The State Department Has an LGBT Travel Guide

Are you part of a jet-setting LGBT couple looking to travel abroad this spring? Let the U.S. State Department guide you toward the countries you should and shouldn't visit.

Sometime in the last few weeks, the folks at Foggy Bottom took a break from warning people not to visit, you know, Syria, and launched a world-spanning travel site specifically catering to the LGBT set. It's really something: thorough federal advice for "LGBT individuals or families," even as the Supreme Court is on the verge of taking up the Defense of Marriage Act. This is progress, people. But things are not so progressive out there — no, says the State Department, things can get ugly across the border: 

There are a number of countries that provide legal protections to those who are LGBT.  Unfortunately, there are others that do not, and a significant number that even criminalize consensual same-sex sexual relations. 

So that's why they've launched a Q&A page and a country-specific guide to LGBT regulations around the world from countries like Afghanistan, or Switzerland. They also have broader advice like, "Be a responsible adult," and "Be wary of new-found 'friends,'" but those are hardly LGBT-specific. That the State Department is providing awareness of this country's legal protections, though, that is specifically something new. And useful!

(Image via Felix Mizioznikov/Shutterstock.com)