Being gay/bi in Barcelona

I only know that it's one of the most sexually active gay cities in Europe, if not the world. Along with Madrid. You're gonna get IT if you go there for that, and lots of it as well.

[quote] I also heard that, even though Barcelona is very gay-friendly, it's actually considered more cool to be on the DL

Where would you have heard such a thing? Not in Barcelona from people who live there I don't imagine.

In Spain and no less on Barcelona people have large networks of friends, culled from people they lived next to from birth, from school and university friends, from friends acquired from work, from friends made from other friends' circles of friends, from friends made from your cousin's friends, from neighbors and ex-neighbors, etc. And unless you're 75+, arch conservative, and living in some time warp pueblo, your network of friends will include gay and lesbian and bisexual friends, more than a few, far from just a token one or two.

Gay and lesbian and bisexual friends are a normal part of daily life, part of almost everyone's circle of friends - not just acquaintances but people you've put in time with over years. There's no need for a lot of carefully crafted compartmentalization or "being on the DL."

You can go anywhere in not the world and not find people more open about being gay, lesbian, or bisexual than in Barcelona or Madrid or Spain, nor people more nonchalant about it so wide is the level of presence and the habitual custom of acceptance by people who are not. All because the social networks are wide and accepting of anyone who comes to fall into them.

Say hello to Erna, OP. If you can't find her, just follow the smell.

great post r2, but what about being gay in your professional life, for example being a lawyer in an international firm in Spain, a banker at a major bank or in politics, would an out gay/bi guy run into discrimination in getting hired or advancing in his career as these are still pretty conservative career paths?

Why you put gay and bisexual next to each other? Bisexuals have much more in common with straights than gays. Bisexuals are just straight guys who fantasize about cock and sex with muscular hunk but have no desire to date or love him.. like Dua Lipa said " c'mon love isn't for us, we created something phenomenal don't you agreeee"

For R4. In Spain there’s so little fuss surrounding being gay that even a gay former porn star was recently elected mayor of a small provincial town, and for the conservative right wing PP. Can’t say that I approve of his political position, but not even the PP’s party faithful objected to his nomination.

R4, I can't offer much insight into that other than that gay executives in major banking concerns don't seem very difficult to find, nor gay lawyers, nor gay politicians from tiny, backwater pueblos to big cities. Whether gay lawyers may gravitate to corporate and international firms for their room for growth and perhaps a less conservative streak than in some firms with multiple generations of partners from the same family I couldn't say. If there's some equivalent of an old boy network with golf clubs and partners' kids enrolled at the same private schools and a right bent to their personal politics, I don't have the sense that that's a driving force within any profession. whether law, medicine, architecture, higher education, etc. Without trying to say that prejudice doesn't exist, I think it's fair to say that acceptance of gays in Spain is broad enough and established enough that it's had a healthy and visible impact in all life, including all of working life.

thx r7