Egypt does not rank as a LGBT+ friendly destination. However, a recent investigation by BBC News has revealed the shocking extent of the police's hunt for LGBT+ individual through dating apps like Grindr.
Although there is no explicit law against homosexuality in Egypt, the BBC investigation has found that the crime of "debauchery" - a sex work law - is being used to criminalise the LGBT community.
Transcripts submitted in police arrest reports show how officers are posing online to seek out - and in some cases allegedly fabricate evidence against - LGBT people looking for dates online. They reveal how the police initiate text conversations with their targets, then pressure the app user to meet up in person - at which point they proceed to arrest that person and use the conversation as proof of guilty conduct.
As in many other countries, this shocking practice is almost never utilised against foreign tourists travelling to the destination, for whom the police is quite happy to turn a blind eye for economic reasons, but rather the local LGBT+ population.
However, there are exceptions and it's worth recommending extreme caution if/when travelling to Egypt. According to the BBC report in one transcript the police describe approaching a foreigner on the popular gay dating app Grindr. A police informant then engaged the subject in conversation, and - the transcript says - the foreign national "admitted his perversion, his willingness to engage in debauchery for free, and sent pictures of himself and his body". The subject in question then told the BBC that he was subsequently arrested, charged with "debauchery", and eventually deported from the country.
Egypt recorded a total of 13 million tourists in 2019, ranking 19th in the world in absolute terms. This corresponds to 1.2 percent of Egypt's gross domestic product and approximately 47 percent of all international tourism receipts in Northern Africa.
The full article can be accessed here.
BuzzFeed news reports that Gay cruise company Atlantis Events, has officially warned passengers on the recent Caribbean sail aboard the Royal Caribbean's Harmony of the Seas about new social media rules against posting anything sexually explicit on social media.
The new policy was jointly created by Atlantis Events, which is one of the oldest and largest LGBTQ travel companies in the US, and Royal Caribbean, the second-largest cruise line company in the world, after adult videos filmed by passengers while on board were posted on social media and other adult content platforms.
The updated departure handbook, delivered to the passengers ahead of the sailing states that “While we want everyone to have fun, there are limits and so we ask that you be respectful of all guests and our cruise partners. Please do not post anything explicitly sexual on social media in a public forum or other online space. Any guest who posts or publishes an explicit and publicly visible photo or video will be asked to leave the ship with no refund.¨
The policy also applies to platforms like Just for Fans or OnlyFans, if either Atlantis Events or Royal Caribbean are identifiable without their permission in the posted content.
The handbook also advises that the issue is taken very seriously and a team of volunteers would be monitoring this policy.
Rich Campbell, the founder and CEO of Atlantis Events, told BuzzFeed News that the policy was communicated to guests at the request of cruise ship companies. “The cruise lines have asked me to include that and that's not such a strange request,” Campbell said. “They don't want their brand featured.”
“We’ve always taken a one-off approach to [such content]. If we see something like that then we contact the person who did it and say, ‘Hey, please take that down,’ and they usually do,” Campbell said. “And the cruise lines asked us to put that out publicly so we did.”
A spokesperson for Royal Caribbean International told BuzzFeed News the two companies “together established this policy to protect the safety and privacy of all guests onboard.”
You can find the whole article here.
In the last two weeks, two different reports for best (and worst) countries to travel to have been released.
The first, released by journalists Lyric and Asher Fergusson, creators of the site Asherfergusson.com, dedicated to safe travelling, lists Canada, Sweden and The Netherlands in the top three best places for LGBTQI+ people to travel to. Maltafollows at number four, Spain at four, Belgium at nine and the UK at number ten.
The report puts the USA at number twenty-five, because of the lack of protection against discrimination in certain states and Italy scores a meagre fifty-third place.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the bottom of the list is occupied by Brunei (death by stoning), Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Kuwait. The UAE ranks seventh from the bottom, reminding us that Dubai may be a futuristic city, but there is still a law on the book punishing sex between men with death. And Malaysia, another key tourism destination, also rank poorly, eight from the bottom - here the punishment is between 5 and 14 years in jail, with or without corporal punishment.
Other popular tourism destinations ranking amongst the worst are: Egypt (182/203), Tunisia (181/203), Morocco (179/203), Maldives (174/203), Kenya (162/203), Jamaica (161/203). Russia is number 148 of 203.
The report can be viewed in its entirety here.
The other report, published by longstanding LGBTQI+ publisher Spartacus, lists Malta at number one (the country will host Europride 2023), followed by Canada and Switzerland. Following at joint number four are Australia, Denmark, New Zealand, Portugaland Uruguay. Then joint at number nine are Germany, Spain, UK and Iceland.
Again, unsurprisingly, the bottom ones are Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Chechnya. The UAE, Qatar and Nigeria are just one notch up from the bottom.
On 21 March, members of parliament in Uganda approved a bill that criminalises even just identifying as LGBTQ, with some lawmakers in the conservative East African nation saying that the nationwide ban on same-sex relationships does not go far enough. The bill, introduced earlier this month and now converted into law, introduces tough new penalties against sexual minorities.
Under the new legislation, anyone who engages in "same-sex activity" or who just identifies as LGBTQ could face up to 10 years' imprisonment.
"The homosexuals are deviations from normal. Why? Is it by nature or nurture? We need to answer these questions," President Yoweri Museveni said when MPs asked him to comment on the bill.
The law aims to allow Uganda to fight what it perceives as "threats to the traditional, heterosexual family."
The bill has drawn sharp criticism from human rights organisations.
The law is similar to one passed in 2013 that stiffened some already-existing penalties and criminalised lesbian relationships. It drew intense international outrage for originally proposing to punish homosexuality with the death penalty. This was later revised to life in prison.
However, it was quickly struck down by a domestic court on procedural grounds.
According to Oryem Nyeko a researcher at Human Rights Watch in Uganda, "One of the most extreme features of this new law is that it criminalises people simply for being who they are, as well as further infringing on the rights to privacy, and freedoms of expression and association that are already compromised in Uganda."