The city’s metro hosts—and authorities unofficially sanction—a queer institution unlike any other.

https://x.com/LizWolfeReason/status/1876969110052962412

I had heard rumors about men having sex in Mexico City’s subway system. But nothing prepared me for what I witnessed on my first ride in the último vagón.

It was early afternoon, outside of peak commuting hours. Only a handful of passengers were in the last car of the train as it headed out of the city center and pulled above ground, zooming along the highway. My eyes darted back and forth between a middle-age man in dusty overalls, presumably a day laborer, and a preppy, college-age man in a polo.

The younger man stood with his forearms resting on a handrail. He stared at his phone, slightly bent over. The older man was braced against the door, his hand stuffed into the younger man’s sweatpants. I tried not to stare, but I kept stealing glances to confirm what I thought I was seeing. After a few moments, it became clear that he was masturbating the young man anally.

The older man stared ahead, stony and impassive. The young man didn’t betray any emotion either; he continued to scroll through his cell phone, giggling occasionally, perhaps in response to some novelty on his social feeds. It was as though they were maintaining a kind of public decorum, despite the brazenness of their intimate activity.

The young man bit his lip and clenched his jaw, seemingly trying to conceal a shudder rocking through him—as if he were throwing himself onto a hand grenade, valiantly protecting the innocent bystanders from the pleasure that was exploding inside of him. The train continued, passing the Villa de Cortés station.

I looked around for someone who could make sense of this situation. Only a few meters away, an elderly woman sat with a basket of sunflowers in her lap. A man in a business suit was absorbed in his phone. They could not possibly have failed to notice what the two men had been doing, a paradoxical performance of exposure and concealment. But outwardly, they ignored the episode entirely.

Queer people the world over have found ways to create spaces where they can survive in the unlikeliest contexts. But very few have managed to fashion a queer hub out of something that is mobile and woven into the municipal infrastructure. The historian Alonso Hernández Victoria notes that gay men have used Mexico City’s subway for sex since it opened in 1969. By the 1990s, the subway system had become what the geographers Álvaro Sánchez and Álvaro López called “one of the most popular and visited gay places…in the whole world.” Since 2000, public male-male sex has taken place in the último vagón almost constantly during its operating hours. Meanwhile, city authorities have increasingly branded Mexico City as LGBTQ-friendly, adorning Metro stations with works by queer artists, even licensing works by the gay US artist and HIV/AIDS activist Keith Haring to cover entire train exteriors.

Most cities do not recognize public sex as a human right; Amsterdam and Copenhagen are notable exceptions. While Mexico City does not explicitly protect the activities of the último vagón (Spanish for “last car”), it does not forbid them either. City statutes that apply to public sex and sex work are ambiguous and open to interpretation by police. Specifically, it is not clear when or if regulations in the city’s civil code actually apply to sex in the last car. Meanwhile, the last car has provoked much debate and outcry in the Mexican press, which regularly laments this “open secret.”

I began to ride the último vagón. My casual exploration quickly evolved into extensive research. Early on, I met Elias in the last car. A gay man in his mid-20s, Elias told me that he had studied photography in college, but since the pandemic he has struggled to find steady work. He invited me to disembark with him, and we chatted briefly on a station platform. Elias told me that, because of his straitened economic circumstances, he had moved back in with his parents, whom he called homophobic. He described himself as an “expert” in the último vagón and had undertaken a thorough study of the city’s subway system.

Elias offered me a list of the lines where there is, as a rule, cruising in the last car—but I quickly realized that he had named nearly all 12 lines in the subway. As the second-largest subway system on the continent (after New York City’s), the Mexico City Metro moves an average of almost 4 million people a day, from 5 am to midnight. The fare for the Metro has been five pesos, or about 25 US cents, since 2013—the system is so heavily subsidized that it has repeatedly been a source of contention between the Mexican government and the World Bank. As Elias noted, this low price makes the last car much more accessible than clubs and bars.

Adam, a doctor from Israel in his late 40s, told me about how he had escaped an arranged marriage and fled to Mexico. When he found the last car, he said, it helped him adjust to his new life. “In the last car,” Adam told me, “you can be yourself.”

The último vagón’s legal status became even more complicated following a conflict in 2011 between the Metro’s authorities and the city’s Human Rights Commission. A press report from that year stated that sexual activity on the train “has been an open secret since 2004, when guards from the Metro Collective Transportation System began to detect it.” The Metro announced that it would close the last car of certain train lines during evening hours. Officially, authorities claimed that they were taking this action due to a lack of ridership late at night. But the Human Rights Commission received at least three formal complaints accusing the Metro of anti-gay discrimination. And a subsequent investigation by the commission found that ridership was not lower at late hours, and that the authorities had clearly intended to shut down the last car in order to curtail gay sex. Many station managers and police officers had said aloud what everyone already knew. One cop justified the closure of the last car by saying, “There are many gays, and they do their things.” Another guard described gay sex in the último vagón as a kind of militant invasion: “It’s because of the gays, because they were taking over the facilities…. There are even recordings in which oral sex is being practiced.”

