Travel · Dating · Info
Making the world a welcoming place.
Gayze opens up the world for LGBTQ+ travellers — find safe destinations, local favourites and people to meet.
Explore the map
Search a city, read local reviews and chat with the people who Gayzed them.
Gayze recommends
Places, culture and destinations we love.
Bangkok
Places / Jim Thompson House Museum
Bangkok
Sacred Emotions / Wai
Cologne
We Love / 4711
Mykonos
Destination / Delos
Mykonos
Review / Scorpios
Paris
We Love / Buly
Stockholm
Review / Svenskt Tenn
Berlin
Destination / Berlin
Athens
Review / The Poet Sandalmaker
Berlin
Review / Berghain
Mykonos
Culture / The Mykonos Biennale
Stockholm
Culture / Stockholm Underground
Where to Next – is it safe?
LGBTQ+ rights, everyday life and what to consider in major cities. Country perspectives based on Outright International, with a separate Gayze interpretation for travellers.
Country perspective
Germany
Generally welcoming · some equality gaps
Gayze editorial rating · not a safety score
Outright reports marriage and adoption equality, nationwide employment protections, and restrictions on conversion practices targeting minors. The 2024 Self-Determination Act allows adults to change gender markers by declaration, with parental approval or legal recourse for older minors. A ban on unnecessary intersex surgeries contains exceptions that advocates consider loopholes. The overview also describes declining acceptance, increased recorded bias-motivated offenses, and a stronger far-right political presence opposing trans rights and family diversity. Formal legal advances therefore coexist with hostile political mobilization and unequal protection across different areas of life. This summarizes Outright’s dated overview, not independently verified current law; subsequent legal changes and implementation should be checked.
Cities: Berlin · Hamburg · Munich · Cologne · Frankfurt
Read the country guideCountry perspective
Spain
Broadly accepting · strong equality protections
Gayze editorial rating · not a safety score
Outright describes marriage and adoption equality and a 2023 law establishing self-determined gender recognition, protection against nonconsensual intersex interventions, and substantial administrative penalties for conversion practices. Pride visibility, openly queer politicians, and generally supportive public opinion indicate broad inclusion. However, the overview reports increasing hate-related experiences, including discrimination, harassment, and assault, drawing on a 2025 civil-society study. It emphasizes political polarization, hostile speech, and insufficient institutional responses. Comprehensive legislation therefore does not eliminate violence or guarantee equal experiences across regions, and reported survey findings should not be treated as complete national crime counts. This summarizes Outright’s dated overview, not independently verified current law; subsequent legal changes and implementation should be checked.
Cities: Madrid · Barcelona · Valencia · Seville · Málaga · Granada · Bilbao · Figueres · Cadaqués
Read the country guideCountry perspective
Sweden
Broadly accepting · strong equality protections
Gayze editorial rating · not a safety score
Outright describes marriage and adoption equality and bans on discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression. A 2025 gender-recognition reform removed diagnosis requirements and opened access to some older minors, but still requires a health-professional statement. Gender-affirming treatment for minors remains restricted under clinical guidance. High general acceptance coexists with school bullying, reported conversion practices, and increasing hostility among some young people. The overview also describes more inclusive blood-donation rules. Its account distinguishes improvements in document recognition from full self-determination and from unrestricted access to health care. This summarizes Outright’s dated overview, not independently verified current law; subsequent legal changes and implementation should be checked.
Cities: Stockholm · Gothenburg · Malmö · Uppsala
Read the country guideCountry perspective
Thailand
Generally welcoming · some equality gaps
Gayze editorial rating · not a safety score
Outright describes marriage-equality legislation taking effect in 2025, extending adoption, inheritance, health-decision, and other spousal rights to same-sex couples. The Gender Equality Act provides protections but contains religious and security exceptions. Transgender visibility and the availability of gender-affirming care do not translate into full legal equality: the overview reports no process for changing official gender markers and discretion affecting name changes. Binary school uniforms, intrusive health questioning, and harmful stereotypes remain concerns. Thailand’s welcoming international image should therefore be distinguished from the practical limits of protection and transgender legal recognition. This summarizes Outright’s dated overview, not independently verified current law; subsequent legal changes and implementation should be checked.
Cities: Bangkok · Chiang Mai · Phuket · Pattaya
Read the country guideThese guides are not safety scores or live travel advisories. Source pages may reflect earlier laws; consult current official advice before travel. City context is Gayze’s editorial interpretation, not a rating by Outright International.
Some of the most well-known LGBTQI+ communities in the world
21 of the world’s queerest cities, ranked by each city’s share of LGBTQI+ adults — with the estimated number of people shown below. Figures from the Williams Institute at UCLA, national censuses and survey-based estimates.
1
Brighton
UK
10.7%
c. 25,000 people
✨ Brighton & Hove Pride draws hundreds of thousands every August — one of the UK’s biggest.
