13. Queer Friendly Travel Destinations

This week on Let’s Be Perfectly Queer Podcast, we explore LGBTQIA+ friendly travel destinations across the globe and some places that Queer listeners may need to think about before planning their next trip.

As LGBTQ+ travelers, we know that finding safe and inclusive destinations can be a challenge. So, we've compiled a list of LGBTQIA+ friendly countries that consistently popped up across various articles and resources.  

But before you pack your bags, remember to research, research, research! We discuss the importance of LGBTQIA+ safety while traveling and the challenges faced by queer individuals in foreign countries. Archie and Katie provide invaluable insights and share personal experiences to ensure you have the best trip possible.

So, dear listeners, whether you're a seasoned traveler or a curious wanderer, join us for this eye-opening and informative episode. Don't just take our word for it – hit that play button and embark on a journey that could change your life.

Remember to rate, review, and subscribe to Let's Be Perfectly Queer. Together, we'll navigate the world and create space for queer voices. Stay perfectly queer and clear.

 
List of resources we found helpful:
https://www.asherfergusson.com/lgbtq-travel-safety/

https://www.dw.com/en/top-10-most-queer-friendly-travel-destinations/g-60946425

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/articles/most-gay-friendly-countries

https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurabegleybloom/2023/03/07/most-homophobic-countries-lgbtq-friendly-gay-travel-dangerous-places/?sh=42337be72276

https://www.iglta.org/ - LGBTQ+ Travel friendly guides

Transcript

Podcast: Let's Be Perfectly Queer Podcast

Episode Title: Queer Friendly Travel Destinations

Host(s): Archie, Katie

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Archie (Host) | 00:00:04 to 00:00:13
Welcome to let's Be Perfectly Queer, a. Queer podcast creating space to talk about all things queer. My name is Archie. And I'm Katie. And we are your hosts.

Archie (Host) | 00:00:13 to 00:00:36
Yes. Questions of how you identify, seeking answers to clarify whether you're queen or somewhere in between. Let's be perfect queer. So, on this episode, we're going to look at queer friendly travel destinations. So before we start, a couple of little key points about what's been happening, and one of them actually links back to our previous episodes.

Archie (Host) | 00:00:36 to 00:01:04
I'll leave that one till last. So, the Hungarian authorities have fined a bookseller for selling a British graphic novel without closed wrapping, so saying it breached a controversial law on LGBT literature for under eighteen s. The Lira Kiss kaldemi keft retailer I'm sorry, I butchered that. Was fined 12 million foreign, or 27,400 pounds for selling a Heartstopper book without wrapping it in plastic foil. Officials said the book depicted homosexuality and was sold to minors.

Archie (Host) | 00:01:05 to 00:01:17
So they have laws about homosexuality and minors and that kind of thing. Bloody Hungary. Honestly, that's your people for anybody who doesn't know I'm part Hungarian. So it's quite frustrating to see that. I'm not surprised.

Archie (Host) | 00:01:17 to 00:01:27
And Heartstopper is written for minors. Like, the whole show is based in that audience. But in essence, what they're saying is that it's wrong and it's illegal and. That it's an 18 plus material. Yeah.

Katie (Host) | 00:01:27 to 00:01:36
Which it's not. It's just showing a same sex couple sex. No, it's a same sex couple relationship. I think people get confused when we're talking about same sex. And it's actually not sex.

Archie (Host) | 00:01:36 to 00:01:52
Not sex. It's just maybe it needs to be same gender gender couple. Or maybe they need to look at redoing that term. Yeah. I'm not sure if you have heard as well, but President Vladimir Putin signed a law that criminalised all surgery and hormone treatments used for gender transitions.

Archie (Host) | 00:01:53 to 00:02:18
It bans medical workers from performing medical interventions designed to change the sex of a person, including prescribing hormone therapy, to patients. It also restricts the amending of documents to reflect a gender change. This law is on top of a measure that happened in December last year which prohibited the representation of LGBTQ relationships in any media, streaming services, social platform books, music, posters, billboards and film. He is so shit. Right?

Archie (Host) | 00:02:19 to 00:02:37
There are so many avenues that he's shit and now it's just an extra shit on shit. Yeah. So people say it's to kind of detract from what's happened in Ukraine and the failed efforts there. I was looking on ABC Net Au for some LGBT news topics. This came under LGBT, and it frustrated me and I wanted to see if you had the same thing.

