Transgender Travel: What's New?

Travel experience slowly improving for the trans community; obstacles remain

By: Andrew Collins* TRT Travel Writer

"You could feel the electricity going through people. You could actually feel it. People were getting really, really pissed and uptight. I just said to myself, 'Oh my God, the revolution is finally here,' and I just like started screaming 'freedom, we're free at last!'" This is how Sylvia Ray Rivera, the Latinx transgender activist, described that momentous night of the Stonewall Riots, 50 years ago. Indeed, what most people consider the start of the modern gay rights movement began with a diverse crowd of patrons protesting outside the Stonewall Inn. Several of those brave souls, including Marsha P. Johnson—who would also become a prominent activist— were transgender. For LGBTQ travelers, the world has changed dramatically, largely in positive ways, since 1969. While virulent homophobia and discrimination still exists in far too many places, destinations and travelrelated businesses all over the world now enthusiastically court and welcome gay travelers. But for transgender travelers, measuring progress—and deciding where to plan vacations—is a bit more complicated than for many other members of the queer community.

"When travel locales are advertised to cisgender gay people, they tend to emphasize their own vibrant gay community," said Gillian Branstetter, media relation’s manager of the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE), in Washington, DC. "Transgender people tend to be a bit more concerned with other issues while traveling, including their safety, privacy, and ability to go through airport security." "There aren’t really locations, cities, or resorts that target or market to transgender people as a community," said Branstetter. And while this has long been the case, and that transgender travelers are primarily only marketed to as part of the broader LGBTQ community, some destinations have, albeit relatively recently, begun proactively reaching out to transgender travelers. A prime example is Fort Lauderdale, where tourism officials worked diligently to successfully convince one of the world's largest transgender gatherings, the Southern Comfort Transgender Conference (SOCO), to relocate there from Atlanta in 2015. “Greater Fort Lauderdale is home to a thriving LGBT+ community, and we're committed to inclusion and equality,” said Richard Gray, senior vice president of diversity & inclusion at the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau. “We're continuously working to reach the transgender community to show them that we're a destination that's diverse, welcoming, authentic, and accepting—and most importantly, a destination where you can be free to be yourself.”