Travelicious

Sweden Tops the World, Orlando Courts the Gay Games, & the U.S. Opens Its Eyes to LGBT Families

Hold on to the railing, kids: Travelicious is back.

In this edition, we pile into the Swedish HomoMobil (above) to check out the Nordic nation’s win on a world gay-friendliness list, head to Orlando to hear about its bid for the 2018 Gay Games, and learn more about a change in U.S. policy that will soon welcome gay families home as one unit.

Click through for more Traveliciousness!

 

Victory So Swede
Sweden tops the Spartacus International Gay Travel Index

Leaping lingonberries! Berlin-based Spartacus International Gay Guide has published its index of the most LGBT-friendly destinations in the world, and Scandinavian queer darling Sweden has topped the list, scoring the highest possible cumulative score in the index’s 15 categories.

The categories range from the very positive ways (anti-discrimination legislation, marketing to the LGBT community) to the very negative (hostility by locals, death sentences) that a nation can prove (or not) its gay friendliness.

Belgium and the Netherlands tied for second on the Spartacus list, each just scoring just a point less than Sweden on the scale. Iceland and Canada then tied for fourth.

So where’s the good ol’ USA in all of this? Tied with seven other nations for—ready for this?—36th place. Countries scoring the same as America include Bulgaria, Cambodia, and Croatia.

It could be much worse: At the bottom of the list in 126th place is Iran, just beating out the United Arab Emirates and Jamaica for the least gay-friendly land on earth.

But lest you think they don’t love us, Spartacus also produced a special state-by-state Gay Travel Index USA. Tied for number 1 there are New York and Massachusetts, followed by most of the rest of New England — Vermont, New Hampshire and Connecticut — tied for number 3.

Bottoming that list? A two-way tie between North Carolina and Alabama.

Photo by JSolomon

 

Magic Queendom?
Orlando bids to host the 2018 Gay Games

The Orlando Sentinal and Outsports are reporting that Orlando, Florida will be among the main bidders for the tenth Gay Games in 2018. The family-holiday capital will compete with at least three other cities—London, Paris, and an as yet unnamed city in Brazil — for the upcoming sportsfest.

The Orlando bid is part of the work of a new LGBT-focused Orlando visitors bureau called Orlando Gay Travel, which seeks to bring more homo holidayers—beyond the very successful but just once-a-year Gay Days at Disneyworld—to the tourism-driven city.

“I think the LGBT community tends to feel that Gay Days is the only gay-friendly event that is happening in Orlando,” Mikael Audebert, executive director Orlando Gay Travel, told the Sentinel.

Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer is all for bidding for the quadrennial gay sports event. “Orlando has created a reputation for fairness, equality, diversity and tolerance, and would be a perfect locale to host this,” he said.

Outsports points out that Orlando may have a tough time in the 2018 running, since the next Gay Games in 2014 are already scheduled for Cleveland. The USA hasn’t hosted back to back games since San Francisco held the first two in 1982 and 1986.

Never mind, says Audebert. “We are going to work with the entire region to make this happen,” he vowed.

Photo by Jeff Kern

 

Local Customs
Welcome back to the USA, you big wonderful gay family, you

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has announced its plans to change the way gay families are viewed when they enter to the United States from abroad —or rather, that it would finally like to start recognizing them as families at all.

Currently, the CBP’s definition of a what constitutes a family is limited to individuals related by blood, marriage, or adoption. This forces LGBT families entering the U.S.—foreigners and Americans alike — to either fill out a separate forms for each adult, or potentially face harsh treatment at the hands of rule-enforcing U.S. immigration officials.

The proposed change would update the CBP definition to include LGBT families, as well as foster children, stepchildren, half-siblings, legal wards, and other dependents.

“[The] CBP does not believe that the current definition encompasses other relationships where members of the public travel together as a family,” the department rather boldly states in its proposal, which must now await a public comment period and further review before actually coming to fruition.

“It’s really an acknowledgement of what’s obvious to most people: that gay families are families, and should be treated as such when they enter the United States,” Rachel B. Tiven, executive director of Immigration Equality, told the Miami Herald‘s Steve Rothaus.

Photo by greenmelinda

 

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