We enter the darkened Le Bistro, one of three gay clubs in Managua. The club is crowded, Flor de Caña rum is flowing, and the backdrop of the stage is a large rainbow. A sign on the stage marks the event as a part of “La Jornada Por una Sexualidad Libre de Prejuicios,” the Journey for a Sexuality Free from Prejudice. We heard about the event while at a Sunday service of the Metro Community Church. It is the 13th annual celebration in Nicaragua as part of June’s International Pride Week.

Le Bistro Gay Club in Managua, Nicaragua, hosts the Journey for a Sexuality Free from Prejudice. It is the 13th annual celebration that coincides with International Pride Week.

Miguel encounters person after person that he knows as drag queens begin performing on the stage. A year ago, Miguel was still struggling to come out. Now he has found social circles amongst the shifting network of sexual minorities in Managua and in Nicaragua as a whole.

The reason Miguel is even able to come out in public about his sexuality is thanks in part to the change that came about in the 90’s. After U.S.-supported candidate Violeta Chamorro was voted into office in 1990 and the Contra War ended, food rationing and the draft ended as well. This defeated the Sandinista movement and people lost the connection to the government that allowed them to promote change, instead they had to do it on the individual grassroots level. This presented a double-edged sword—change was happening, but not on the government level. Actually, Chamorro passed laws against sodomy.

Miguel [right] kisses a man named Johnny in Le Bistro Gay Club in Managua, Nicaragua.

Omar Pinede Chávez is a 24 year old member of Fundación Xochiquetzal, an organization that formed in the 90’s and was dedicated to educating people about sexuality, gender, and AIDS/HIV. “After she [Violeta Chamorro] won,” Chavez says. “There was an explosion of non-governmental organizations, and those NGOs brought information with them. It wasn’t as hard for me because I found information in all these organizations and being informed helped me to accept my sexuality. I wouldn’t have come out of the closet otherwise.”

Most NGOs have been founded since 1990 and have been instrumental in creating a sense of community among LGBT people. Sandinistas who lost their governmental positions in 1990 continued their humanitarian work within these organizations. Today, for instance, Nicaragua’s government gives very little money or attention to AIDS/HIV. The project of education, prevention, and protection in the face of the disease and other serious health threats is in the hands of NGOs such as CEPRESI (Center for Education and Prevention of AIDS,) Fundación Nimehuatzín (an organization promoting prevention of HIV/AIDS) and Fundación Xochiquetzal.

Miguel performs with his dance class.

NGOs are devoted to providing education and supporting research on LGBT issues. They also promote sexual diversity, tolerance, acceptance and respect. They work with high school students and college students and offer LGBT support groups. The groups also distribute information to prisoners, work with HIV positive people and those in the Nicaraguan sex industry.

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