In its subsequent recommendations, the Human Rights Commission argued that the Metro had discriminated against gay people by specifically targeting them, and that the closure of the last car had violated their human rights. The commission recommended that the Metro reopen the last car at late hours and mount a publicity campaign to inform the public about LGBTQ rights. The commission’s recommendations were followed, which gave a quasi-legal sanction to the último vagón. Some gay activists have objected to how the resulting legal confusion promotes discrimination against gay people. Héctor Salinas, a professor of gender studies at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, has suggested that the commission seemed to have granted gay people special privileges to have sex in public. “We need equal rights,” he said, “not special rights.”

One subway security guard told me that her superiors gave her strict instructions: “If you see guys having relations in the last car, just politely ask them to leave.” I’ve also seen guards enter a car where men were masturbating one another openly and simply shout to the crowd “Buenas tardes!” as a way to signal their presence and encourage the men to desist.

One subway security guard told me that her superiors gave her strict instructions: “If you see guys having relations in the last car, just politely ask them to leave.” I’ve also seen guards enter a car where men were masturbating one another openly and simply shout to the crowd “Buenas tardes!” as a way to signal their presence and encourage the men to desist.

For decades, journalists like Eduardo Monteverde have documented numerous allegations that police officers extort sex from gay men in the subway.

Jhon, a graphic designer in his 20s who lives outside the city with his aunt, said that, like Elias, he has little privacy at home and not much money. He has consistently found the last car to be the most feasible place for him to have sex. One evening, he and an acquaintance were engaging in oral sex in the last car when they were surprised by a cop. The cop demanded a bribe. Jhon’s friend indeed offered one, in the form of oral sex.

n July of this year, a bisexual cop and amateur pornographer recorded himself having a threesome in the subway with another male porn actor and the female influencer Bella Luna. After it was posted online, the video went viral and became a major if fleeting scandal. The incident brought new scrutiny and press attention to the practice of sex in the subway. The officer also moonlighted as an OnlyFans performer (apparently for gay and straight audiences alike). Known as Señor Indomable (Mr. Indomitable), his pornographic persona is macho and stubborn. In the subway movie, Señor Indomable plays a hyper-macho state police officer in uniform who masturbates himself solo in a train car and then participates in a threesome.

The police department suspended Señor Indomable, though he was immediately reinstated after LGBTQ groups protested.

Recently, I tried riding in the last car again, to see what it was like when the subway is busier. One afternoon, around 5:30 pm—just as folks are making the after-work commute—I waited on the platform at Metro Tacubaya, pressed by a huge crowd. As the train pulled into the station, I was pushed by the mob and jammed into the last car. Over 30 bodies squashed together—a mass of workers, students, lawyers, soldiers. Densely writhing, their limbs no longer seemed to belong to particular individuals but became an assortment of hands, hips, butts, bulges. I could discern three youths who formed a circle, their backs turned, masturbating each other. Four guys lined up as in a conga line, dry-humping. In the corner, a soccer player received oral sex from a trans woman kneeling in front of him. As the train pulled into the next station, the games paused. Some of the guys furtively zipped up and zipped out. More guys packed in and joined the fun. As the train left the station, the action resumed. Stopping and starting in this way, secret and furtive, the last car—a paradox of freedom and repression—testifies to how queer people have an enduring ability to create spaces for themselves, even within trying circumstances. And, for now at least, the ride continues.

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/ultimo-vagon-mexico-city-gay-sex-subway/

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5660872&forum_id=2#48531876)

In its subsequent recommendations, the Human Rights Commission argued that the Metro had discriminated against gay people by specifically targeting them, and that the closure of the last car had violated their human rights. The commission recommended that the Metro reopen the last car at late hours and mount a publicity campaign to inform the public about LGBTQ rights. The commission’s recommendations were followed, which gave a quasi-legal sanction to the último vagón."

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5660872&forum_id=2#48554513)

what does this even mean?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5660872&forum_id=2#48554477)

btw i edited my OP to fix the copy-pasting...there's more 180 gay sex content in my OP now

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5660872&forum_id=2#48554745)

or maybe they’re just maniacal perverts whose compulsive need to involve the unwilling public is part of their kink.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5660872&forum_id=2#48554602)