Travelling as an LGBTQ+ person
To be honest, I’ve been really lucky. Being a member of the LGBTQ+ community has never really affected my choices of where I want to go on holiday, or what I do while I’m there — I’m fortunate enough to have a supportive family and friends, and any problems I encounter are easy to solve or minor enough to ignore.
That doesn’t mean that some places don’t stand out as feeling extra comfortable and LGBTQ+ friendly though. I’ve been to Amsterdam three times in my life, and every single time has solidified my certainty that it’s one of the best cities in the world. The first time I went I was 16, I was out as bisexual but not yet out as non-binary, and being in a city so culturally rich as a young person was an incredibly wholesome and exciting experience. I’d been lucky enough to go on many school trips to different places, but none made an impact on me as much as this first visit to Amsterdam. Being old enough to just about be aware of the cultural richness and beauty I was surrounded by, as well as the plentiful pride flags and other stuff of that nature (which I’d never noticed in any other city before), I fell in love with the city.
Returning after A Levels, an out bisexual and non-binary person with far more experience of life in general and of the LGBTQ+ community, it was entirely possible that my amazing memories would be dulled down by realising that I’d bigged up Amsterdam because I’d never been exposed to such a chill, welcoming city before. However, I experienced nothing of the sort — even between 2016 and 2017, the LGBTQ+ community saw a surge of increased visibility and acceptance, and back in my favourite city, I felt that! Being slightly older, I had an increased awareness of the sexual undertones of much of the pride displays, and there’s much to be said about how the LGBTQ+ community is so often reduced to just sexuality, but regardless, I spent another five days revelling in such a beautiful, open city.
2018 was the third year in a row I visited Amsterdam, this time as a first-year uni student, and I was just as wowed as I’ve ever been. It’s not that going there feels any different from going on any other holiday — I’m just a student, travelling in the same way that any other student would. But walking around any city with as much pride as Amsterdam feels extra content and magical.
