A Gui To Gay Athens for LGBTQ Travelers - Matador Network

Contents:

• GAY ATHENS – A GUIDE TO THE GREEK CAPITAL FOR LGBTQIA2S+
• 20 GAY GREEK GODS
• GAY GREECE: QUEER CULTURE, LOL LIFE, AND WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW! ??
• GREECE GAY TRAVEL
• GAY GREECE TRAVEL GUI
• GAY HOLIDAYS GREECE & THE ISLANDS
• WERE THE SPARTANS GAY? HOMOSEXUALY SPARTA, ANCIENT GREECE
• THE MYTH OF THE ANCIENT GREEK ‘GAY UTOPIA’
• GAY CRETE

GAY ATHENS – A GUIDE TO THE GREEK CAPITAL FOR LGBTQIA2S+

Mykonos Town is also the beatg heart of the LGBTQ+ muny, wh gay bars like Jackie O’, Babylon, Porta, Kastro’s and Elysium. LGBTQ+ travelers will also want to check out the XLSIOR gay ftival that tak plac Mykonos Town late Augt, sometim early September.

Athens has the largt LGBTQ+ muny Greece, particularly the Gazi neighborhood, which has an array of gay bar and clubs like Soda2.

Mykonos island has one of the most famo LGBTQ+ scen the world and be a gay mec durg the summer months, which culmat wh the XLSIOR Ftival.

20 GAY GREEK GODS

If you’re lookg for a tour that specifilly vers every popular LGBTQ+ statn the cy, sign up for Alternative Athens’ Gay and Lbian Athens Nightlife Tour.

On this tour, you will have time to vis several queer nightlife stutns — om popular gay bars to fashnable baret loung.

Gay iendly acmodatn AthensIf you are visg Athens for the first time as an LGBTQIA2S+ member and hatg on where to stay, we’ve got you vered. The hotels and gay-iendly lotns are perfect to diffe any worri about beg an LGBTQIA2S+ member travelg abroad, and worried about safety and Area.

GAY GREECE: QUEER CULTURE, LOL LIFE, AND WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW! ??

It’s bee synonymo wh entertament and nightlife, thanks to a medley of nightclubs, rtrants, shops, rtrants, and gay bars. This betiful serene hotel is the perfect gay uple getaway if you’d rather stay somewhere more private and romantic, rather than somewhere by and full of partyg travellers. But, ’s still close to all the nightclubs and gay-iendly spots so if you do feel like a ltle excement, you don’t have far to go.

Thgs to see and do AthensAsi om the obv Acropolis & Parthenon and the wonrful Acropolis Mm there are many other thgs to do Athens that the gay muny like to do cludg;. Of urse, Mykonos is the one gay haven Greece, but LGBT+ visors should also fd great optns and welg lols all 5 lotns.

GREECE GAY TRAVEL

Though not typilly known as a gay statn, Athens is very well known to all kds of travelers who e to immerse themselv the cy’s renowned history. Many LGBT+ visors may simply pass through the cy on their way to more gay-iendly Greek statns like Mykonos, but they’d be mistaken to skip Athens entirely or only drop to tch a glimpse of the Parthenon on their way to a more relaxg beach town. Over time, has bee slightly ls gay-foced as ’s bee gentrified but as a first-time visor, ’s still the place to start.

GAY GREECE TRAVEL GUI

As the pal cy of Greece wh nearly 4 ln people livg the metro area, you’ll fd a large selectn of gay and gay-iendly rtrants, f, bars and clubs. One of the most popular and biggt gay events is XLSIOR scribed as Europe’s hottt annual summer gay circu ftival.

GAY HOLIDAYS GREECE & THE ISLANDS

We won’t tell you not to go to Mykonos due to this, bee ankly you should and you’ll probably love , pecially wh how gay-iendly is. Bis Santori, which is probably the most popular and touristy island of them all, Mykonos probably holds the tle of 2nd for the general visor but fely tak the lead of the Greek Island gay hotspot.

Mykonos has for s been a getaway for gays as beme open and more liberal than Athens and all of the surroundg islands. “A lot of Greek gay guys have no ia this is gog on, ” Zak Kostopoulos, a wrer and activist, said of the Sami's scene. Many of the men turng tricks, on the other hand, don't nsir themselv gay bee, as they see , they're beg paid and they typilly are the top  the transactn, said Adonis Primikiris, who works wh the HIV awarens nonprof Checkpot.

