Iceland joins the world’s most LGBTQIA+ friendly travel destinations for the first time, according to the Spartacus Gay Travel Index 2025. The gay travel guide keeps a close watch on Eastern Europe and the United States of America. Belgium ranks now 12th.

The updated Spartacus Gay Travel Index, provides an overview of the situation for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, asexual, and queer individuals (LGBTQIA+) in a total of 216 countries and regions. 

While Malta, Canada, Portugal and Spain have retained their top positions from 2024, Iceland has now also reached the top ranking. 

While countries like Greece, Thailand, and Curaçao have significantly improved their rankings, the United States and the Republic of Georgia have fallen behind. 

New leaderboard

In 2025, Canada, Malta, Spain, Portugal, and, for the first time, Iceland lead the ranking. Close behind are Germany and New Zealand, sharing sixth place, followed by Australia, Norway, Uruguay and Switzerland, which all rank eighth.

Belgium now shares 12th place, up from 21st in 2024, with Denmark and Chile. 

Greece, Thailand, and Curaçao among the rising nations

With the adoption of a law introducing marriage equality in 2024, Greece, Thailand, and Curaçao have significantly improved their rankings. Greece jumps from 38th place in 2024 to 15th place. 

Thailand, the first Southeast Asian country to grant same-sex partnerships equal status to heterosexual marriage, climbs from 54th to 41st place. Curaçao now ranks 58th, compared to 70th in 2024.

Declining nations and bottom rankings: Georgia, USA, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Iran, and Saudi Arabia

Georgia, struggling with massive Russian influence, has plummeted from 109th to 162nd place due to anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. 

Another notable drop: the United States. The new administration under President Donald J. Trump (Republicans) has already begun severely restricting transgender rights at the national level. As a result, the USA has fallen from 41st to 48th place. 

At the bottom of the ranking, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Iran and Saudi Arabia continue to share last place at rank 210, just as they did in 2023.

Under observation: Eastern Europe and the USA

For 2025, several European countries, including Moldova, Georgia, and Slovakia as well as the United States remain under close observation. 

Many decisions made by the new US administration are currently being challenged in court. 

At the same time, several states have introduced new anti-trans laws, including South Carolina, Ohio, Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas. In the separate index ranking US states, New York takes the top spot, followed by California in second place, with Nevada, Oregon and the state of Washington tied for third. 

At the bottom of the ranking are Alabama, Arkansas, South Carolina, Montana, and Oklahoma which sits at 51st place.

Culture war

“The legal situation for queer people varies widely within the 50 federal US states. We have therefore decided in 2020 to publish the USA Index again and to examine each state individually”, Spartacus says. 

“For fifteen years now, a culture war over liberality has been intensifying in the USA. What began with anti-trans laws and campaigns culminated in tough censorship since Trumps first administration: In schools in more and more (Republican-governed) states in particular, it is forbidden to teach or even talk about sexual orientation or genderidentity. We have therefore added the censorship rating category.”

“The hate crime laws, gay and trans* panic defense and queer infrastructure categories are tailored specifically for the USA. This is where differences between the individual countries manifest themselves. With queer infrastructure we have in addition to the category of LGBTQIA+marketing created a balance to the presentation of the legal situation.”

“Here we‘ve taken a look at which states have more than one city with prides, queer establishments, and other events. This may put small states at a disadvantage, but it makes sense that even states with regressive and anti-queer legislation can have cities with great queer diversity and offerings.”

“Under the hostility heading, we mainly counted murders of members of the LGBTQIA+ community in the last year. Other physical or verbal assaults were weighted when the final score was inconclusive based on the number of murders. Incidents in which people were offended or being physically attacked is almost everywhere. This can also happen in states that have not received any negative points.”

Gay Travel Index

Spartacus is publishing the Gay Travel Index since 2012. There are still many places in the world where LGBTQIA+ travellers and citizens must fear for their happiness and safety. Due to the sometimes wide differences in the world, it can happen that holidaymakers endanger themselves simply by unwise behaviour. 

“In order to support the safety of gay tourists worldwide, we publish the Gay Travel Index. It serves as a first guideline – you can find more detailed information about your travel destinations on our website and blog”, Spartacus says.

“The index attempts at finding a balance between measuring the rights of the local LGBT community and considering the demands of queer holidaymakers. Our aim is to monitor the safety of queer people in each country and also increase the awareness on grievances. We are convinced that there are holidaymakers who choose countries where the queer community is an accepted and beloved part of society.” 

“But there are also holidaymakers who consciously want to travel to a country in order to enter into a dialogue with the oppressed local queer community. The index is intended to provide either type of holidaymaker with trustworthy and valid information.”

The index has become more and more diverse and queer in the past years. Over the years, Spartacus has added new categories to the index to match with a broader diversity of the queer community. 

Rating system

When creating the index, the focus is on political decisions affecting the queer community, legal changes or acts of violence and prohibitions. Positive developments in the respective countries count as plus points, negative ones as minus points. 

Categories include among others: marriage equality and anti-discrimination laws, sodomy laws, pride parade bans and hate crimes. Political developments such as marriage equality might at first only affect the LGBT community of the respective country. But every step towards equality is a step forward towards social acceptance and has therefore a direct impact on holidaymakers.

The categories have different levels. If a category has three levels, a maximum of three points can be awarded.

The only exception is the death penalty: A country gets one minus point if the death penalty for homosexual acts is anchored in the law but not executed. If the death penalty is still executed, the country gets five minus points. This ensures these countries rank at the bottom of the list.

LGBTQIA+ and travel

• Hungary to ban Budapest Pride and doing so limits freedom of assembly.
• 2025 | 65 countries where gay sex is illegal.
• ILGA-EUROPE | New era of coordinated attacks on foundations of Fundamental Rights, as EU bins Equal Treatment Directive.
• GRINDR UNWRAPPED 2024 | Belgium and the Netherlands still love twinks.
• The best cities to visit as a gay solo traveller.
• EUROPEAN UNION | Pride events do raise awareness for LGBTQIA+.
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• Mr Gay Europe 2026 contest to cruise with VACAYA at summer’s end.
• How gay friendly are trending travel destinations Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina with Republika Srpska, Georgia, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine?.
• ILGA WORLD | Despite more legal protections for LGBTI people, stark opposition has been a recurring theme in debates in every UN member State.
• RAINBOW EUROPE MAP AND INDEX 2024 | These are the LGBTQIA+ friendly and LGBTQIA+ unfriendly countries in Europe.
• Spartacus Travel Awards pinpoint Brussels and Taiwan as top LGBTQIA+ destinations.
• SPARTACUS GAY TRAVEL INDEX 2024 | Malta, Canada, New Zealand, Spain, Portugal the most gay friendly destinations; Belgium now 21st.
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• Queer in a hostile world: more likely to be arrested for looking gay than for actual homosexual acts.
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• HOW TO | Travel to the Eurovision Song Contest.
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• Gay Tel Aviv: pinkwashing or genuine?.
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• Gay Taipei with misterb&b.
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• Are you travelling to a hostile destination?.