Page content
LGBTQ+ people are criminalised in 76 countries
Marcel Conrad spoke about the situation in countries around the world from the perspective of the LGBTQ+ community
Publication of the latest travel risk map for LGBTQ tourists
There are not many countries LGBTQ+ people can travel to without anxiety. In many parts, including the most populous countries on every continent, they risk discrimination and punishment, including public flogging and the death penalty. These findings were presented by Marcel Conrad, chief content officer with the Hamburg-based travel risk analyst A3M, on Tuesday at ITB Berlin.
Among the safest countries are Canada, and in Europe the Benelux countries, Spain, Portugal and Denmark. Despite no laws discriminating against the LGBTQ+ community in Germany, it does not rank among the ten safest countries, but is still in the second-best category.
A3M has colour-coded the regions according to travel risk, with dark green signifying “totally problem-free“, followed by green, amber, red and crimson for “risk of extreme punishment“. The categories “amber“ to “crimson“ apply in 170 out of almost 200 countries. 76 countries have discriminatory laws. That end of the scale is occupied by almost every country in North Africa and large parts of the Middle East, as well as Russia and Malaysia. In Saudi Arabia, Iran, Yemen, Afghanistan, Somalia and northern Nigeria, LGBTQ+ people risk long jail sentences and severe corporal punishment including the death penalty.
According to Conrad, numerous island nations particularly in the Caribbean, as well as Singapore, Mauritius, Andorra and Slovenia offer a silver lining. Discriminatory laws had been revoked in these countries last year, improving the situation there. However, they were still all listed in the “amber” category, he added.