While tolerance is often prented as a sign of civilizatn's advancement, a readg of Greek mythology reveals greater acceptance of homosexualy ancient Athens than n be boasted wh today's world religns. While Homer never explicly stat a gay relatnship between Achill and sikick Patrocl, many scholars read a romantic nnectn between the two, as only Patrocl ever drew out a passnate si to the famoly arrogant warrr. Rearcher Johanna Hypatia-Cybelaia wr that lbian and gay vote worshipped her as Artemis Orthia, and that lbian port Pamphilia referred to the godss hymn as Artemis Pergaea.

WERE THE SPARTANS GAY? HOMOSEXUALY SPARTA, ANCIENT GREECE

Above: Athena, center, a mural by John Sger SargentAphrodeWhile the godss of love is not intified promently as lbian herself, the Greek poet Sappho (as sapphic) of Lbos (y, as lbian) told many homoerotic tal and named Aphrode as the greatt patron and ally of lbians and homosexuals wh the Greek pantheon of gods. Above: Enrique Simo, El Juic Paris (1904)ErosWhile the bt-known myths of Eros pict the son of Aphrode as a fertily god -- the versn that proved spiratnal to the popularized Roman god Cupid -- later Greek myths portrayed Eros as one of several wged erot, and the one regard as a protector of homosexual culture, acrdg to rearch the scholarly book Among Women: From the Homosocial to the Homoerotic the Ancient World. ATHENS – Greece legalized gay civil unns Tuday spe opposn om the Church and a rebelln by some right-wg members of the lg aln.

THE MYTH OF THE ANCIENT GREEK ‘GAY UTOPIA’

Lawmakers voted 193 favor vers 56 agast the long-awaed reform, followg a heated 10-hour bate which supporters of the bill — some wearg rabow gay pri badg — trad barbs wh opponents. Outsi parliament, gay rights mpaigners gathered wh banners readg “Love is the Law” and “All I want for Christmas is Equaly.

GAY CRETE

Activists say regnn of same-sex civil partnerships is an important step towards gag greater acceptance a untry where the Orthodox Church still holds sway and where reports of homophobic vlence have creased recent years.

While many untri already allow same-sex marriage, Greece is one of the last European Unn stat to legalize gay civil unns. Prsure for change creased after the European Court of Human Rights led two years ago that was discrimatory for the untry to exclu gay upl om existg legislatn givg tax, pensn and herance rights to unmarried heterosexuals.

Bishop Seraphim of Piras lled homosexualy “unnatural lewdns” while the ntroversial Bishop Amvross of Kalavryta orred church his dce to sound funeral bells “ mourng” over the bill’s expected passage. “This will allow gay people to be more visible, ” said Nancy Papathanasu, a board member at the OLKE lbian and gay anizatn.

Sultry Athens may not wear s rabow hu as loudly as Mykonos or Amsterdam; but the Greek pal has a boomg gay and lbian scene that’s wag to wele you wh open arms, all year round. Athens Pri has as s ma objective the SLK visibily and pri, ALKE and the Associatn for the Support of Consecrat foc on stutnal claims, such as the expansn of polil marriage and habatn to gay upl, the creatn or extensn of laws to protect the people of Lebanon om hatred and vlence and full medil support for transsexuals volved genr reassignment, while the Lbian Group of Athens publish the extraordary magaze “Dalika” and engag screengs, parti century discsns aimed at the strength of lbian inty. This is due to the number of shops that have been opened recent years and are maly targeted at gay clients, makg Athens acquire s own lorful areas.

Shamone is the most famo entertag gay club wh theme nights, big parti, famo sgers and live shows and drag shows artists. Wh a tramark of the Whe Tower, Thsaloniki holds tense thrills for gay tourists, sce great cultural events such as the Thsaloniki Pri or the Panorama Gay Ftival are enthiastilly supported.

Mykonos may have won over the gay crowds the ’70s onwards, but LGBT travelers to Greece now have a wi range of gay-iendly statns to choose om.

Whether you’re the tellectual type, the art lover or the beach bum, Greece is among the most welg gay-iendly untri Europe, and is slowly but steadily evolvg to a muny of openns and cln. So y, many Greek same-sex upl live openly and publicly and happily among fay, iends and lleagu a society that is takg step – albe baby steps – towards gay liberatn.