Archie (Host) | 00:02:37 to 00:02:53
So STI test vending machines are installed in Ekchuka Shepperton I'm not sure that's in Melbourne or Victoria as infection rates rise. I thought this was a weird one. Yes. So this was on the ABC website under LGBT News. And I'm here like, what?

Archie (Host) | 00:02:53 to 00:03:18
Why are you focusing on LGBT? So, Professor Jane Tomnay, director of the University's Centre for Excellence in Rural Sexual Health, said the pilot programme is focused on young people, the LGBTQIA plus community and indigenous Australians. I feel like this professor is driving into the old stigmas of STIs, HIV, all that kind of stuff, happening more amongst the LGBTQIA plus community. And I want to know what your thoughts are. What the hell?

Archie (Host) | 00:03:18 to 00:03:36
Right? Honestly, what the hell are they talking about? First of all, this professor has no idea how stigmatising that is, and not just from us. Also, the Aboriginal community with the indigenous Australians. Why are you picking on two marginalised communities?

Archie (Host) | 00:03:36 to 00:04:02
Yeah, it was just frustrating for me. And when I saw that come under ABC Net Au, especially with what happened with their four corners, which we still need to watch, which got a lot of hate with the LGBT community, about the way the trans people were represented. And they came out with article saying, well, we apologise, blah, blah, blah, and then they've come out with this. I feel like they have no idea. And they potentially have used AI to be like, what category do we put this in?

Katie (Host) | 00:04:02 to 00:04:15
Oh, yeah, we'll put it in queer News, put it in health right. Health where it belongs. You're talking about a sexual right infection. It's a health topic. And so when I saw the headline and it had nothing to do with the LGBT, I'm like, what?

Archie (Host) | 00:04:15 to 00:04:46
So I had to read the article and then it actually links back with our previous episode. So if you haven't had a listen to that, go back and listen to that episode where we debunk and queer bust some of the myths out there. Now, let's get on to our actual topic. So, queer friendly travel destinations, because we've been talking about travel and we're planning a trip at the end of the year and it kind of got me thinking about where is safe and where is not safe, and that's why I thought I would look at this topic. So do you have a favourite travel or holiday memory you'd like to share before we get into the meaty gritty bits?

Katie (Host) | 00:04:48 to 00:05:09
No, I think my favourite place so far that I've been and I've been to so many beautiful places. I've been very blessed to be in a position that I pay for travel through my life, through work, not through. Work, but you work really hard by. Working and being able to support myself with travel, which has been great. I've been to so many bloody great places and I've really enjoyed them.

Katie (Host) | 00:05:09 to 00:05:28
I think the one that sticks in my mind most is Japan, which where we're going back to soon. Not soon enough, but it's such a beautiful place and I love the richness of the culture, I love the beautiful scenery. I love that there's so much to do, there's just so much that I love there. Yeah, it's beautiful and the culture is beautiful and the people are beautiful. Yeah.

Katie (Host) | 00:05:28 to 00:05:40
I think that's my favourite memory. And we'll make some more memories when we go yay. Let's get on to this episode. So travelling while being part of the LGBT community can be difficult, depending on where you go. Yeah.

Archie (Host) | 00:05:40 to 00:06:02
On today's episode, I'm going to share some of the top LGBTQIA plus friendly destinations with this one. It was a hard one. Okay. Because there were so many different articles, so different journals, so many different resources that had the countries all in several different orders. So some people said, These are the top ten, some people said, These are the top ten, but these are the ones the ones I'm talking about are the ones that were constantly popping up in all the articles.

Katie (Host) | 00:06:02 to 00:06:23
Yeah. And of course, there's going to be different things that make them part of the top ten, depending on what author is actually writing it, as well as a lot of different things. That's exactly it. So from what point of view are they rating the top ten and that kind of stuff. So if you had to pick the five countries you think would be the safest for LGBTQIA plus, what would you say they were?

Katie (Host) | 00:06:23 to 00:06:43
I would go Switzerland or the Netherlands. Germany. It's hard because there's so many different things that I've got to think about, because there's places that I enjoy going, but then you have to flip it on the flip side. Think about everything, like the laws and everything that's involved in all that stuff. Legislation as well as recent changes.

Katie (Host) | 00:06:44 to 00:06:48
So there's a lot of different things. I'd probably say Greenland. Iceland. But you got a couple. You got a couple.

