Washington DC in spring used to mean cherry blossoms and soft light. Not tanks.
I went back to DC recently—my first US destination after completing my project visiting all 50 states. The streets were thick with National Guard troops. Armed. Patroling. It didn’t feel like democracy. It felt like surveillance.
Look. I know the rhetoric. America has never been a perfect Eden. The ‘land of the free‘ claim was always a bit of a stretch for those on the margins. But hitting 250? The country feels colder. Sharper. If your existence irritates the reactionary right, if you are LGBTQ+ or an immigrant or brown, you are no longer welcome here. Not really.
The Geography of Fear
I saw it clearly in places like Louisiana and Mississippi. These aren’t just red on a map—they are red in practice. Anti-LGBTQ laws change how you walk. They change how you breathe.
My wife and I stopped holding hands in public. We stopped making eye contact with strangers. We scanned for threats instead of scanning for friendly faces. I spent weeks living like a second-class citizen. I did it because I had already committed to finishing my trip through all 50. But the cost? It was high. Now that the map is blanketed in ticks, I don’t miss the vibe at all.
I am not alone.
Brian Webb, a gay travel blogger based in Canada, notes that LGBTQ tourists are exhausted. They want vacations that start being easy the moment they leave their driveway. The US now brings what he calls “extra mental load.” Too much of it.
Gay travelers are planners by nature. We want certainty. The patchwork of rights that shifts the moment you cross a state line? That’s not adventure. That’s anxiety. Consequently, the money is moving. South. Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America. Places where you can actually be yourself without calculating risk every hour.
Money Talks, Laws Scream
The International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association did the math on Florida. The place famous for the “Don’t Say Gay” laws? The numbers say 47% of global travelers view Florida as hostile. They won’t go. Not for the theme parks. Not for the beaches. Safety trumps spectacle. Always has.
“No glossy campaign or tourist attraction outweighs the safety concerns.”
That is the industry’s quiet realization. Anthony Warner, interim CEO at IGLTA, puts it plainly. For many international LGBTQ people, a trip to the US is no longer a question of fun. It’s a question of survival. Can you risk the destination? Trans and gender-diverse travelers are doing these calculations constantly. And when they stay home? Local businesses lose out. The ecosystem rots.
The Advisory Fatigue
Before the World Cup, over 10 organizations issued travel warnings. Not bans. Advisories.
These documents spell out the horrors. Being denied entry despite a valid visa. Getting stuck in custody. Death as a possible outcome for being detained. It sounds extreme? It’s the reality some face now. The warnings cover everything from social media profiling to outright detention.
Does it work? Yes.
The NAACP and Equality Florida warned against Florida’s anti-LGBT laws. Result? 52% of travelers canceled or reconsidered. That is not signaling. That is action.
Tourism generated $11.6 trillion globally in 2025. International visitors rose everywhere except the United States. Four million fewer faces at our borders last year.
Why?
Visa prices are not the culprit. FIFA’s pricing strategy didn’t scare people away from soccer. People don’t want to be harassed. They don’t want their money to fund a government they suspect might have bombed Iran just to bury files related to Epstein. That’s the mood. Cynical. Alert. Done with it.
Selling A Lie
The US travel industry is acting blind.
They are hyping the World Cup. They are celebrating America’s birthday with fireworks and patriotism. They pretend that if they spin the story right, tourists will flock back.
This isn’t marketing. It is gaslighting.
Warner calls it what it is. “Welcoming” isn’t a slogan for a t-shirt. It’s a baseline. A standard written in the DNA of the business. When you ignore the risk, you ignore the customer.
Visitor numbers won’t recover by pretending everything is normal. The dip isn’t a tantrum. It is logic. Global travelers are voting with their passports. They will not trade safety for a vacation photo op. If states continue to shout “come in” while quietly closing doors, they will lose. To Mexico. To Europe. To anywhere else that means what it says.
We are watching. We are calculating. And increasingly? We are just staying away.
