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

Contents:

• NEW LATVIAN PRINT BE FIRST OPENLY GAY EU HEAD OF STATE
• EASTERN EUROPE WAS ONCE A WORLD LEAR ON GAY RIGHTS. THEN RAN OUT OF SPEGOATS
• RKEVICS SWORN AS LATVIAN PRINT, FIRST GAY EU HEAD OF STATE
• GAY EUROPE TRAVEL GUI
• UNBLOCK GAYFORIT
• 9 MOST GAY-FRIENDLY COUNTRI IN EUROPE
• AM I GAY?
• SPREAD OF MULTIDG-RISTANT SHIGELLA EU/EEA AMONG GAY, BISEXUAL AND OTHER MEN WHO HAVE SEX WH MEN

NEW LATVIAN PRINT BE FIRST OPENLY GAY EU HEAD OF STATE

Hungary’s hardle natnalist ernment passed a new law earlier this month banng ntent that “promot” homosexualy and genr change om beg shared wh children, effectively prohibg any discsn of LGBTQ them schools. In dog so, Orbán has followed the playbook of Poland’s ernment, which has been chippg away at the rights of the LGBTQ muny for a number of years, adoptg discrimatory rhetoric and stokg homophobia. “There’s a real regrsn happeng many different untri, and rights that had been regnized are now beg challenged, ” said Evelyne Paradis, the executive director of the European branch of the Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Associatn (ILGA-Europe).

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

“It’s not about homosexuals, ’s about the kids and the parents, ” he told reporters, addg that he was a “eedom fighter” durg Hungary’s munist era.

“You have plac like Germany, France, Spa where 85% or more say that homosexualy should be accepted by society and then once you’re past the dividg le, on the other si of the former Iron Curta, those numbers beg to fall pretty rapidly and then get even lower as you go to Rsia, ” he said. “When you look at the former Eastern bloc, the untri had a long tradn of really progrsive legislatn towards LGBTQ rights, Poland for stance crimalized homosexualy 1932, which is really, really early, ” Kościańska said.

RKEVICS SWORN AS LATVIAN PRINT, FIRST GAY EU HEAD OF STATE

However, lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and tersex (LGBTI) people n face discrimatn many areas of life, for stance when lookg for a job or askg for social secury benefs, at school or when they need healthre. Civil society anisatns help promote posive change and this is why the European Commissn supports European LGBTI anisatns such as ILGA-Europe, part of the Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Associatn, Transgenr Europe and IGLYO.

Europeans have voted for openly gay lears, cludg Luxembourg’s Prime Mister, Xavier Bettel (left), and the Irish Taoiseach (Prime Mister), Leo Varadkar (right). The Bssels headquarters of the European Commissn l wh the rabow flag lours to mark the Internatnal Day agast Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, 17 May 2019.

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. 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.

GAY EUROPE TRAVEL GUI

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”.

UNBLOCK GAYFORIT

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.

9 MOST GAY-FRIENDLY COUNTRI IN EUROPE

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). Fabriz Marrazzo, a spokperson for Gay Centre, a Rome-based associatn, said received about 20, 000 reports of discrimatn agast LGBT people a year, of which about 9% are severe.

Alsandro Zan, a gay polician wh the Democratic party, part of the lg aln, and archect of the draft legislatn, was threatened wh ath by an onle opponent unls he whdrew the bill.

AM I GAY?

Another Sicily who opposed the law said durg a sermon: “If you exprs an opn agast homosexuals, or don’t agree wh two men adoptg a child, you uld end up jail. By the time you fish readg this article, you will already know which is the bt solutn for you to accs GayForIt and other servic om around the globe.

The island Mederranean natn is known for s iendly lols, betiful beach and vibrant gay scene after a ncerted effort to shift attus a untry domated by Roman Catholic were the bt LGBTQ+ statns cid? However, public attus lag behd legislatn wh 84 per cent of the public tellg the World Valu Survey they didn’t thk homosexualy was jtifiable between 2017 - remag Nordic untri, already famo for their high happs rankgs, are also high-ranked for their progrsive polics. However, the Rsian ernment has already drawn ternatnal ire for s ‘Gay Propaganda law’ which, siarly to now-repealed Sectn 28 the UK, bans discsg homosexualy Pri paras are banned Rsia’s major ci and there are also reports of ‘gay-hunters’ attackg gay men the street.

All Pri week activi were banned Istanbul, the untry's largt cy, this has also been claimed that the Turkish ernment told Netflix to remove a gay character om one of their scripts or risk losg their license for filmg the untry. LuxembourgAdolphe Bridge Luxembourg CyNilas Enomou / NurPhoto via Getty Imag fileLuxembourg’s prime mister, Xavier Bettel, is one of only three openly gay heads of ernment the world. In 2019, durg an addrs at the Uned Natns, Bettel lled on world lears to nmn hate speech, sayg, “Homophobia is a personal choice, and we have to fight agast .

SPREAD OF MULTIDG-RISTANT SHIGELLA EU/EEA AMONG GAY, BISEXUAL AND OTHER MEN WHO HAVE SEX WH MEN

Nilas Enomou / NurPhoto via Getty Imag fileA new bridge beg built Belgium’s pal, Bssels, will be named after inic gay rights activist Suzan Daniel, who found the untry’s first LGBTQ associatn, acrdg to The Bssels Tim. The term “homosexualy, ” while sometim nsired anachronistic the current era, is the most applible and easily translatable term to e when askg this qutn across societi and languag and has been ed other cross-natnal studi, cludg the World Valu Survey. Dpe major chang laws and norms surroundg the issue of same-sex marriage and the rights of LGBT people around the world, public opn on the acceptance of homosexualy society remas sharply divid by untry, regn and enomic velopment.