Archie (Host) | 00:06:48 to 00:07:10
Yeah. So the order varied depending on what website, but the two safest countries that were consistently in the top four were Malta and Canada. You know what, I was going to say Canada, but it's so hard with Canada because it's proximity close to American. So you start to think about that. You'Re like, I would say, but it's so hard to malta, though.

Archie (Host) | 00:07:11 to 00:07:32
Yeah. I'm surprised. According to Statista.com, so they're like a Statistic website. They had the following order in the top ten. So at ten was Iceland, nine was Germany, eight was New Zealand, seven was Uruguay, six was Portugal, five was Denmark, four was Australia, three was Switzerland, two was Canada, and Malta was at number one.

Katie (Host) | 00:07:32 to 00:07:41
Oh, I got a fair few. Yeah, you got a fair few. What are you know, I was going to say New Zealand as yeah. Because of the cultural exactly. And how much they embrace it.

Katie (Host) | 00:07:41 to 00:07:57
I mean, I probably should have just thought back to the last episode and be like, what places have had it for a long time? But not necessarily because Thailand has a history of gender and then it goes back. No, that totally makes sense. Yeah. So then this is the one I'm going to focus on.

Archie (Host) | 00:07:57 to 00:08:14
There was a 2022 study by journalists Lyric and Asher Ferguson, and it was also mentioned in Forbes. And this was their top ten. So at number ten, they had the United Kingdom, nine was Belgium, eight was Denmark, seven was Spain, six was Portugal. Go, Portugal. It's been there twice.

Archie (Host) | 00:08:14 to 00:08:24
Five was Norway. Three was Malta. Sorry, four was Malta, three was the Netherlands, which you also said before. Two was Sweden and one was Canada. Yeah.

Katie (Host) | 00:08:24 to 00:08:40
But I find it funny how sometimes you have random ones popped in there. Yeah. I think that maybe a top ten is a little bit difficult because there are a lot of countries that do a lot for the queer community. Belgium's nice, but we weren't in the top ten of that one. No, we weren't.

Archie (Host) | 00:08:40 to 00:09:08
Yeah. So the list is based on ten factors related to the LGBTQIA, plus safety, including things like protection against discrimination, criminalization of violence, illegal same sex relationships and other factors like that. This team who conducted the study also reviewed individual laws of each country and they worked out, like, an LGBTQIA safety index. And then they placed all the countries in order based on that. And the order that they've come up with reflects the most current information in this ever changing world.

Archie (Host) | 00:09:08 to 00:09:27
So this was 2022. With 2023, it's probably changed again. And the website is really cool. It's, like, all linked out and there's a lot of visual stuff, so you can actually see and where they rank and where they may have lost points. Yeah, that's great for when you're travelling, because now, again, we've got the greatest access to travel throughout time.

Katie (Host) | 00:09:27 to 00:09:49
And so it is something that you do have to consider, especially if you're in a queer relationship. I mean, be safe out there, guys, 100%. It's one of those things that you don't want to be in another country and then be persecuted because, first of all, you're not a citizen of that country and therefore it makes it more difficult when it comes to legal rights. And also, you just want to be safe. Yeah.

Archie (Host) | 00:09:49 to 00:10:03
Just before you travel to a country, make sure you please, please do your research and make sure that is a safe place for you to go to. Yeah. And we're not saying that it's right that there are countries out there that aren't safe. We're definitely not. I mean, it's the basis of our podcast.

Katie (Host) | 00:10:03 to 00:10:14
We're promoting safety and we're trying to get people more understanding out there. We're trying to educate people, but it's. The knowledge that there are a lot of places out there that aren't safe. Yeah. I'm so proud of Portugal.

Katie (Host) | 00:10:14 to 00:10:37
I would never have guessed it. I would have never thought that they are such a Catholic community and a Christian community, and to be I think they're literally ranked six in both of those different lists and they were constantly coming up. We need to visit it because I am half Portuguese. My family from a tiny little island called Madeira, where Cristiano Ronaldo is from. Hashtag related, right?

Archie (Host) | 00:10:37 to 00:10:42
Maybe. Who knows? But yeah. So it's nice to see Portugal come up twice in there as well. Yeah, that's great.

Archie (Host) | 00:10:43 to 00:10:58
Wouldn't have expected, but really, like, I was surprised. I was really surprised when I saw that. I was like, oh, wow, that's incredible. Apart from that country, which other ones did you not expect to see in. The top ten United Kingdom, just because of it's going quite backwards.

