Best Country/City for GLBT Community? (house, live in, legal)

[Lior Arel]

I haven't travelled much, but this came up at my house the other night (I'm gay and my roomate is lesbian). She's from England (outside Birmingham) and I'm from the state of Maine in the USA. I now live in Tampa, FL.

What countries or cities do you find the most accepting? Have the best GLBT community? The most equality/civil rights? Just thought it might be a good topic. On my research, it seems that Spain is head and shoulders above the rest of the world with Sweeden pretty much on par with Spain.

[emjbulls]

Holland is great. Exact same rights for gay couples as straight couples. My husband's aunt is a lesbian in a small, rural town and has never had a problem there or anywhere else in the country.

[gv0928]

This is an interesting question.

What about on a USA perspective? What are the most gay-friendly cities?

[neptune]

Netherlands for sure, even their conservatives support gay rights. They recently almost had an openly gay prime minister but he was assassinated (of course). I'd easily put Spain on top of Sweden though, don't forget Denmark and Belgium.

[neptune]

Originally Posted by gv0928

This is an interesting question.

What about on a USA perspective? What are the most gay-friendly cities?

According to The Gay & Lesbian Atlas major cities with the highest percentage of gay/lesbian couples are:

1. San Francisco
2. Oakland
3. Seattle
4. Ft Lauderdale
5. Austin
6. NYC
7. LA
8. Albuquerque
9. Atlanta
10. Jersey City

It's a great book, tons of info from big cities to small ones, and interesting differences like Corvalis Oregon ranks #9 with lesbians and #322 for gay men.

[OREGONRAIN]

They may be considered gay friendly cities, but as long as they are in a country that is as divided as the USA is on so many issues. Well all I can say is this, as long as politicians and religious groups uses this segment of the population in the campaign and election process in such a cruel way to gain votes, then no place that is in the USA could be considered gay friendly when compared to some other nations. Its a nice thought to list a number of USA cities and those listed are more gay friendly than so many that are not, but again they are in a country that is very cruel to gays, and those cities have to obey USA laws and attitudes in the long run. I would go with the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and a host of others. I would have added Boston to the list also.

[Atticman]

Well, gay marriage is legal in Canada, and Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver are all about as gay friendly as a city can get.

[DawnW]

I would agree with the Holland idea. Amsterdam is the most liberal city I have ever been to.

Dawn

[gv0928]

What about Buenos Aires? How are they?

[dullnboring]

Civil unions are legal in Buenos Aires and support for gay marriage by Buenos Aires residents was recently found to be as high as 75%, so I'd say it ranks pretty highly so far as gay acceptance is concerned.

For countries as a whole though, gay marriage is currently legal in the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, Spain and South Africa. Public support for gay marriage is also very high in much of western Europe and it's predicted that both Sweden and Denmark will legalize gay marriage fairly soon. Both of them currently permit civil unions, as does most of Europe.