A romantic island getaway in the Maldives. A safari in Kenya. A visit to the pyramids in Egypt.
Scratching those countries off the list of possible destinations shrinks the globe dramatically: parts of Asia, more than half of African countries, and practically the entire Middle East — with the exceptions of Israel and Jordan — become off-limits. “I’ve never had an issue. I haven’t heard of anyone having issues,” said Bryan Herb, co-founder of Zoom Vacations, which operates small tours in countries such as Kenya, the Maldives, and Morocco, all places where gay sex can bring prison terms.
“I have recently had a flight canceled and they were rerouting me through a very hostile country for LGBTQ folks, and I was going to be laid over there for nine hours,” said Jay Brown, a senior executive for the Human Rights Campaign, who is transgender. He asked not to name the country for fear it could hurt working relationships with advocates in the region. “If I had a health care emergency in that country, I don’t know what would happen to me,” he said.
The tourism industry is a top contributor to Kenya’s gross domestic product and accounts for more than half a million jobs in Morocco. Hospitality also drives the economy in the Maldives, where three local men recently received prison sentences for having homosexual relations, while dozens more have been investigated.
He said that years ago, when he first started taking gay Americans abroad, it wasn’t uncommon for his inquiries to suppliers to go unanswered. Now, he receives emails daily courting his business, some from unexpected places. The Tanzania Tourist Board, as well as the tourism agencies of the other countries discussed in this article, did not reply to requests for comment.Kerwin of the Bureau of Consular Affairs said prospective travelers should go beyond the State Department travel advisories and read the agency’s yearly human rights report, which includes detailed information on the situation of LGBTQ rights for each country.
The page for Out Adventures’ tour to Egypt, including a Nile River cruise and snorkeling in the Red Sea starting at $5,495 per traveler, explains that “gay dating apps should be avoided” and discourages clients from trying to participate in the “underground gay scene” of the larger cities.
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