the cities that host them.
In some countries, some pride parades are now also called Pride Festivals. Some of these festivals provide a carnival-like atmosphere in a nearby park or city-provided closed-off street, with information booths, music concerts, barbecues, beer stands, contests, sports, and games.
The dividing line between onlookers and those marching in the parade can be hard to establish in some events, however, in cases where the event is received with hostility, such a separation becomes very obvious.
There have been studies considering how the relationship between participants and onlookers is affected by the divide, and how space is used to critique the heteronormative nature of society.
Though the reality was that the Stonewall riots themselves, as well as the immediate and the ongoing political organizing that occurred following them, were events fully participated in by lesbian women, bisexual people and transgender people.
As well as by gay men of all races and backgrounds, historically these events were first named Gay, the word at that time being used in a more generic sense to cover the entire spectrum of what is now variously called the queer or LGBT community.
Tourism Observer
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