Travelling As A Lesbian Where Homosexuality Is Illegal

As travel content creators, most people in our industry dream of visiting every country in the world. However, as LGBTQ+ travel content creators, the reality is that doing so is near impossible.

That’s because more than 65 countries (more than 30% of the world) still criminalise LGBTQ+ in some form. On the extreme end, that’s with a maximum punishment of death by stoning while the less extreme is anything from one year to life imprisonment.

With all that in mind, a couple of friends recently came to me and asked “would you visit somewhere where being gay was illegal?” Surprisingly it’s a question I’d never been asked or thought of before, but one that played on my mind for the days and weeks to come.

Visiting A Country Where LGBTQ+ Is Illegal

To be honest, I naively had never researched in-depth the laws around LGBTQ+ rights in countries extensively up until this point. As such, my gut response to the question was a rather disappointing “it depends”.

Although post my extensive research and having posed the same question to the LGBTQ+ community, my answer remains much the same.

As a more masculine lesbian with short hair who occasionally gets confused for a male even here in the UK my experience travelling to any of these countries or in fact countries where LGBTQ+ is legal, is very different compared to that of my significantly more feminine wife.

Much like I imagine the experience in more progressive countries where tourism is high, yet sadly LGBTQ+ is still criminalised is going to be significantly different to more remote countries.

However, now as parents, we are and continue to be more conscious than ever about where we travel not just for our safety, but for the safety of our child and for that reason, we would never travel to any country where LGBTQ+ is illegal as a family.

Although let’s be realistic here for a second because while I’m not going to be imprisoned here in the UK for being gay, I and likely every member of the LGBTQ+ community still have stories of acts of discrimination which have been placed against them.

So let’s not pretend that it’s simply easy to go ahead and visit every country where LGBTQ+ is legal, and even countries where discrimination against members of the LGBTQ+ community is illegal because that’s simply not the case.

Would The LGBTQ+ Community Visit A Country Where LGBTQ+ Is Illegal?

As I continued to battle with my own answer to this complex question, I asked the LGBTQ+ community on Instagram to try and get a more broadly accurate opinion and found the results to be somewhat surprising.

This poll led to an inbox filled with incredibly deep and meaningful conversations about real-life experiences and opinions from LGBTQ+ people and allies.

Sadly, that poll was on Instagram and has now closed. However, I’ve gone ahead and set up a new poll below so you can continue to have your say – the comments are also open for you to expand on your thoughts.

My Approach To Travelling As A Lesbian

Aside from visiting Egypt with my family aged three, I’ve yet to visit any country where LGBTQ+ is criminalised.

However, so many of my heterosexual friends share their photos and experiences in Morrocco, the Maldives, Jamaica and Sri Lanka to name just a few and I’d be lying if I said, I wasn’t jealous and didn’t want to do the same.

Right now, that situation of actively choosing to visit a destination, and spend money in a destination where LGBTQ+ is criminalised is not one I’ve faced. Although I expect over the next decade, it very much could be.

That being said, not all choices are quite as simple because I have transferred flights in the airports in both Doha, Qatar and Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Personally, I do not count transferring at the airport as visiting a country and while I could have gotten around these precarious transfers, it would mean spending hundreds more on flights and a significantly longer journey and in that case I chose to balance the risks.

Both Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are two countries where that I would personally not visit, do not plan to ever visit and do not feel safe in.

As such I do not leave the airport, I walk with my head down, I don’t draw any attention to myself and get to the next flight as quickly as possible.

Where In The World Is LGBTQ+ Illegal?

Finding the most up-to-date information about LGBTQ+ laws across the world is surprisingly difficult with the vast majority of information either being incorrect or outdated.

This isn’t surprising considering that in the past four months alone there have been at least ten laws changed in regard to LGBTQ+ rights around the world.

I put together the table below (last updated March 2023) using various resources.

However, with an ever-changing landscape, I would always recommend researching any country you’re looking to visit in further detail.

