Brazil’s A Loca Fights For Its Right To Party
Sao Paulo afterhours institution A Loca has launched an online petition defending its right to exist after a shadowy neighbourhood organisation launched a campaign to close the legendary gay club.
6,000 supporters have already signed A Loca’s petition which was started just as the club was about to celebrate its 14th year in existence.
“The war began with the normal complaints of extreme noise that comes from the street at night,” said Skrufff contributor and A Loca performer Alisson Gothz,
“An organization called SAMORCC ("Society of Friends and Residents of Neighborhood Cerqueira Caesar") started complaining that at first A Loca was only open at weekends, but now it goes from Tuesday to Sunday. They then filed an official complaint with signatures from people who had never signed anything.”
Speaking to Brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo, A Loca owner Julio Baldermann told how they discovered SAMORCC’s deception.
"They had local traders signing a statement against the club. But we talked with the traders, and they said that they never signed anything,” he said, “The real petition has only 250 real signatures, not the 3,000 ones the association claims.”
A Loca’s petition (written in Portuguese) accuses SAMORCC of ‘systematically persecuting’ gay bars and clubs in the area, despite the area’s regeneration as a clubbing area bringing ‘security and creating jobs for the neighborhood’.
Just ten years ago the Frei Caneca Street area around A Loca was both dangerous and notorious for being one of Sao Paulo’s central prostitution hubs, though in recent years clubbers have transformed the quarter into a vibrant, generally safe nightlife zone. Numerous brothels and street prostitutes remain, though the thousands of clubbers who flock there throughout the week
have increasing made central street Rua Augusta in particular one of Sao Paulo’s most fashionable streets.
However, just two weeks ago a gay fashion designer was viciously beaten by a gang of skinheads just metres away from Vegas as he walked home at 6am. Witnesses saw up to ten skinheads kicking the 28 year old the ground in an unprovoked attack, website Acapa.com.br reported.
http://www.aloca.com.br/abaixoassinado/
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