20 Safest Countries For LGBTQIA+ Travelers

Last year we shared the Top 10 LGBTQIA+ friendly destinations for 2022 from Catalyst.org. They make available a whole area on their website that is focused on resources for supporting employees that are part of the LGBTQ+ community. Webinars, recordings, research, white papers and case studies are all sitting their to help provide direction, awareness and promote action.

While I have not seen a new update from them yet on destinations, I did find a brand new report shared by Forbes from journalists Lyric and Asher Fergusson—who run a travel site dedicated to safety. Their new report called “The 203 Worst (& Safest) Countries for LGBTQ+ Travel in 2023,” takes a close look at the state of travel around the world. Along with the data, the team reviewed all countries’ individual laws to create an LGBTQ+ Travel Safety Index that reflects the most current information in an ever-changing world. Their index was created using 10 factors related to LGBTQ+ safety which were:

• legalized same sex marriage
• worker protections
• protections against discrimination
• criminalization of violence
• adoption recognition
• is it a good place to live
• transgender legal identity laws
• trans murder rates
• illegal same-sex relationships
• propaganda/morality laws

There were 131 countries that received a failing grade of "F" (least safe). These countries scored between -200 to 0. These would be considered much more dangerous locations to travel to for employees that identify as LGBTQ+.

The top 10 worst rated were:

1. Brunei
2. Saudi Arabia
3. Nigeria
4. Kuwait
5. Malawi
6. Guyana
7. UAE
8. Malaysia
9. Sudan
10. Libya

At the other end of the spectrum, there were 24 countries that received a grade of "A" (most safe). These countries scored between 383 and 299. 

Here are the Top 10 safest locations to travel to:

1. Canada
2. Sweden
3. Netherlands
4. Malta
5. Norway
6. Portugal
7. Spain
8. Denmark
9. Belgium
10. United Kingdom

The United States came in at #25 with a B+ grade.

For mobility managers, this is a great resource to review and consider as you send employees across the globe. As an example, sending LGBTQ+ employees to Central and South America may warrant increase concerns based on this data. Per the authors, "Countries like Armenia (at 4%), Kyrgyzstan (7%), and Mongolia (17%) all may be bad places to go as well, despite not having any formal anti-LGBTQ+ legislation that could harm travelers".