Antwerp has a new queer café with Duplex Bar: “A safe place for everyone” (Antwerp)
The Duplex Bar, a new ‘queer café’, has opened on Hendrik Conscienceplein. The bar is there for everyone. “We are talking about queer in the broadest sense of the word. From asexual to homosexual to heterosexual,” says manager Carim Bouzian.
Carim Bouzian has a successful business on Hendrik Conscienceplein. He runs restaurant BOHM & Berkel on what he says is “the most beautiful square in Antwerp.” When a building next to the restaurant became available, he did not hesitate for long to open a new business there.
“I had been thinking about opening a queer cafe for some time. The fact that I can now also do it here is just a bonus. This square is the most beautiful in all of Antwerp, I wouldn’t want to leave here. With Duplex Bar, we want to be a queer bar in its broadest form. So we don’t speak of a gay audience ourselves, but we go further. It should be a nice one safe space are where everyone can feel safe and at home.”
Everyone means. “Women should also be able to feel safe, whether they are lesbian, asexual or straight. We are therefore issuing a manifesto stating that we are working according to the idea of Ask for Angela. That is, someone who feels harassed asks about Angela at the bar. That’s a sign that the staff knows something is wrong. Our staff is trained to receive incorrect messages. We also consciously opt for a variety of employees with men, women and transgenders behind the bar. Straight and gay. ”
In Duplex Bar no one is looked upon strangely. “Transgenders, drag queens or drag kings, men who like to wear make-up, we are not surprised at all. In Antwerp there are not so many places that are a meeting place for queers. I think there was a need. On our opening night we expected about seventy people, in the end we clocked in at more than three hundred attendees. Nearly all of Antwerp was represented among them. We really saw all colors and ages.”
Duplex is there to have a drink and to share small dishes. “Breakfast is not the intention. We close on time, we don’t want to be a club. But evenings with shows by drag kings or queens, DJs or burlesque dancers are certainly possible”, says Carim.