Morocco Drops in Global LGBT Travel Safety Rankings, Study Finds

The story of the Moroccan transvestite Chakib, wishing to urgently leave Morocco, as well as those of hundreds of Moroccans seeking asylum because of their sexual orientation (many requests accepted) are probably partly to blame. Moroccans are even starting to say in foreign courts that they are gay to avoid deportation. And that they risk inhumane treatment in Morocco...

The kingdom loses two places this year, compared to last year, 159th instead of 157th, in the ranking of the Spartacus International Gay Guide, a ranking of the most and least welcoming countries for LGBT people.

Fourteen criteria are taken into account by this "Spartacus" and we can mention "religious influence", "laws condemning homosexuality", "rights of transgender people", "the right to adopt"... And of course "hostility of locals".

HuffPostMaghreb explains: "The kingdom is thus singled out by the guide for its ’legislation against homosexuality’, ’religious influence’, the fact that homosexuality is illegal there or even ’hostility of locals’, a particularly poorly rated point with a score of -2. The country is also rated -1 in the ’persecution’, ’murders’ and ’transgender rights’ categories".

Tied with Morocco in 159th place, we find about twenty countries, including Haiti, Zambia, the Maldives, Mauritania and Senegal. Algeria is not indexed in the ranking, but Tunisia is (122nd place), Egypt and Sudan are both in 179th place, and Libya is 190th.

As for the best and worst in the world, we find Canada, Sweden and Portugal in first place and Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Chechnya in last place. There would be, to explain this, camps in Chechnya used to imprison, torture and even kill homosexuals.

It should be noted that this is a so-called general ranking, not "wanting" to be related to tourism. But it is still written by a travel guide... NGOs and state reports are likely to obtain better data and most likely arrive at a different ranking.