Archie (Host) | 00:10:58 to 00:11:07
But this was done in 2022, so I'm not sure the most recent prime. So I was really, really surprised about that. I was also surprised about Malta. I had no idea. Yeah, I don't know a lot about Malta.

Archie (Host) | 00:11:07 to 00:11:11
No. Neither do I. So maybe that might be a place where we need to visit. Yeah, I think so. Yeah.

Archie (Host) | 00:11:11 to 00:11:20
Where do you think Australia was in that list, number wise? Could you guess a number from one to 20? Maybe one to 50? No. One to 20?

Katie (Host) | 00:11:20 to 00:11:29
Oh, God, you're making me think we're really low. No. So one to 20, where do we sit? I think we'd probably be 13. Yeah, I think we're not the best, but we're not the worst.

Katie (Host) | 00:11:29 to 00:11:46
But also, if you come to Perth I'm sorry, if you come to Australia and you're queer, I mean, you're not going to go to jail, you're generally not going to be persecuted on anything. I mean, with all of our generally, it's really safe. There are a lot of places that are queer friendly, all that kind of stuff. We had world pride. Yeah, exactly.

Katie (Host) | 00:11:46 to 00:12:16
So it's not like an unsafe place. I don't think we're the best in the world just because sometimes there are people in the community who are just generally shit. But I reckon 13 people above us, people below us. And like, for example, talking about people not really respecting the LGBT community, where I grew up in a small town, they're trying to do something for the queer community and it's got a lot of hate on Facebook. We're not the most open in all areas of Australia, so if you want to be safe in Australia, maybe stick to the cities.

Katie (Host) | 00:12:16 to 00:12:21
Yeah, definitely. I also think that's to do with marketing, though. Have fun anywhere. I think you'll be fine. Yeah.

Archie (Host) | 00:12:21 to 00:12:53
Australia fell at number 20, and the reason was because it's due to the criminalization of violence, laws and transgender rights vary by state. It's not Australia wide, so transgender people have better laws and protections and rights in certain states than others. In WA, we are very behind with having to go to a whole board and all that kind of stuff, so we've got a lot to go forward. And I think New Zealand just passed some really productive and forward laws to do with gender and changing agenda and stuff like that on paperwork and stuff. But yeah, so we received an A minus, so it's not too bad.

Archie (Host) | 00:12:53 to 00:13:05
We could be a lot worse. So I thought that was a minus. A minus, obviously, Malta. And no, but that's what the rating it wasn't me. No, I just assumed you were here.

Katie (Host) | 00:13:05 to 00:13:21
No, we got 20 out of 100. A minus. No, it was actually rated on the website, so all the top 1020 30. I think they're like A plus, A, A minus, B plus, that kind of stuff. Again, next.

Archie (Host) | 00:13:21 to 00:13:26
Yeah. So the worst countries rated, I think, are like ENF. Oh, wow. Yeah. Did you want to know the worst countries?

Katie (Host) | 00:13:26 to 00:13:38
I feel like I already know the. Worst countries, if you had to guess. I don't want to. Okay, so at eleven was Yemen, ten was Libya. We're talking about worst countries now, aren't we?

Archie (Host) | 00:13:38 to 00:13:45
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Good. These are the worst countries. And I might put up on Instagram all the reasons why these ones are.

Archie (Host) | 00:13:45 to 00:13:56
I might do like a carousel and give you the reasons why. So, Libya, Sudan was nine. At eight was Malaysia. Seven was UAE, six was Guyana. G-U-Y-A-N-A.

Archie (Host) | 00:13:56 to 00:14:11
So not Ghana, but Gujana. I've never heard of it. Malawi was five, Kuwait was four, Nigeria was three. At second was Saudi Arabia. And the number one worst country to visit if you are LGBT is Brunei.

Katie (Host) | 00:14:11 to 00:14:41
Oh, really? I had in my thoughts, like, Saudi Arabia, I was thinking, just because the experience you get going through Dubai if you're queer, presenting is not very good, and don't go through Dubai if you're queer. So basically, if you are queer, I will say why Saudi Arabia's? Both the top two are not great, is homosexual acts as interpreted by Sharia law can be punished by the death sentence, or 100 whips or one year banishment. So there's all different things.

