The last gay bar has closed. What does Luxembourg have left?

The walls of MK Bar Belval are covered in graffiti and anti-fascist stickers. There is no rainbow flag at the door, no queer label on the programme. But owner Jacques Rasic doesn't think he needs one. "If you see the space, you know that if you're a little fascist boy, you might not want to come in here", he says. MK Bar is not a queer venue. It's a music venue that happens to be open to everyone. Since February, when Luxembourg's last gay bar – Letz Boys – closed for good, places like Rasic's are the closest thing the country's queer community has to a night out on their own terms. The question is whether that's enough.

For Sandra Laborier, it isn't. As the woman behind Luxembourg's Rainbow Center since its opening in May 2023, she runs the closest thing the country has to a dedicated queer infrastructure. "The main thing we provide is a space", she says, "but that's not enough. For example, we organise exhibitions with queer artists. We have different groups meeting here. We always see what is needed by the community, what they ask for, and then we try to organise it." Laborier lists a few examples of the kind of events and people that the Center hosts, stating that "at the moment we have different social groups. For example, we have the 'Pink Ladies' which is the queer women’s group, the 'Golden Gays' for elderly queer people, a queer choir rehearsing every week here, and a queer youth group that is self-organised by young people."