Sexuality across the world

With the Pride Festival going on in Vancouver at the beginning of August, I got to thinking about how attitudes to sexuality differ across the world.

For this topic, I am by no means an expert, and can only go on the research I have conducted and the experience of varying attitudes that I have come across, so would love some of your input.

For me, travelling is all about being open to new cultures and ideas, but sexuality has been a taboo topic in many countries for as long as there have been humans. Personally, I have many friends who are gay, and I often live in areas where there is little tension between the gay group and less liberal members of the public.

In some locations around the world, homosexuality is celebrated. Most cities I have visited in the Western world have gay areas, where there are predominantly homosexual bars.

In the Far East, there are famously easy attitudes towards sex, with the ladyboys of Thailand a prime example. A lot of this ethos can be put down to the practice of Buddhism.

In the Encyclopedia of Modern Asia, the shock of Western travellers in the East is noted. It reads,

“Homosexuality was reported by Westerners, who reacted with outrage, as had Westerners visiting China and Japan, when they found that Vietnamese did not much object to the practice.”

As far as I can tell, it is within Eastern Europe, and the Middle East where there tends to be an intolerance of homosexuality. As recent as the 1987, homosexual acts were subject to five years imprisonment in Russia (see Laurie Essig’s Queer in Russia for some eye-opening accounts). With the Christian and Muslim religions still an overriding factor in these areas, homosexuality is at worst, intolerable, and at best, shunned.

For the same reason, America tends to be the least liberal of the English language countries. There is still a very fundamental dependence in faith in many areas of the country. Walter Williams comments on how “homophobia was typical of Christian Europe generally”, and this has filtered through to the European colonized countries.

One of my best travelling buddies is gay. He tells me that, although he is by no means ashamed of his sexuality, it is no skin off his nose to keep the fact to himself, if there is a possibility of hostility. I have met other homosexuals who are less prepared to hide a large part of their existence.

As I mentioned, I am by no means an expert here, and would love to hear any opinions on this matter.