South Africa is the most LGBTQ+ friendly country in Africa

June marks the month of LGBT Pride. Photo: Allison Saeng / unsplash

According to a recent study, South Africa has been deemed the most LGBTQ+ friendly country in all of Africa.

June marks the month of LGBTQ+ Pride. Photo: Allison Saeng / unsplash

LGBTQ+ travellers welcomed in South Africa

As Pride month comes to close, South Africa can take ‘pride’ in knowing that it is considered the best country for LGBTQ+ travellers in Africa. Asher & Lyric, a family and travel journalism blog, recently created a Travel Safety Index which ranked 203 countries with available data, and then carefully examined the LGBTQ+ rights for each of these countries.

According to tourism update, the index is based on ten ranking factors, each referring to the health and wellbeing of LGBTQ+ people.

These factors included whether same-sex marriage was legalised, worker protections, protections against discrimination, criminalisation of violence, adoption recognition, whether it was a good place to live, transgender legal identity laws, trans murder rates, punishments for same-sex relationships, and propaganda/morality laws.

After this research was conducted, South Africa was ranked the safest country in Africa for LGBTQ+ travellers, with an award of a B grade. This grade also placed South Africa as the 21^st safest country in the world on the list.

A Pride march in Durban, South Africa. Photo: Lance Cumming / flickr

Top of the list for safety and LGBTQ+ rights and experiences were Canada in first place, Sweden in second, the Netherlands in third, and Malta and Portugal in fourth and fifth respectively.

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Several African countries didn’t fare as well…

While South Africa did indeed take the top spot, several African countries were unfortunately give F grades. Some of these countries included:

Nigeria,
Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Ghana,
Rwanda,
Liberia,
Burundi,
Eswatini,
the Central African Republic,
Zimbabwe and many more.

ALSO READ: CPT museum celebrates LGBTI+ inclusive Africa Day

Sundeeka Mungroo

Sundeeka Mungroo is a content writer, foodie and all-round adventure-seeker. She's a graduate of the University of South Africa with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature, and has worked as a copywriter and editor in the digital marketing industry. Sundeeka currently writes for I Love South Africa and The South African. She lives in the beautiful Mother City and loves exploring all that South Africa has to offer.