Spartacus Gay Travel Index (GTI)

Spartacus is publishing the Gay Travel Index since 2012. Every year, we take a close look at 202 countries and regions. There are still many places in the world where LGBT must fear for their happiness and safety. Due to the sometimes wide differences in the world, it can happen that holidaymakers endanger themselves simply by unwise behaviour. In order to support the safety of gay tourists worldwide, we publish the Gay Travel Index. It serves as a first guideline – you can find more detailed information about your travel destinations on our website and blog.

The annually updated SPARTACUS Gay Travel Index informs travellers about the situation of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender (LGBT) in a total of 202 countries and regions. The US-Index provides information about each of the 50 federal states of the US.

The index attempts at finding a balance between measuring the rights of the local LGBT community and considering the demands of queer holidaymakers. Our aim is to monitor the safety of queer people in each country and also increase the awareness on grievances. We are convinced that there are holidaymakers who choose countries where the queer community is an accepted and beloved part of society. But there are also holidaymakers who consciously want to travel to a country in order to enter into a dialogue with the oppressed local queer community. The index is intended to provide either type of holidaymaker with trustworthy and valid information.

The index has become more and more diverse and queer in the past years. In 2020 we have added new categories to the index to match with a broader diversity of the queer community. Thus, the rights of intersexuals or to a third gender option on legal documents are indexed, as is the welcome fact that conversion procedures are being banned by more and more countries. A specific new category for queer travellers is that of gay marketing, indicating how and if gay travel is promoted per country. It can also be considered an indicator of acceptance of queer people by the local society.

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Rating system

When creating the index, our focus is on political decisions affecting the queer community, legal changes or acts of violence and prohibitions. Positive developments in the respective countries count as plus points, negative ones as minus points. Categories include among others: marriage equality and anti-discrimination laws, sodomy laws, pride parade bans and hate crimes. Political developments such as marriage equality might at first only affect the LGBT community of the respective country. But every step towards equality is a step forward towards social acceptance and has therefore a direct impact on holidaymakers.

The categories have different levels. If a category has three levels, a maximum of three points can be awarded.
The only exception is the death penalty: A country gets one minus point if the death penalty for homosexual acts is anchored in the law but not executed. If the death penalty is still executed, the country gets five minus points. This ensures these countries rank at the bottom of the list.

Gay Travel Index USA

The legal situation for queer people varies greatly in the 50 US states. In the Gay Travel Index USA we therefore take a close look at the individual states. In doing so, we were able to adapt the categories specifically to the country and guarantee a closer look. We wanted to explicitly highlight the differences between the individual states.

In 2020, we removed some categories, for example marriage equality and HIV travel restrictions, because these are federal laws and all states would receive the same score. Instead, we have added new categories tailored to the USA, which emphasize the differences between the states: Hate crime laws, gay and trans panic defense, anti-discrimination legislation and queer infrastructure.

This way, we hope to create a detailed overview so that queer travelers know what to expect in each state.

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