Most Gay Friendly Country

D_Gunther Snotpole

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I'm told Toronto is very kink-friendly. There's a pretty substantial gay population, too.

Definitely, and it's been true for quite a while.
When Edmund White wrote States of Desire: Travels in Gay America (1980), he had positive things to say about Toronto.
I'm not sure things are as good there as they used to be.
In the late 70s, gay life in Toronto seemed really on the ascendent, but the AIDS epidemic knocked things backward for quite a time.
Now, the gay community is just another community, I suspect.
And who knows? Maybe that's maturation as much as anything.

I vote for France, and actually almost anywhere in France. I have a very queeny friend who is a flamboyant ex stripper who lived there for a couple of years. I asked him whether people ever gave him shit for his mannerisms . "Never!" he said. "In France, everybody acts like I do!"

Absolutely.
I lived in France in the early 80s, and only a really low-class dolt would be openly homophobic, and only the most stupid of that number.
The issue never came up.
Never heard anyone ridiculed.

But Amsterdam was the most tolerant place. The Dutch literally didn't give a damn about sexuality. To say someone was gay was like saying someone gardened a lot. A detail you might want to know, for whatever reason, but not because there was any conventional moral judgment attached.

I don't think there's any place in North America quite as tolerant as Europe, unless your looking at small neighbourhoods in the great cities.
 

DiegoID

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Amsterdam - Netherland, it's the most friendly city in the world, not just for gay, but other lifestyles too.

I think The Netherlands, and especially Amsterdam are really gay-friendly, even too gay if you ask me sometimes. (I live here, so I may say it right?)


Ok I've had some really great times in Amsterdam, and I've never gotten any shit there for being gay, but I wouldn't go with "Most friendly city in the world". I routinely got shitty service in Amsterdam (Shitty customer service from a European benchmark). I don't think it had to do with me being gay, but I'm pretty sure that the Amsterdammers are pretty sick of dealing with stoned American tourists. (I learned "Gelukkig Nieuw Jaar"
from the last time I was there, it seemed to make the Dutch happy that I even tried to learn their language, and the customer service improved.)

What makes a place gay friendly anyway?

I'd consider San Diego, CA as very gay friendly, but that didn't stop some loco teenagers from doing a bit of gay bashing after the pride parade/festival last summer. Does that make San Diego a non gay friendly place? (I don't think so, we had about 150,000 attend the gay pride parade.) What about Los Angeles? There's boat-loads of homo's in LA and surrounding areas, but no one's mentioned that city yet. Palm Springs has a Gay mayor, so I'd want to include that place on my list as well. San Fran isn't the "only" place in CA that tolerates gays.

As far as countries I'd imagine that the few places where gay marrage is legal would have the most open minds. Sweden, Netherlands, Spain, Canada come to mind first. Then would be the "Domestic Partnership" places like the UK, US, Mexico.

I guess it is shorter to list the Gay Friendly countries rather than the "Non-Gay Friendly" countries.

Great topic though. Anyone know if the Brazillians are gay tolerant? How about the rest of Central / South America?
 

headbang8

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Ok I've had some really great times in Amsterdam, and I've never gotten any shit there for being gay, but I wouldn't go with "Most friendly city in the world"...

Interesting. I have an ex colleague who moved to Amsterdam for her job. She's an educated American liberal of Mexican parentage, with some lesbian leanings, so you'd think she'd fit into queerly multicultutal Amsterdam just fine.

She's miserable. Why? According to her, it's because with her dark hair and skin, she looks like a Muslim.

Jostled and harassed in the street. Ignored when waiting for service in shops. Trouble renting an apartment. The whole shebang.

Her solution: hang out with gay guys. They, it seems, aren't prejudiced.
 

crescendo69

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I think you would not like it here too much; The University of Tennessee, Knoxville was once listed by a gay publication as one of the ten WORST schools for gays to attend.

But, how is New Orleans doing these days on the gay side? It used to be nice, but I wonder if attitudes have changed since the disaster.
 
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I love Berlin!! It is a very gay city, especially for the hard-core sex scene. Lot's of leather, cages, and fisting going on around here. Even though I'm not in to that stuff, nor am I so hardcore. But I love that it is so open here. Berlin has even it's own Fulsom Street Fair, which originates in San Francisco. There isn´t even a street called Fulsom Street in Berlin, but Berlin has adopted the concept. It's great in this city.