As digital nomads for seven years, the two of us lived in many such countries: Turkey, Georgia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Malaysia. Even in , the governments of these and many other countries are still openly hostile to LGBTQ folks. Should I boycott these countries β as a matter of principle, and also as a way to pressure these countries to change? Boycott my country! And then go home and write and talk about us!
Organized, targeted boycotts can be an effective way of enacting political change. That said, countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Uganda, and Jamaica are so homophobic that even the two of us hesitate to visit, organized boycott or not. The most homophobic places on Earth are Muslim-majority countries, sub-Saharan Africa, and a few countries in the Caribbean. This is one way that governments usually do represent the will of their people.
In our experience β and to our great surprise β the answer is usually yes. As a result, no matter how homophobic locals may be, they have a very strong financial interest in keeping any anti-gay feelings to themselves. Plus, many of these same countries place a strong emphasis on politeness and friendliness. Muslims are deservedly famous for their hospitality. Why else would two middle-aged men be traveling together? Discrimination is widespread, and activists are harassed and arrested.
We attended Pride in one homophobic country, and the whole event was teargassed by the police. We said before that homophobic countries usually only apply their mores and strictures to their citizens, not to tourists. But sometimes tourists can fall victim too. An acquaintance was gay-bashed outside a bar in Tbilisi, Georgia, and other LGBTQ tourists have made international headlines by being arrested or expelled from certain countries.
And this brings up a good point: if something bad happens in a homophobic country, will the authorities take our side? Or will they side with the harassers β or, worse, might the authorities be the ones doing the harassing in the first place? In any event, before traveling to potentially unfriendly places, the two of us always do our due diligence.