Katie (Host) | 00:14:41 to 00:14:54
Do they still actually whip people? That was what was on the article. And it said floggings can occur for cross dressing as well. So that's something you need to think about the clothes that you're wearing as well. When you are travelling, even if you are heterosexual, you need to think about the clothes you're wearing.

Katie (Host) | 00:14:54 to 00:15:08
And don't forget the places that you go through. You need to think about that. Yeah. It's not just necessarily like your end destination. There are a lot of interconnecting places for us where we tend to go through is Dubai, as well as we go through Malaysia.

Katie (Host) | 00:15:09 to 00:15:24
Malaysia? Yeah. We go through KL, the intersecting places where it's not like you change clothes after you get off the plane. So the last time I was in Malaysia and I was just going through going from Japan, I was treated really, really badly by the staff when I was just asking for information. And this was when I was still presenting as female.

Archie (Host) | 00:15:24 to 00:15:48
They sent me on an a wild goose chase when the place that I needed to go was like 100 metres away. And they sent me a 30 minutes train right away. And then some lovely local actually spoke everything and told me where to go. It was really disgusting the way I was treated. You can look up the issues that have happened through in Dubai Airport and the disgusting treatment of women in general on multiple occasions.

Katie (Host) | 00:15:48 to 00:16:05
I've never felt so unsafe with how many times I get picked out. And I'm not very interesting at all. I'm very lucky to be white. I'm very lucky to be just feminine presenting kind of person. But I literally was nearly strip searched because I had underwire in my bra.

Katie (Host) | 00:16:05 to 00:16:10
And I've never felt so much like I've never been strip searched in my life.

Katie (Host) | 00:16:12 to 00:16:40
I've never had to be pat down before. And I understand that I'm very lucky to be in a situation that I don't constantly get. I mean, I always get picked up for drugs because I accidentally smile at people, which as a standard is apparently bad. But I've never felt so unsafe in that kind of concept. Every single flight that I took over, say, for example, a five year course yeah, every single time I was randomly drug searched, every time I had my tattoos out.

Archie (Host) | 00:16:40 to 00:16:57
So I find that interesting when it's randomly drug searched. But every time I had all my tattoos out, I was randomly tested for drugs. So I remember one of the last times I went like this, put my arms out, someone went like this, sorry, if you're listening. So I put both my arms out, my legs out, and the lady was like, You've done this before? And I said yes.

Archie (Host) | 00:16:57 to 00:17:10
Every single time. I said, do you profile? And she's like, no, we don't profile. I'm like, Cool, because the three men behind me also all have very visible tattoos. And she's like I was just like, do you profile?

Archie (Host) | 00:17:10 to 00:17:25
Because I just want to know. And then so the next time I tested it, I covered up nothing. Do you know what I find that so funny? I mean, if you don't have tattoos, tattoos are actually really expensive, right? If you get good tattoos, we should be the demographic who don't get searched.

Katie (Host) | 00:17:25 to 00:17:41
We don't have money to be spending on drugs. We've got other things. And looking after a tattoo, oh, my goodness. It's a lot of responsibility. The old stigmas and the myth busting of the Gang Association of the Drug Association in 2023.

Archie (Host) | 00:17:42 to 00:18:00
Come on. We've moved well past that, even. I was watching some Japanese documentary, like clips from documentaries and stuff, where they were saying that they really love seeing it on foreigners. They think it's beautiful, but it's just when they see it on Japanese people, it's when they freak out because of the Gang association. But they actually love seeing beautiful, like cherry blossoms and the kanji written on foreigners.

Archie (Host) | 00:18:00 to 00:18:20
They think it's gorgeous and they admire it and they think it's beautiful, but it's just those kind of things that are still, you know what? The crime junkie in me, as well as just the crime person in me, always thinks that at least if my body gets cut up by a serial killer, then they can identify me. That's true. Yeah. There'll be most of the body that they can identify.

Katie (Host) | 00:18:20 to 00:18:30
I know that's true. I'm not just going to be in some unknown Jane Doe out there that they'll be like, oh, hopefully they'll see enough. This is where my brain goes, because. I've never thought about that. Oh, really?

Katie (Host) | 00:18:30 to 00:18:49
Well, I mean, those kind of things. I mean, I'm not sure if it's my upbringing or just how it is, but you never feel safe as a woman. No, that is very true. Since the 2022 update of the LGBTQ Plus study, changes have occurred. So these changes have mostly been positive for the advancement of LGBTQ Plus rights and protections.

