A new study outlines which destinations have proven to be the safest for LGBTQ+ travellers and other members of the community, as well as which could be the most dangerous. Released by safety-focused travel writers Asher and Lyric, “ LGBTQ+ Danger Index” ranked the 150 countries with the most international tourists by looking at eight different factors and assigning scores to each one based on data.
Depending on where they are headed, gay travellers can face great risks. In April, the country of Brunei enacted an Islamic Law making it legal to flog and stone LGBTQ people to death. However, it is not the only country to have the death penalty on the books. Rather 71 countries across the globe still deem gay activities as illegal, including Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Iran. The ranking was made using eight factors, including laws against gay relationships, legal protection against discrimination, adoption recognition and workers protection.
Here is the outcome of the safest and most dangerous countries for LGBTQ+ travellers
Sweden topped the study, coming out with a total score of 322 when all of the weighted factors were added up. While the second and third places went to Canada and Norway respectively. The remaining top ten safest countries for LGBTQ+ travellers list was completed by Portugal, Belgium, United Kingdom, Finland, France, Iceland and Malta.
Swedish Armed Forces.
Makes me proud that I’m 80% Swede.
If only USA would understand freedom & #LIBERTY are NOT a commodity or a ration…#LGBTQ #military #WednesdayThoughts #Trans #transgender #transmilitary #Veterans #NeverForget #Sweden #Swedish #kristinBeck pic.twitter.com/OwjzA56T9s— Kristin Beck (@valor4us) August 28, 2019
Similarly, the study also ranked the worse countries for LGBTQ+ travellers, starting with Nigeria taking the spot for the most dangerous, while Qatar, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, Iran, Sudan, Barbados, Malaysia and Malawi made up the bottom ten.
“We have seen LGBTQ+ people dear to our hearts be discriminated against and our deepest desire for writing this article was to bring awareness to these issues and hopefully catalyse change. In addition, as travel journalists, we wanted to help the LGBTQ+ community educate themselves on the very complex and layered world of staying safe during international travel”, said Lyric one of the journalists behind the list.
