My 2023 excursions for Pink Ticket Travel did not get off to the most auspicious start. While on assignment to write about Birmingham, United Kingdom, my cellphone fell out of my jacket pocket and onto the backseat of an Uber. The driver was the opposite of helpful; several days later, I had to continue on to London, the next stop on my U.K. itinerary, before he even acknowledged having my phone.
Getting it back was like something out of a classic caper movie: a rep from the West Midlands tourism promotion agency agreed to pick the phone up at the Uber depot in Birmingham the moment it opened, then hurry it to another Canadian travel writer who coincidentally was in the U.K. at the same time as me, just before she caught a train south. My colleague took my phone with her to Stratford-Upon-Avon, where she saw some Shakespeare, before taking another train to London where she found me anxiously waiting in her hotel lobby. “Do you have the package?” I asked her, pretending to be a Cold War spy.
Summer trips to Yucatán, Mexico, and Medellín, Colombia, did not involve as much in terms of logistics, but travel always requires some sort of problem-solving. Ideally, of course, the problem to be solved is, “What do I want to order for dinner?” or “Do I want to enjoy this cocktail in the pool or in a lounge chair by the pool?”
But looking back at queer travel in 2023, it was much more complicated than that. For example, what to do about the anti-LGBTQ2S+ backlash happening in several parts of the United States? Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, passed in May, was the most extreme, but the American Civil Liberties Union has been tracking nearly 500 anti-LGBTQ2S+ bills, including bans or restrictions on drag performances. So Florida is to be avoided? Setting such political nonsense aside, destinations like Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Orlando remain some of the most gay-friendly destinations you’ll ever find. Is there a way to boycott Florida governor Ron DeSantis while still throwing heaps of cash at, say, the queens at Orlando’s Southern Nights nightclub? Is there a way for travellers to stay inside the pro-queer bubbles of these destinations without putting themselves at risk getting to and from them? Knowing your own risk tolerance and ethics is the best gauge of whether Florida is the place for you right now.
Meanwhile, Uganda’s horrifying new anti-gay law was passed in May, and in December Russian police started raiding gay bars after the country’s supreme court banned—it seems ridiculous to write this—“the international LGBTQ movement.”
Yet this hatefulness comes at a time when attitudes toward LGBTQ+ people are warming in many parts of the world, including traditionally cooler regions like Asia, South America and the Caribbean. For example, in the last two years, Chile, Mexico, Cuba, Andorra, Slovenia and Nepal joined the equal marriage club; Estonia will be doing so Jan. 1, 2024. Though marriage laws are not necessarily relevant to most travellers, they do indicate where a government’s head is at, and governments often trail behind public opinion when it comes to the acceptance of queer people. They’re an attitudinal indicator, even if you think marriage sucks.
What are travellers to think about all this? Though there are places that go out of their way to mistreat their local LGBTQ+ communities, and to discourage queer visitors, there are many, many more places that have become more relaxed, even welcoming. With Pink Ticket Travel, I’ve been trying to take notice of these positive trends, to add emerging destinations into a mix that’s often dominated by North America and Europe. In a decade of visiting Colombia, for example, I have been astonished by how much more open people are about LGBTQ+ life—the country always had great nightlife, but everything’s become much less underground. We want to be open-minded, to provide you with the information you need to make your own decisions.
Part of my job is finding images we can use to illustrate our stories, often getting them from local tourism authorities, some of them government-run. I’ve been shocked by how many these days, including Salt Lake City, Utah, and my own home province of Prince Edward Island, now include LGBTQ2S+-themed images in their media libraries. A few years ago, I’d have expected that from places like San Francisco, but more and more places are taking an active role in wooing us into visiting. There’s less “we’re nice to everybody” and more “we see you as you are and value you.”
That overtness is important—it gives travellers the confidence that if, heaven forbid, something should go wrong during a trip, those around them will be on their side.
No destination can guarantee a good time, or promise you that you won’t be frustrated or scared. Bad things can happen in great places. But hotels, airlines, restaurants and destination marketing organizations have become much more savvy about what LGBTQ2S+ travellers need to feel comfortable. Though the results can sometimes be clumsy, intentions are half the battle.
In 2024, will some asshole politician somewhere do something that will freak you out? Oh yeah. But will many more organizations, businesses and individuals put forth an effort to make you feel at home? Oh yeah. In 2024, we’ll be hard at work sorting through it all for you, so that the decisions you get to make are the fun ones.
