Blog 39: 6/16/23: World Travel Advisories!

Hi all, welcome back to Brooke In The Air!

This week's blog unfortunately is necessary to write and produce. I wish it wasn't but it is, in the current geopolitical climate. Our new video series should be up soon, but this week's Blog is rather somber. There are, unfortunately, some places some members of my community just cannot go for fear of reprisals and death. This now includes my own (for now) country, the United States of America.

And that’s a fact.

HRC’s latest bulletin, June 2023

I'm not even technically safe in my own state, per current law.

page 2 of the HRC Safety Bulletin

Below are a list of states and countries that have passed legislation or ordinances against us as of June, 2023.

This week, I'm going to go over which states and countries are not or are no longer safe for trans and LGBTQ people to visit.

LGBTQ+ Affiliated Jewish Coalition

This list of states is constantly being updated by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union)

These states have banned gender affirming care (GAC) or have bills now that prohibit trans people from being out in public in some way, shape, or form, ensuring we are put in harm's way.

In no particular order, these states in the United States are:

Aminated graphic of states we, as transgender people, are currently banned in.

• Mississippi

• Tennessee

• Utah

• Kentucky

• Texas

• North Carolina

• South Carolina

• North Dakota

• South Dakota

• Indiana

• Florida is the worst by far

• Georgia

• Alabama

• Ohio

• Iowa

• Virginia

• West Virginia

• New Hampshire

• Louisiana

• Oklahoma

• Nebraska

• Wyoming

• Idaho

• Montana

• Wisconsin

• Missouri

• We are only safe from discrimination and oppression in most of the northeast and the West Coast, i.e. the liberal areas.

Countries that prohibit us are just as numerous. This essentially excludes the European Union.

The top 20 most unsafe countries according to the latest advisory UN index are, by level of harm:

1. Nigeria (Africa)

2. Qatar (Middle East)

3. Yemen (Middle East)

4. Saudi Arabia (Middle East)

5. Tanzania (Africa)

6. Iran (Middle East)

7. Sudan (Africa)

8. Barbados (Caribbean)

9. Malaysia (South Pacific)

10. Malawi (Africa)

11. Zambia (Africa)

12. Saint Lucia (Caribbean)

13. Uganda (Africa)

14. Pakistan (Eurasia)

15. W. Bank & Gaza (Middle East)

16. Kenya (Africa)

17. Maldives (Indian Ocean)

18. Jamaica (Caribbean)

19. Ethiopia (Africa)

20. Egypt (Africa)

Guidelines used by the UN Center for Transgender Health

The United States is quickly rocketing up this list, from #24 in 2020 to an undetermined spot yet in 2023 depending on how many laws are passed and which politicians stay in power by the end of the calendar year and the next election cycle.

This list and additional travel advisories are, of course, subject to change and/or revision.

These statistics can be easily looked up per GLAAD and the Advocate news website and of course, the. United Nations website.

Hopefully, things change and travel can safely open up especially the United States, so we can enjoy travel without risking our lives.

I’ll be back next week with a more positive subject, in the meantime, thank you for reading, and if you haven’t, please give my vlog a like and follow on YouTube and if you like my content, consider joining my Patreon! Link is below! See You in The Air!

Japan Airlines (JAL) Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, landing in front of a rainbow.

Credit: Akira Fukazawa