Archie (Host) | 00:18:49 to 00:19:16
There were some negative going backwards, disadvantaged, but I didn't want to include them because I was like, there's enough Negativity in the road at the moment. So some of the positive highlights include cuba legalised same sex marriage in September 2022. Go, Cuba. While gay marriage is still banned in Japan, it is making progress towards the acceptance of same sex marriage, and gay couples can now register a domestic partnership as of November 2022. Yay, Switzerland, legalised same sex marriage on July 1, 2022.

Archie (Host) | 00:19:16 to 00:19:35
Singapore, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados. St. Kitts and Nevis decriminalised homosexuality in 2022. As of January 31, 2023, same sex marriage and adoption are fully legal in Slovenia. Croatia passed laws expanding the rights of same sex couples to joint adoption in August 2022.

Archie (Host) | 00:19:35 to 00:19:53
In December 2022, the US Virgin Islands increased its discrimination protections for people based on their sexual identity and gender expression. And New Zealand plans to implement gender self identification on June 15, 2023. Yeah, I wonder if that's happened. We should I wonder. Yeah, that'd be interesting.

Katie (Host) | 00:19:53 to 00:20:08
New Zealand does great things, though. I feel like it's always been that we see great things from New Zealand, and then maybe ten years later we'll see it. I mean, five years later, we'll see it in Tasmania because Tasmania just seems. More forward that everyone so surprised. I'm actually surprised about that.

Katie (Host) | 00:20:08 to 00:20:16
Yeah. It's just bloody brilliant. So it's like New Zealand and then we kind of see it in Tasmania and then, like, the rest. Yeah. And then WA is always last.

Katie (Host) | 00:20:17 to 00:20:30
Yeah. Far away from everyone else. Yeah. So those were the pretty much the stats, but there's a lot of different things. And I'm going to put a lot of stuff in the show notes of different articles and resources for you guys with Lonely Planet.

Archie (Host) | 00:20:30 to 00:20:42
So this was a 2023, and Lonely Planet is known as one of the most, like, travel guides. They have books, they have websites, that kind of thing. So they had a 2023 article that was March 7. So pretty recent. Not super recent, but pretty recent.

Archie (Host) | 00:20:42 to 00:21:01
And they had these cities as some of the safest for LGBTQIA plus travellers in the world. If you had to name number one, what do you think the safest city, not country in the world for LGBTQIA plus people are of the whole world? Whole world? I have no idea. Well, they didn't actually have a ranking, but it's the first one they put, so I assume it's the first one.

Archie (Host) | 00:21:02 to 00:21:06
We're just going to say for this item, sydney, Australia, because of World Pride this year.

Katie (Host) | 00:21:09 to 00:21:21
I'm like, Boy, they got that shit wrong. Yeah. So obviously because of that, if you were to guess, not even during World. Pride, I would have thought it's the safest city in Australia. Not that it's bad, but you still.

Archie (Host) | 00:21:21 to 00:21:34
Had a lot of lonely planets. Sort out your resources out of there. Some of the cities they mentioned was City, Australia, new York, barcelona, auckland in New Zealand. Puerto Vallarto in Mexico. Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

Archie (Host) | 00:21:34 to 00:21:54
London in United Kingdom. Palm Springs, California, toronto, Canada, tel Aviv, Israel Provincetown in Massachusetts, and Berlin, Germany. I wonder if an American wrote it, because a lot of those places in America and what's happening in America right now? I think the Lonely Planet needs to get their acts together because there are a lot of places on there that I'm like. Yeah, I wouldn't agree with.

Katie (Host) | 00:21:54 to 00:22:15
I'm like Barcelona. But see, the thing is, Mexico, I think this person's done like a Cliff Notes kind of thing, because when this person wrote the article, it's basically talking about the different massive Pride events at those places. But it doesn't mean that those places are generally safest places to visit. No, it doesn't. It's got no association.

Archie (Host) | 00:22:15 to 00:22:41
No. Because when it comes to those Pride events, generally, they happen because one person's like, yeah, let's get this ball on the road, because it will bring tourism and it'll bring money. There are so many other things when it comes to these events, like any other event, almost just even like the soccer that you bring it because you're thinking about the grand scheme of things. You're not actually thinking, you're thinking about. What it's going to input into the economy and to tourism and travel and.

