Asia does not perform well as gay-friendly destinations

BERLIN- evaluates how gay-friendly a destination can be. The Spartacus International Gay Travel Index rates all of the Spartacus destinations listed in the Spartacus International Gay Guide according to the laws and local customs of each country, evaluating how gay-friendly are destinations. Spartacus lists 14 categories ranging from gay-marriage to death penalty for homosexuals. The countries are colour-coded with dark green being the most liberal and gay-friendly countries down to red for the most dangerous countries for homosexuals to visit and live in. 
 

This classification is then strongly linked to political evolution with points being given on a scale ranging from -5 to +3. Death penalty for gay behaviour for example –such as in Iran or in  the UAE generating a minus 5 while discriminating laws or murders against gays are evaluate at minus 2. 
 

The ranking has then little to do with the true welcome of locals to gay travellers. Asia performs however badly in most cases as the civil society –represented by governments and political parties- is at best totally indifferent and/or ignorant of gay/lesbian issues. This is for example the case in Thailand, the Philippines, Japan or Cambodia. These countries can be considered as Gay-friendly but nothing has been done to elevate the social status of their LGBT population.
 

Other countries such as Malaysia or the Maldives are more repressive with anti-gay laws and prosecution being eventually implemented. The reality when touring those Asian countries is however different. There is of course little hostility from locals in Asia. Thailand is one of the most tolerant countries towards LGBT communities and so are the Philippines, Cambodia and even Indonesia or most Malaysians… In China or in Vietnam, there is no real hostility from the communist authorities as being gay is not considered as a real threat to their political dominance.  Meanwhile in Asia, Spartacus ranks Thailand, Cambodia and China/Hong Kong among the gay-friendliest destinations based on their political and civil statements versus LGBT.
 

Spartacus Gay Travel Index however wants to bring awareness to LGBT travellers and of course discouraging them to visit Gay-hostile countries. Maybe some countries might not care that much about LGBT travellers –this is the case of Vladimir Poutin’s Russia-. The International Gay and Lesbian Gay Travel Association –IGLTA- puts conservatively the total number of gay travellers at 50 million… This is not such a negligible number. Countries such as Taiwan and now Nepal and Myanmar acknowledge it! 

 

TABLE – How do Asia Pacific countries rank in Spartacus Gay Travel index? 

Country	Total	Homosexuality Illegal	HIV Travel restrictions	Anti-gay laws	Prosecution	Locals hostile	Death Penalty
Sweden	9	0	0	0	0	0	0
Belgium/France/Netherlands/UK	8	0	0	0	0	0	0
New Zealand	6	0	0	0	0	0	0
Australia	3	0	-2	0	0	0	0
French Polynesia	3	0	0	0	0	0	0
New Caledonia	2	0	0	0	0	0	0
Thailand	2	0	0	0	0	0	0
Cambodia	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Hong Kong/China	0	0	0	0	0	-1	0
Philippines	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Vietnam	0	0	0	0	0	-1	0
Japan	0	0	0	0	0	-1	0
Laos	0	0	0	0	0	-1	0
Taiwan	-1	0	-2	0	0	0	0
Mongolia	-2	0	0	0	0	-1	0
South Korea	-3	0	-2	0	0	-1	0
Nepal	-3	0	0	-1	-1	-1	0
Sri Lanka	-3	-1	-1	-1	0	-1	0
India	-4	-1	-1	0	0	-1	0
Indonesia	-4	0	0	-1	-2	-1	0
Myanmar	-4	-1	0	-1	-2	-1	0
Singapore	-4	-1	-3	-1	0	0	0
Pakistan	-5	-1	0	-1	-1	-1	0
Maldives	-7	-1	0	-1	-1	-2	0
Malaysia	-8	-1	-1	-2	-2	-1	0

(Source: Spartacus Gay Travel Index 2014)