Gay Travel - Is It Any Different To Straight Travel?!

Gay Travel, travelling when gay - whatever you want to call it's a bit like gay marriage. We call ourselves married not gay married and we travel not gay travel, but anyway there is a distinction in some peoples minds. When travelling to certain places our relationship, our behaviour could get us into a difficult situation. We have to be aware of that. 

LA is super LGBT+ friendly

Virgin Holidays together with Attitude and OnePoll surveyed 1000 LGBT+ people and 1000 straight people  in August 2017 and September 2017 and we wanted to share some of their findings.

As a gay couple who frequently travel, acceptance in other countries is important to us. When we are on holiday we want to relax, be ourselves and enjoy what the destination has to offer. What we don't want to do is change our behaviour or try to hide our relationship.

The survey results were sent to us with the headline 'LGBT+ TRAVELLERS ADMIT TO GOING BACK INTO THE CLOSET – CITING CONCERNS ON DISCRIMINATION' - it got our attention.

Virgin Holidays have also put together this video entitled 'What if we treated straight couples like we treated gay couples on holiday? We thought it was brilliant.

In addition to the video Virgin Holidays have a page on their website dedicated to LGBTQ+ travel called 'lose the labels' - find it here. It is part of Virgin Holidays three year plan to become one of the friendliest LGBT companies in travel. The focus includes 'empowering staff, educating customers and influencing suppliers. This year the tour operator has focused on using its influence to advance LGBT+ equality in conservative regions such as the Caribbean.'

Sir Richard Branson said: “At Virgin Holidays, we believe everyone, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, has the right to be whoever they are, wherever they are.  That’s why it is shocking that in today’s society some of us can’t even enjoy a simple holiday without fear of discrimination. It’s fantastic that Virgin Holidays are raising awareness around this important issue.”

And so to the stats:

• One in three LGBT+ travelers have experienced discrimination – including judgement and ridicule
• This includes being stared at (58%) or laughed at (35%) and a third (29%) had been verbally abused
• One in ten LGBT+ travelers have been threatened with physical violence on holiday
• Two thirds of LGBT+ travelers even feel uncomfortable with everyday activities such as applying sunscreen to their partner’s back

Based on these figures Laura and I have been lucky. We have had attention when holding hands but mainly from young men asking to 'join in' - although I'm not sure walking down the street holding hands is something they actually want to do :D

Not our best pic!

The only country we have ever felt being gay was an issue was Russia. Our post on the trip is here. While nothing was said, or nothing we understood was said,we were given a room with two single beds despite booking a double and every night we pushed them together only for them to be separated every day.

Turns out that we aren't alone, in the survey results showed: 'hoteliers played a big role in the issue with a third of LGBT travelers saying they feared judgement from hotel staff and more than half have had their relationship status questioned, including being offered single hotel rooms and having their beds separated by housekeeping staff.'

While unsurprising in some cases the stats were also downright sad:

• Eight out of ten couples refusing to hold hands on holiday at all, with more than half refusing to hold hands in the comfort and safety of their hotel
• LGBT+ couples said the discrimination was evident in tourists from around the world (40%) with one in four saying they had been discriminated by other British holidaymakers

I can't imagine not holding Laura's hand and to receive discrimination from a fellow Brit would be dreadful.

Venice Beach where being open and proud was accepted

And here's one final stat: It’s not surprising that 84% of straight couples are at ease showing affection to a partner abroad, in fact, the majority being even more affectionate that when at home. This stands in stark contrast to LGBT+ travelers, with only one in twenty showing open affection with a loved one whilst abroad.

We fall into being the 1 in 20 - maybe we have been lucky with the destinations we have chosen or the fact that we have avoided situations where other have felt the need to couple but I love my wife and showing her that, anywhere any time is something I never want to change.

In Toronto Love is Love

In New York we had a gay state of mind

It was 2012 when we first wrote about the fact that when travelling abroad it's always worth sense checking local laws and the current stand on LGBT rights and sadly things haven't changed a lot in the 10 countries we featured - and it doesn't include Russia where things have taken a step back. The post was here.

Egypt is still on the non-LGBT+ friendly list

Have you ever experienced any discrimination while abroad?

Happy and safe travels wherever you do go!