Gay? Thinking of Travel? Come to Uruguay!

So today I was going to post a book review (sorry, Hulks & Horrors will have to wait until tomorrow!) but as I was walking home I happened across the start of the annual "Marcha de La Diversidad" (lit. "diversity march"), the pro-GLBT state-sponsored event here. 
Plus, today I'd just started fooling around with my fucking awesome Google Nexus camera!  So, I took a few pictures:

These are of the GLBT fair that precedes the march.  I spoke to some of the organizers too; they told me that in last year's march, they had 200000 participants, and they expect 25-30K this year.

In any case, that and the spring weather got me thinking that it had been a while since I commented on how nice a place Uruguay is to visit or live in.  Its nice for the weather (see the palm trees in the picture?), and its nice for the people.  And if you happen to be gay, its nice because Uruguay has by far the most tolerant and accepting culture of any latinamerican country; I'd go so far as to say it ties with Canada for the most GLBT-friendly country in the Americas, period.

There are explicitly gay-friendly hotels and hostels, restaurants and cafes, stores, bars and discos; and this is growing on a yearly basis. And of course, Uruguay has joined that tiny list of countries to legalize Gay Marriage on the national scale (it also allows people from the age of 12 onward to choose what gender they put on their national identity card, by the way).

So if you're Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual or Trans, and you were thinking of where to go on vacation this winter (or maybe where to move to work abroad), you may want to keep all that in mind.  Do you want your tourist dollars to go to reward countries with awesome beaches but shitty behaviour toward homosexuals? Or do you want your tourist dollars to reward a country with some of the most awesome beaches (and street markets, and steaks, and music, etc etc.) in the world AND which also shows an unheard-of level of acceptance?

RPGPundit

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