Canada tops LGBTQ-friendly countries: Spartacus travel guide

Canada has been voted as the most LGBTQ-friendly country for travel, according to the gay-oriented Spartacus Travel Guide.

Canada tied Portugal and Sweden at the top of the Spartacus Gay Travel Index 2019, with Germany, France, and the USA slipping down the ranks.

Around 13 countries– nearly all the countries in Europe as well as New Zealand –are tied at 4th place. The index ranked 197 countries based on 14 criteria.

The criteria includes antidiscrimination laws, marriage and civil partnership laws, adoption laws, and transgender rights and persecution.

Spartacus Travel Guide: The safe places to go to

The Berlin-based guide is updated annually to inform gay travelers about the LGBTQ situation in 197 countries and regions.

It uses sources like the human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW), the UN “Free & Equal” campaign, and year-round information on human rights violations against the LGBT community.

In the new update, Portugal jumped from 27th place to first due to legal improvements for trans- and intersex persons, as well as anti-hate crime initiatives.

Meanwhile, India also rose through the ranks from 104th to 57th thanks to their move to decriminalize homosexuality and improving the social climate for the LGBTQ community there.

Among other countries that improved were Trinidad, Tobago, and Angola after they decriminalized homosexual acts in their countries.

Furthermore, Austria and Malta gained places at the top rankings after giving legal recognition to same-sex marriage.

The guide noted that all of the countries ranked high were advanced democracies where religion had control over the democratic political process.

Spartacus Travel Guide: Places to be wary of

Meanwhile, the rankings of Brazil, Germany, France, and the USA slid downward in the guide.

Both Brazil and the USA have right-wing conservative governments that have targeted the LGBT communities through initiatives that have increase homophobic and transphobic violence.

In the rankings, US is now at 47th from 39th, a rank it shares with Bermuda, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Macao, Seychelles, and Thailand.

On the other hand, Germany is currently suffering an increase in violent attacks against the LGBTQ people with inadequate modern legislation. These pushed them down from 3rd to 23rd place.

France dropped from sixth to 17th place due to an increase in homophobic attacks and postponement of debates on bioethics laws that would open up IVF treatment for all women.

The least friendly country is is Chechnya at 197th place because of its “state-organized persecution and killings of homosexuals.”

Also at the bottom five were Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Yemen due to murders and death sentences involving the LGBTQ community.

If you want to check the listing of all countries in the index, look it up here.