Country	Criminalisation	Maximum Punishment
Afghanistan	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males – Sexual activity between females	Death penalty
Algeria	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males – Sexual activity between females	Three years imprisonment and a fine of 10,000 Dinars
Bangladesh	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males	Life imprisonment
Brunei	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males – Sexual activity between females – Gender expression of trans people	Death by stoning
Burundi	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males – Sexual activity between females	Two years imprisonment and a fine of 100,000 Burundian Francs
Cameroon	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males – Sexual activity between females	Five years imprisonment and a fine of 200,000 West African CFA Francs
Chad	– LGBT people – Sex between men – Sex between women	Two years imprisonment and a fine of 500,000 West African CFA Francs
Comoros	– LGBT people – Sex between men – Sex between women	Five years imprisonment and a fine of 1,000,000 Comorian Francs
Dominica	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males – Sexual activity between females	Twelve years imprisonment
Egypt	– LGBT people – Sex between men	Three years imprisonment and a fine of a 3,000 Lira
Eritrea	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males – Sexual activity between females	Three years imprisonment
Eswatini	– LGBT people – Sex between men	Imprisonment
Ethiopia	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males – Sexual activity between females	One year imprisonment
Gambia	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males – Sexual activity between females – Gender expression of trans people	Life imprisonment
Grenada	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males	Ten years imprisonment
Guinea	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males – Sexual activity between females	Three years imprisonment and a fine of 1,000,000 Guinean Francs
Guyana	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males	Life imprisonment
Indonesia	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males – Sexual activity between females – Gender expression of trans people	Eight years imprisonment and 100 lashes
Iran	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males – Sexual activity between females	Death penalty
Iraq	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males – Sexual activity between females	Six month imprisonment and a fine
Jamaica	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males	Ten years imprisonment with hard labour
Kenya	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males	Fourteen years imprisonment
Kuwait	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males	Seven years imprisonment
Lebanon	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males – Gender expression of trans people	Six years imprisonment
Liberia	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males – Sexual activity between females	One year imprisonment
Libya	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males – Sexual activity between females	Five years imprisonment
Malawi	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males – Sexual activity between females – The gender expression of trans people	Fourteen years imprisonment with corporal punishment
Malaysia	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males – Sexual activity between females – The gender expression of trans people	Twenty years imprisonment and whipping
Mauritania	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males – Sexual activity between females – Imposes the death penalty	Death by stoning
Mauritius	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males	Five years imprisonment
Morocco	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males – Sexual activity between females	Three years imprisonment and a fine of 1,000 Dirhams
Myanmar	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males – The gender expression of trans people	Ten years imprisonment
Namibia	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males	Unclear
Nigeria	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males – Sexual activity between females – The gender expression of trans people – Imposes the death penalty	Death by stoning
Oman	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males – Sexual activity between females – The gender expression of trans people	Three years imprisonment
Pakistan	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males – Imposes the death penalty	Death by stoning
Palestine	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males	Ten years imprisonment
Papua New Guinea	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males	Fourteen years imprisonment
Qatar	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males – Sexual activity between females – Imposes the death penalty	Death by stoning
Saint Lucia	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males – Sexual activity between females	Ten years imprisonment
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males – Sexual activity between females	Ten years imprisonment
Saudi Arabia	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males – Sexual activity between females – The gender expression of trans people – Imposes the death penalty	Death penalty
Senegal	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males – Sexual activity between females	Five years imprisonment and a fine of 1,500,000 West African CFA Francs
Sierra Leone	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males	Life imprisonment
Solomon Islands	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males – Sexual activity between females	Fourteen years imprisonment
Somalia	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males – Sexual activity between females – Imposes the death penalty	Death penalty
Sri Lanka	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males – Sexual activity between females – The gender expression of trans people	Ten years imprisonment and a fine
South Sudan	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males – The gender expression of trans people	Fourteen years imprisonment and a fine
Sudan	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males – Sexual activity between females	Life imprisonment
Syria	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males – Sexual activity between females	Three years imprisonment
Tanzania	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males – Sexual activity between females	Life imprisonment
Tunisia	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males – Sexual activity between females	Three years imprisonment
Turkmenistan	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males	Two years imprisonment
Uganda	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males – Sexual activity between females	Life imprisonment
United Arab Emirates	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males – Sexual activity between females – The gender expression of trans people – Imposes the death penalty	Death penalty
Uzbekistan	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males	Three years imprisonment
Yemen	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males – Sexual activity between females – Imposes the death penalty	Death penalty
Zambia	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males – Sexual activity between females	Life imprisonment
Zimbabwe	– LGBT people – Sexual activity between males	One year imprisonment and a fine

Source: Human Dignity Trust & Equaldex

Ref 1. Same-sex sexual activity is prohibited explicitly in two provinces of Indonesia: Aceh, a conservative Muslim province which practices Shariah law, and South Sumatra, a Muslim-majority, but less conservative, province.