Best and Worst Places To Be LGBTQ
To be an LGBTQ person in any homophobic country is like residing in exile, where the surrounding social environments are profoundly heteronormative. The dwelling of exile is internal and the consequences of coming out have no one to blame except yourself. The consequences can be personal and political. A person coming out in a homophobic society may lose friends, jobs, insurance, and family. The government can get involved and imprison you, or even sentence you to death.
The consequences of living authentically queer and trans are extraordinarily severe and gauche. Living in internal exile in a homophobic society is death by a thousand cuts which sever right to the bone. Living in internal shadows and smoke is like living in golden daylight, in comparison to the darker and lethal consequences of being openly queer or trans in many countries.
The weight of the wrath of anti-LGBTQ and anti-trans policy comes in a blazing force in countries across the world. Spartacus, an LGBTQ magazine which publishes international gay travel indexes, released a chart in 2021 from data collected on the world’s safest to most dangerous countries for LGBTQ people. The chart includes statistics on anti-discrimination laws; LGBTQ persons allowed adoption, marriage, and civil partnership; intersex option for ID; conversion therapy legality; religious influence; HIV travel restrictions; banned “Pride,” anti-LGBTQ laws; and prosecution, murder, and death sentences for LGBTQ people.
The three most treacherous and threatening countries for LGBTQ people to survive, let alone thrive, are Saudi Arabia, Somalia, and Russia.
The primary source of law for Saudi Arabia, which ranked at number three, is the Islamic Sharia, derived from the Quran. Judges employ their personal interpretation of the Sharia to every case and apply the harshest punishments to those involved with or part of the LGBTQ community.
LGBTQ citizens in Saudi Arabia face severe repression and gross legal challenges. Homosexuality and transness are widely seen as immoral and indecent. Those caught openly embracing their queerness or transness are promptly penalized with enormous fines and could receive public whippings and beatings, chemical castration, imprisonment up to life, or even the death penalty.
Somalia takes the second slot for the worst place for the LGBTQ community.
Somalia unabashedly prohibits same-gender intercourse and attraction. LGBTQ issues are never to be discussed in public, and doing so has dire consequences. Somalia also follows the guidelines of the “Sharia laws.”
The slight penalty difference between Somalia and Saudi Arabia is that incarceration sentences for same-gender intercourse and attraction max out at three years.
It’s not much of a relief, as Somalia’s military occupants do not shy away from executing LGBTQ citizens. The LGBTQ refugees, who escape from torture and assassination, face serious risk of the death penalty if they are to ever return to Somalia. Queer and trans citizens of Somalia live in fear in the country and survive in fear of deportation outside of the country, as death is only a whisper away.
Unsurprisingly, Russia ranks number one in the worst place to be for LGBTQ people. Russia has a growing intolerance for queer and trans people, and nearly 80% of Russian citizens believe that LGBTQ people should be eliminated from society. In Russia, it’s illegal to speak of LGBTQ issues in public, where violent conversion therapy is popular and police engage in unlawful detentions, beatings, and humiliation of citizens they presume to be gay or bisexual. LGBTQ citizens are prohibited to adopt; however, queer foreigners may adopt Russian children under the conditions they concede same-gender marriage is criminal and goes against traditional values. There is absolutely no human dignity in Russia for LGBTQ citizens.
The grass is greener where you water it, and that is why there are countries across the world that provide justice and push for progress and protection for LGBTQ people.
Portugal and Malta rank third and second the world’s best places for LGBTQ people, respectively. Each country boasts high numbers of anti-discrimination laws, legal and celebrated marriage and civil partnership, legalized LGBTQ adoption, rights for trans citizens, prominent LGBTQ marketing, and validated intersex and nonbinary gender options for citizens socially and on legal documents.
Our maple leaf neighbors up north, Canada, topped the chart at number one. Canada has the highest amount of anti-discrimination laws and lowest amount of religious influence and violence against LGBTQ people globally.
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms overtly states religious freedom “is subject to such limitations as are necessary to protect public safety, order, health or morals, and the fundamental rights and freedoms of others.”
The broad population is overwhelmingly LGBTQ-positive, and the larger cities have welcomed and commemorated LGBTQ communities. Throughout larger cities and villages such as Vancouver and Ottawa, there are prominent and active gay villages where the queer and trans community is celebrated all year, allowing its citizens and visitors to exist in peace, with unquestioned equality.
Despite the remarkable progress by legalizing same-gender marriage in 2015 and passing the Equality Act in 2019 in Congress (though it remains accumulating dust in the Senate), LGBTQ Americans still suffer discrimination simply for being who they are. Ranking 31st (out of 202 total countries) on the list, America has 27 states with no explicit statewide laws to protect people from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in areas of employment, housing, and public accommodations.
Ridiculous and outdated laws, such as queer, cis men being prohibited from donating blood within a year of penetrative sex with another cis man because of unfounded terror that HIV/AIDS could be present in their blood is still the rule of the land. America’s society and government embodies many opportunities to extend the sacred oath and promise of our country to every American, that they are equally valued human beings.
Wherever there is Pride or prejudice, OFM proudly stands with the LGBTQ community all over the world and with all communities who struggle and die for basic human rights, of recognition, visibility, and protection in the pursuit of full equality under the law.
