10 of Europe’s bt statns for LGBTQ+ travellers this Pri season | Gay and lbian travel | The Guardian

Contents:

• THE GAY PRI EVENTS EUROPE WORTH TRAVELLG FOR 2022
• 9 MOST GAY-FRIENDLY COUNTRI IN EUROPE
• EASTERN EUROPE WAS ONCE A WORLD LEAR ON GAY RIGHTS. THEN RAN OUT OF SPEGOATS
• BT GAY PRI PARAS
• GAY US AMBASSADOR TO HUNGARY MARCH BUDAPT PRI MARCH

THE GAY PRI EVENTS EUROPE WORTH TRAVELLG FOR 2022

Mt-vis LGBTIQ+ neighborhood: Gay Street, the queer neighborhood of Rome wh view of the Colossm, is a highly social 300-meter long pestrian street wh shoppg, bars and lodgg popular wh queer folx but primarily gay men who enjoy the opportuny to meet person rather than on hook-up aps. There is no out-and-proud gayborhood, but there are a few fun gay bars, clubs and f sprkled throughout the cy, wh the most the central Śródmieście district.

Mt-vis LGBTIQ+ neighborhood: Soho is the largt and bt known LGBTIQ+ neighborhood London wh a huge ncentratn of bars and clubs though you’ll fd queer venu spanng the entire cy om the clubs Vxhall to east London’s gay bars. Mt-vis LGBTIQ+ neighborhood: Amsterdam is one of the most LGBTIQ+ iendly statns on the pla so everywhere is pretty much queer iendly but you’ll fd the gay area along Reguliersdwarsstraat. Mt-vis LGBTIQ+ neighborhood: There is no gayborhood but there are LGBTIQ+ venu sttered across the small island of 400, 000 and the ty but elegant pal cy Valletta, which is only 0.

9 MOST GAY-FRIENDLY COUNTRI IN EUROPE

Europe is set to explo wh LGBTQ+ energy this June as Gay Pri events kick off ci across the of the vibrant celebratns are returng after beg ncelled for two years nng amid the ronavis panmic. Followg the para, many participants will head to Via San Gvanni Laterano, dubbed Rome’s gay street, to ntue celebratg s many gay bars and clubs will host special events that extend the ftivi well to the night when the whole street normally be one big open air party.

Cologne Gay Pri is the biggt LGBTQ+ celebratn Germany and will beg mid June this events will last a ltle over two weeks and will clu sports tournaments, nferenc, readgs and lots of ma events will take place durg the first weekend of July. In a gture of solidary wh Ukrae, the participants of both events will march together Equaly Para, which has been held the pal sce 2001, is the largt gay pri para central Europe. It’s one of only five untri to make queer rights equal at a nstutnal level and holds first place on ILGA-Europe’s Rabow Europe Inx, which ranks untri on LGBTQ+ my last vis, a gay gui showed me round the wdg medieval streets of Valletta and Rabat, potg out sential bars and rtrants om Michel-starred Noni to the Monaliza Lounge drag bar, as well as the nightclub Michelangelo lively Paceville.

EASTERN EUROPE WAS ONCE A WORLD LEAR ON GAY RIGHTS. THEN RAN OUT OF SPEGOATS

This spir filters down to Dubl’s many LGBTQ-iendly tablishments: two personal favour are iendly bnch spot Social Fabric Café Stoneybatter, one of the cy’s most tertg neighbourhoods, and Street 66 bar, a eful cktail spot before a night at inic LGBTQ+ stutn The southsi is gay-owned Gutter Bookshop (named after the famo Osr Wil quote), and the weekly “big gay dis” Sunday Social at Farrier & Draper; or cross the river for the Outhoe LGBTQ+ muny rource fe on Capel Street and PantiBar, owned by drag queen, activist and performer Panti Bliss.

Enjoy bnch at Osr bar and fe, before a beer at one of Europe’s olst gay bars, Centralhjor, which hosts drag and Sunday jazz ssns venu clu Bøssehet Christiania, home to theatre, performanc, exhibns and parti – a well-suated boutique hotel is SP34 (doubl om £133) the Lat Quarter. The cy’s olst gay bar The Waterloo dat back half a century, while another classic spot is the Unrground bar, equally fun for drag or karaoke. Nearby Delmoni’s (known lolly as “Del’s”), has been Merchant Cy’s “gay triangle” sce stay nearby, try the good-value Bnswick hotel (doubl om £50), on a street wh venu marked by rabow flags.

Photograph: Nick Maslen/AlamyOn my last vis to Birmgham the rabow flag seemed to be everywhere, and the historic Gay Village, wh s bars, shops and f, is hugely visible, centred largely on Hurst Street. Start wh bibimbap at the thoroughfare’s Korean rtrant Topokki before drks at Missg, Siwalk or lbian bar The Fox and dancg at the legendary Nightgale Club, the olst gay club the cy, datg back to summer’s hot LGBTQ+ event is Fierce’s Healg Garns of Bab (27 June - 17 July): part of Birmgham 2022 Ftival, ’s an artistic rponse to this summer’s Commonwealth Gam, celebratg “what the Brish Empire tried (and failed) to stamp out”.

BT GAY PRI PARAS

Mykonos’s rep as queer heaven dat back to the 1970s, when Jackie Onassis beme a regular visor (she first vised 1961), before blossomed as gay rort the 1980s, wh acmodatn sprgg up for the largely male 2022, you n hang out at tablished hotspots Jackie O, bar Porta or Kastro’s, and stay at the Super Paradise (doubl om £249), handy for the island’s ma LGBTQ+ beach. Photograph: Subodh Agnihotri/AlamyFor many gay men of a certa age, Fland is extribly associated wh leather-clad inic hero Tom of Fland, whose books pict a ggedly sexualised masculy durg a time pre-1971 when homosexualy was still illegal.

Now you n take a tour of where thor Too Laaksonen lived his whole adult life, passg the Kansalaistori (People’s Square) ont of parliament, once a clanste meetg pot for gay karaoke fans should check out Mann’s Street, a boozy stutn; other fun spots are Street Pri the Kamppi district, and Kvääristö, a jot for queer women, transgenr, and non-bary people. You might even be able to jo the Helski Homovaas (Helski Gay Invasn), whose purpose is to “shake up the gay scene” by takg over random straight bars. 5ln people each year, cludg 300, 000 overseas self is one of the most LGBTQ-iendly untri the world: same-sex sexual activy was ma legal 1979, and was the third untry to legalise gay marriage, 2005.

First stop has to be Chue, Madrid’s “gaybourhood” wh bars and venu dotted around Plaza Chue (also don’t miss the recently refurbished Merdo San Antón for tasty food stalls and a rooftop terrace).

GAY US AMBASSADOR TO HUNGARY MARCH BUDAPT PRI MARCH

The LGBTQ+ rights movement has ma tremendo stris over the past few s and much of the progrs visibily is thanks part to gay pri paras and march that have taken place ci around the world.

The global landspe for LGBTQ+ rights, protectns and acceptance vari tremendoly by lotn, wh some statns attractg lns of visors to their events like Madrid Gay Pri, Sao Plo Gay Pri or San Francis Gay Pri, while more than 70 other untri have laws that allow discrimatn or persecutn of LGBTQ+ people.

Gay Pri or rather LGBTQ+ pri events (ed to be more clive), cludg pri paras and ftivals were started major urban centers to improve the visibily, acceptance and legal protectns for LGBTQ+ people livg those muni. In June of 1969, a group of LGBTQ+ people New York Cy rted followg a police raid of the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar loted on Christopher Street Greenwich Village.