Victory So Swede
Sweden tops the Spartacus International Gay Travel Index

Leaping lingonberries! Berlin-based Spartacus International Gay Guide has published its index of the most LGBT-friendly destinations in the world, and Scandinavian queer darling Sweden has topped the list, scoring the highest possible cumulative score in the index’s 15 categories.

The categories range from the very positive ways (anti-discrimination legislation, marketing to the LGBT community) to the very negative (hostility by locals, death sentences) that a nation can prove (or not) its gay friendliness.

Belgium and the Netherlands tied for second on the Spartacus list, each just scoring just a point less than Sweden on the scale. Iceland and Canada then tied for fourth.

So where’s the good ol’ USA in all of this? Tied with seven other nations for—ready for this?—36th place. Countries scoring the same as America include Bulgaria, Cambodia, and Croatia.

It could be much worse: At the bottom of the list in 126th place is Iran, just beating out the United Arab Emirates and Jamaica for the least gay-friendly land on earth.

But lest you think they don’t love us, Spartacus also produced a special state-by-state Gay Travel Index USA. Tied for number 1 there are New York and Massachusetts, followed by most of the rest of New England — Vermont, New Hampshire and Connecticut — tied for number 3.

Bottoming that list? A two-way tie between North Carolina and Alabama.

Photo by JSolomon