Best countries for lgbtq

Here and queer: 12 best LGBTQ-friendly countries to learn abroad in

When considering where to study, LGBTQ students are bound to find different levels of tolerance across the world.

There are many countries that still discriminate and persecute people for their sexual preferences.

But on the radiant side, there are more liberal countries too. In these places, you are free to dress, express, and verb beyond binary codes.

Here, we look at LGBTQ-friendly countries with progressive attitudes and laws towards the community — they provide peace of mind for queer students who yearn to realise their dreams in an accepting environment.

Gay pride events are an expression of autonomy in countries that accept LGBTQ people. Source: David Gray/AFP

The LGBTQ-friendly countries to live your finest student life in

Canada

National diversity is a point of pride in Canada, which has long accepted the LGBTQ community. It enacted anti-discrimination laws for LGBTQ individuals in the mids and legalised same-sex marriage in , which creates a safe space for queer students.

The Univer

Rainbow Map

rainbow map

These are the main findings for the edition of the rainbow map

The Rainbow Map ranks 49 European countries on their respective legal and policy practices for LGBTI people, from %.

The UK has dropped six places in ILGA-Europe’s Rainbow Map, as Hungary and Georgia also register steep falls following anti-LGBTI legislation. The data highlights how rollbacks on LGBTI human rights are part of a broader erosion of democratic protections across Europe. Read more in our press release.

“Moves in the UK, Hungary, Georgia and beyond signal not just isolated regressions, but a coordinated global backlash aimed at erasing LGBTI rights, cynically framed as the defence of tradition or public stability, but in reality designed to entrench discrimination and suppress dissent.”

  • Katrin Hugendubel, Advocacy Director, ILGA-Europe


Malta has sat on top of the ranking for the last 10 years. 

With 85 points, Belgium jumped to second place after adopting policies tackling hatred based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics. 

1. Mexico

Of the 65 countries I’ve visited so far, Mexico is my favorite place to be queer. I’ve never spent time in a place where queer culture felt so ingrained in my everyday life (maybe with the exception of my home country of the UK) and in my personal experience, it seemed to be one of the most gay-friendly countries in the world.

I felt like I could be my proudest, most bold queer self while in Mexico, and that's why I’m attractive certain I’ll close up back there one day.

From a legal perspective, there are strong anti-discrimination laws in place to protect queer residents from verb crimes, and transgender rights are also pretty progressive. Non-binary gender identity is recognized (gender reassignment surgery isn't required to legally verb gender), gender-affirming protect is legal, and the government chose to ban conversion therapy back in   

I’ve spent a couple of years living on and off in Mexico and have based myself in a few different cities, so I’m sharing my top three spots:

Mexico City for the Huge Gay Pride Parade

Mexico Metropolis (CDMX) is dwelling to one

The Mediterranean archipelago named Europe’s most LGBTQ+-friendly country

From safety and discrimination laws to policies around gender recognition, a lot more goes into making a country queer-friendly than an annual Pride festival. Back for its seventeenth year, ’s edition of the Rainbow Map looks into all these factors and more to name Europe’s most (and least) LGBTQ+-friendly countries.

The map, which is an annual project run by LGBTI organisation ILGA-Europe, ranks 49 European countries on their legal and policy practices for LGBTQ+ people on a scale from percent. 

The categories assessed include equality and non-discrimination, family, hate crime and hate speech, legal gender recognition, intersex bodily integrity, civil society space and asylum.  

And, topping the list as the most LGBTQ+-friendly state in Europe for no less than the tenth consecutive year, is the sunny archipelago of Malta. It scored a solid percent in total, ranking perfectly in the ‘hate crime and speech’, ‘legal gender recogniti