LGBT Tours… Are They?

How many times have you seen ads for LGBTQ tours and you wonder are they really trans friendly or are they just LGB friendly?

Sadly I think many of them are only lesbian and gay friendly.

Visibility mixes with vulnerability for many transgender travelers
The travel industry has embraced Pride Month, but for some transgender and non binary people leaving home triggers anxiety.
National Geographic
By Kam Burns
June 29, 2021


[…]
Karen DeJarnette is familiar with that feeling.As an out trans woman and an SEO manager for a major travel agency, DeJarnette has a lot of experience traveling as a trans person and all the challenges that come with it.

For trans people, and especially trans women,“we feel vulnerable, we feel extremely visible, and traveling to someplace new amplifies that, beyond measure.”
[…]
(Does travel mean going into the closet? LGBTQ tourists face tough choices.)
The Washington Post recently reported on the trauma of travel for trans people, noting that“the discrimination trans travelers have experienced at the hands of the TSA…[has]become so widespread that there is a hashtag—#TravelingWhileTrans—that travelers have used to share encounters with TSA.”

But DeJarnette says it’s important to remember that most people won’t notice orc are, because they’re preoccupied with their own lives. But for trans people who have to travel for work or other reasons out of their control, she recommends traveling with someone else and being aware of the cultures and customs, especially in more conservative places.

“The whole goal is to fit in, is to just be one among the crowds,” DeJarnette says. “Because that way, you’re less exposed, less vulnerable.”

Traveling with someone is not possible for many trans people and I also don’t that that solves the problems that we face when traveling, what it may do for us as we sit in jail is have someone on the outside getting legal aid for us.

When traveling for leisure, DeJarnette recommends doing research before going somewhere new, as there are plenty of LGBTQ friendly countries, cities, and neighborhoods. San Francisco even designated south eastern Tenderloin as a transgender cultural district in 2017.
[…]
“Stay in a place that welcomes you,” DeJarnettesays. “There are cities and locations and neighborhoods that will be happy to have your business.”

Unfortunately that might not be possible if A. You are on a group tour, and B. You don’t know where the safe places are.

Do you remember the movie Under the Tuscan Sun? Where a lesbian couple breaks up and they were scheduled to go on a LGBT tour of Italy so one of the lesbians invites a straight friend who just had a divorce, along on the tour.

How do you think a trans woman as the only trans woman on the tour would do on a tour of Italy? On a tour to Aruba? Wikipedia says this about Aruba…

Aruba is frequently referred to as one of the Caribbean's most LGBT-friendly islands,[10] with various venues, hotels and restaurants catering to LGBT clientele or otherwise advertising as "LGBT-friendly".

But they say nothing about trans friendly and when you google “transgender friendly” all the results say “gay” and “lesbian” friendly and nothing about trans friendly. One hit on the searc

‘Pose’ star and trans actress claims she was attacked in Aruba resort

Dominique Jackson, the trans actress who plays the villainous Elektra on Ryan Murphy’s Pose, has claimed to be attacked in – and then thrown out of – an Aruba resort during a disturbing incident.

The thing is you would never know if someone is lesbian or gay just by looking at them, while many trans people you can tell right way that they are trans and therefore face more discrimination and violence.

West Point Cadet Chapel 

In all fairness I must say that I went with a friend on a “gay” tour but it was 1. with gay men some of them I knew, 2. it was only a day trip, and 3. it was to the Culinary Institute of America and West Point.

My advice to you if you are planning on going on a LGBTQ+ tour to a foreign country is do your homework. Ask questions of the tour operator about if they had any trans tourists on the tours.