Queer Cafe is a community space in Chișinău run for queer people and their allies. It opened in 2024 and has moved twice since. The people who run it call the current room on Șoseaua Hâncești version 3.0.
It works as a café and as a community space at the same time. The programme runs to drag shows and ballroom sessions, film screenings, art exhibitions, discussion panels, a feminist club, a book club, a chess club, board game evenings and karaoke. At the parties the music covers queer pop, new wave, post punk, house, techno, vogue and italo disco. A community library of around 250 books sits in the room. There is no fixed weekly schedule, so what is on is announced event by event.
The house rules are written down and they matter. Explicit consent is required before any physical contact, and nobody assumes anybody's pronouns. Anyone who does not want to appear in photographs takes a red ribbon at the entrance, and everyone else reads that ribbon as a no. Under-14s are not admitted to the later events.
It is run by MOLDOX, a Moldovan organisation founded by filmmakers and civil society members, and a good part of the programme comes out of that background: documentary screenings, workshops with visiting artists, and exhibitions.
