MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguay is Latinamerica’s most gay-friendly country and ranks tenth worldwide

Same sex marriage is legal in Uruguay

Uruguay was deemed the friendliest toward gay in Latinamerica and among the top countries in the world, according to the latest Spartacus International Gay Travel Index which ranks 139 countries worldwide.

Globally Sweden was described as the most gay-friendly country while Iran was deemed the least friendly toward gay coming in dead last.

Argentina and Brazil also rank among the top thirty countries while Mexico position 45 is ahead of the USA which came in at 47. However three Latam countries were ranked close to the bottom coming at position 104: Honduras, Panama and Peru.

The friendliest countries, according to Spartacus, are Sweden, Belgium, France, Netherlands, UK, Canada, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Spain and Uruguay.

The ranking took into consideration a country’s HIV-travel restrictions, religious stances on homosexuality, anti-gay legislation enacted, crimes against homosexuals and the countries stance on gay marriage.

The Spartacus International Gay Travel Index rates all of the Spartacus destinations listed in the Spartacus International Gay Guide according to the laws and local customs of each country and religious influence. The index has 14 categories ranging from gay-marriage to death penalty for homosexuals.

This list is updated on a regular basis, allowing trends to be seen–positive as well as negative changes to the gay world. The last update was February 28 this year.

The Spartacus Gay Travel Index is divided into positive and negative categories, green and red. Some of the categories have a maximum of 3 levels and for this reason a maximum of 3 points can be awarded. In the case of the death sentence, due to its severity and also because there are 5 countries worldwide which implement the death sentence for those caught interacting in homosexual terms, a maximum of -5 points are attributed to these countries – ensuring that these countries are at the bottom of our list.

Some of the negative categories reflect the degree of negative influence – for example the category »religious influence«. Because the influence of the Catholic Church is stronger in the Vatican City than it is in Portugal for example (where the Catholic Church still plays an important negative role) the Vatican City was “awarded” -2 points and Portugal only -1.Check the Spartacus International Gay Travel Index