Katie (Host) | 00:22:41 to 00:22:52
That kind of stuff. You're not always thinking about, oh, this is an amazing safe place. No, definitely not. Because I know when I went to Sydney for Mardi Gras, I had glass bottles ditched at my head while I was walking home. Yeah, granted.

Katie (Host) | 00:22:52 to 00:23:08
Hopefully that wasn't like it. I hope not. I hope that Sydney World Pride was a beautiful experience for the people who went over, but that was my experience of the one Mardi Gras that I went to. Yeah. If I was to critique that, I would say I think that that is not really relevant and I don't think it's an in depth.

Katie (Host) | 00:23:08 to 00:23:26
It'll be interesting to see what they based around, apart from just major Pride. Events in the articles. It only talked about the major Pride events or the gay clubs that were there. It didn't actually look at anything like the laws or the discrimination or anything. So it's more like it's a superficial look at what seems to be safe, the safest cities.

Archie (Host) | 00:23:26 to 00:23:38
But it looks like, though, Toronto, because that was still in the list. So maybe if you want a safe LGBTQIA travel destination, go Toronto in Canada. Yeah, or just basically go to Portugal. Yeah. Or Portugal.

Archie (Host) | 00:23:38 to 00:23:41
Portugal's great, too. It's been in every or Malta. Who would have thought? Yeah. Or Malta.

Katie (Host) | 00:23:41 to 00:24:08
Absolutely. So no matter what, make sure you do your research before visiting any country to find out the laws and also the clothing expectations and the cultural expectations of you, so that you're always going to be safe. And it's not just for the queer community, it's not just for the LGBTQIA plus community. It's for anybody. Like, I remember Bali not too long ago was saying about how they don't condone people having relationships or having sex out of wedlock and that kind of stuff, and that was getting honed down on.

Katie (Host) | 00:24:08 to 00:24:19
So it's not just the queer community that need to be aware when they're travelling. Everyone does. Specifically, if you're a woman, you've got to be really careful when you're travelling. As well, what you're wearing and the clothes and stuff. Yeah, totally.

Katie (Host) | 00:24:19 to 00:24:28
So do your research before going places. That's all you have to do. Yeah. Educate yourself before you travel anywhere. Know the laws, know what you need and how you're going to keep yourself safe.

Katie (Host) | 00:24:28 to 00:24:37
And always take a photocopy of your passport. Yes. What I do is I send those kind of stuff to a family member. Yeah. I always send one to myself and have it in my email as well.

Archie (Host) | 00:24:37 to 00:25:03
In the show notes, I'm going to link you to a website with some very useful information if you are LGBTQIA Plus, or even just if you want to know a bit more about the places. And it talks about the LGBTQ plus rights and travel safety. So on this website, there's things like LGBTQ Plus, safety guide, trans safety guide, marriage equality safety guide. There's a HIV travel guide, which actually links back to our last episode, so I thought that was interesting. There's also guides on different countries, so they give you guides on specific things.

Archie (Host) | 00:25:03 to 00:25:20
So there's articles and they talk about how to be safe and the expectations. So things like South Africa, Morocco, obviously, with how dangerous it is to travel there as well. So, Turkey, Thailand, Taiwan, Nepal, Japan, Israel, India, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand and so many other countries. Literally. And it's divided into, like, is it European?

Archie (Host) | 00:25:20 to 00:25:35
Is it South America? All that kind of stuff. So if you are looking to travel and you are, part of the LGBT community should really cheque out this resource. It is Iglta.org, and I'll link that in the Show notes so that you can. Get all this information.

Katie (Host) | 00:25:35 to 00:25:41
Very interesting. Very relevant episode. Yeah. So just remember, be safe when you're travelling. Thank you so much.

Archie (Host) | 00:25:41 to 00:25:55
I hope that you've got something out of this episode. And in your comments on this episode, where's your favourite place in the world to travel and what's your best experiences with travel? We'd love to hear about them. Or maybe some safety tips for certain countries that you've travelled to. Yeah, totally.

Katie (Host) | 00:25:55 to 00:26:07
So thanks for listening to our episode all the way to the end. Yes. Really appreciate it. And if you've liked what you've heard, don't forget to rate, review and subscribe. And until next time, I hope that we have been perfectly queer.

Katie (Host) | 00:26:15 to 00:26:19
You, let's be perfectly clear. Close.