ONS Census 2021
Photo: Mike Peel / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
2
San Francisco
USA
6.7%
247,000 people
✨ The rainbow flag, designed by Gilbert Baker, first flew here in 1978.
Williams Institute, UCLA (2021)
Photo: Frank Schulenburg / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
3
Amsterdam
Netherlands
est. 6%
est. 50,000 people
✨ Pride Amsterdam’s Canal Parade sails Pride right through the city’s canals.
Gayze est. from national surveys
Photo: Andrés Barrios / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
4
Berlin
Germany
est. 5–7%
200,000–300,000 people
✨ Home to the world’s first gay rights organisation, founded by Magnus Hirschfeld in 1897.
Berlin Senate (berlin.de)
Photo: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
5
Los Angeles
USA
5.1%
523,000 people
✨ One of the world’s first permitted Pride parades marched down Hollywood Boulevard in 1970.
Williams Institute, UCLA (2021)
Photo: Gnaphron / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
6
Madrid
Spain
est. 5%
est. 150,000 people
✨ Madrid Pride (MADO) draws well over a million people — one of Europe’s largest.
Gayze est. from national surveys
Photo: Zarateman / Wikimedia Commons, CC0
7
Stockholm
Sweden
est. 5%
est. 50,000 people
✨ Stockholm Pride is the biggest Pride celebration in the Nordics.
Gayze est. from national surveys
Photo: OleNeitzel / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
8
Lisbon
Portugal
est. 5%
est. 25,000 people
✨ Portugal wrote a ban on sexual-orientation discrimination into its constitution in 2004.
Gayze est. from national surveys
Photo: Vitor Oliveira / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
9
Tel Aviv
Israel
est. 5%
est. 22,000 people
✨ Tel Aviv Pride is the largest in the Middle East.
Gayze est. from national surveys
Photo: Ynhockey / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
10
Mexico City
Mexico
est. 5%
est. 360,000 people
✨ In 2009 it became the first place in Latin America to legalise same-sex marriage.
Gayze est. from INEGI ENDISEG 2021
Photo: Gobierno CDMX / Wikimedia Commons, CC0
11
Hamburg
Germany
est. 5%
est. 75,000 people
✨ Hamburg Pride (CSD) is one of Germany’s largest Pride celebrations.
Gayze est. from national surveys
Photo: Dietmar Rabich / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
12
Melbourne
Australia
est. 5%
est. 200,000 people
✨ Midsumma is one of Australia’s biggest LGBTQ+ arts and culture festivals.
Gayze est. from national surveys
Photo: Melbpal / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
13
Montréal
Canada
est. 5%
est. 150,000 people
✨ Québec banned sexual-orientation discrimination in 1977, a world first for a province or state.
Gayze est. from national surveys
Photo: Quintin Soloviev / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
14
New York
USA
4.5%
706,000 people
✨ The 1969 Stonewall uprising here sparked the modern Pride movement.
Williams Institute, UCLA (2021)
Photo: Dllu / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
15
Paris
France
est. 4.5%
est. 220,000 people
✨ France decriminalised homosexuality in 1791 — among the first countries in the world.
Gayze est. from national surveys
Photo: Yann Caradec / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
16
London
United Kingdom
4.0%
304,000 people
✨ The UK’s first Pride march was held here in 1972.
ONS Census 2021
Photo: Ilya Grigorik / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
17
São Paulo
Brazil
est. 4%
est. 130,000 people
✨ São Paulo Pride is often called the world’s largest, with millions on Avenida Paulista.
Gayze est. from national surveys
Photo: Agent010 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
18
Toronto
Canada
est. 4%
est. 150,000 people
✨ Pride Toronto is one of the largest Pride festivals in North America.
Gayze est. from StatCan 2021
Photo: Dillan Payne / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
19
Sydney
Australia
est. 4%
est. 80,000 people
✨ Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras began in 1978 and is world-famous.
Gayze est. from national surveys
Photo: Benh LIEU SONG / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
20
Rio de Janeiro
Brazil
est. 4%
est. 220,000 people
✨ Rio’s Pride parade fills the Copacabana beachfront every year.
Gayze est. from national surveys
Photo: Rafael Rabello de Barros / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
21
Bangkok
Thailand
est. 4%
est. 300,000 people
✨ In 2025 Thailand became the first country in Southeast Asia to legalise same-sex marriage.
Gayze est. from national surveys
Photo: Ninara / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Figures are estimates from mixed sources and years. US metro figures are measured survey estimates from the Williams Institute, UCLA School of Law (2021); Berlin from the Berlin Senate; London and Brighton from the ONS Census 2021. Cities marked “est.” are conservative Gayze estimates derived from national survey shares — no global city census of LGBTQI+ populations exists, and true numbers are likely higher. Unsourced lists on social media often show much higher percentages; we prefer numbers we can trace. Please read this list as an indication rather than a final truth — these are estimates, and we may well be wrong on some of them.