Community Center.

Latin America's gay and lesbian population emerges from the cyber closet.

A HIP BUENOS AIRES CAFE--SUCH AS THE ONE HOSTING the raucous launch party of Spanish-language Web site Gay.com--is a far cry from a dark and depressing jail cell. Launch partygoer and activist Martha Miravete has seen both in her work, as she fights to improve harsh conditions endured by lesbians in prison.

Her connections to both worlds are vital: Sites like Gay.com empower gay activists, helping them rally like-minded Latin Americans to gay causes such as Miravete's prison work. She recently used Internet contacts, for example, to mount a successful letter-writing campaign that pressured a local governor into providing HIV medication to an imprisoned lesbian.

"In the days before the Internet, no one would have given us the time of day," says Miravete, nibbling a canape amid bird-of-paradise blossoms as the blaring thump of Donna Summer disco tunes pounds on around her. "The Internet has helped us tremendously; it is a great tool for fighting homophobia and lesbophobia."

Latin America's gay community is beginning to appreciate the power of the Web, and gay and lesbian sites are blooming as a result. It is a boon, say users, for work like organizing pride rallies and for help in choosing gay-friendly vacation spots. Homosexual organizations spread throughout the region also routinely exchange information in a push toward becoming a real--if virtual--community in this famously macho part of the world.

From anonymity to community, then from community to respect and power. It's a page straight from the political playbook of many a minority group. For Latin American gay and lesbian people, that page may just turn out to be a Web page instead. The new Spanish-language version of Gay.com comes in tandem with a growing acceptance of alternative lifestyles in the region, according to Alejandra Sarda, of the San Francisco-based International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.

"Today in Latin America there are very few places where you can say that homophobia is terrible," Sarda says. "There are hardly any countries left today that don't have an organized group of gays or lesbians."

In Ecuador the Constitution now protects citizens from "sexual discrimination," making it one of only four countries in the world to do so. (The other countries are South Africa, Canada and France.) In Brazil, gay couples are now legally recognized in matters such as inheritance and medical care. In Colombia, gay and lesbian couples can legalize their unions before a notary public. Even less cosmopolitan countries such as Guatemala, Honduras and Bolivia have hosted gay pride events.

Slow progress. But while Latin Americans may be more tolerant, many are still embarrassed to have a gay son or daughter. "They still consider a homosexual child a personal affront. Here the fear of having a gay child is as strong as the fear of a child with neurological problems," says Dr. Gabriel Jure, a member of the Association of Psychoanalysts in Buenos Aires.

Well aware of that fear, some advertisers and sponsors are leery of investing in gay media in Latin America, says Mauricio Rivas, who heads the marketing division of Gay.com. Instead, he is focusing on Internet co-branding with local auction, travel and entertainment Web sites. These sites would be accessed through Gay.com, but the external page would still maintain its look and feel.

Industry experts argue that the current dearth of advertising and sponsors stems mostly from the lack of hard data on the Latin American site than on any perceived stigma.

"The criteria is economic," explains Jose Luis Otero, a media planner for MediaAge, the software company that designed Java and helps Internet companies with marketing strategies in Argentina. "If there is a good business proposal, come from where it may, it will be listened to."

Certainly, the venture capital crowd is listening to Gay.com. Investors in its English-language parent--launched in the United States in March 1999 and currently the world's leading gay and lesbian Internet portal--include Chase Manhattan Bank, The New York Times Online and Yahoo!.

Big markets. Even though Internet ventures in the United States and Latin America are hitting a slump, Gay.com investors have earmarked US$1 million to set up the Latin American version. A Portuguese-language site targets Brazil, where Gay.com's Associate Producer Fernando Delicatto de Olveira claims that at least 13% of the nation's 165 million inhabitants are gay.

The Gay.com expansion into Latin America will be based in Argentina and led by Diego Mathe, general director of Gay.com in Latin America. Mathe has worked for five years with other Internet ventures, including Gaypages Argentina, the first commercial gay Web site in Argentina, and the first Latin America network of Spanish-speaking travel sites, Scopios.com.

News from the region's homosexual community will be a regular staple of the new Gay.com Web site, which also features art and entertainment, travel, health, finances, education, sports and relationships. There is no sexual content.

Mathe acknowledges the lack of reliable figures on gay consumers in the region, but this is no worry, he says: "We have the strong conviction that it is a very vast and underexplored market. It is certainly larger than the crowds you might see at a gay pride march or other events." Mathe says it is too soon to reveal the number of "hits" or visits his site receives, but the parent company boasts an average of 2.5 million monthly visits, according to a report by advertising group DoubleClick.

Web experts agree. "This site will probably have a long life," says Marcelo Grimoldi, who heads South-Net.com, an incubator firm for Internet ventures in Latin America. "This site gives gays who are not comfortable with the world knowing that they are gay the anonymity to buy things online while keeping up with the gay community in the region." And, perhaps, to join in one of Miravete's letter-writing campaigns--taking another little step out of the closet.