Vienna’s status as one of the leading European LGBTI destinations didn’t peak with the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest, you know. Yes, the fierce and fabulous bearded lady Conchita Wurst put her hometown on the map when she won it in 2014.
And yes, the Austrian capital did a fantastically camp job of hosting the following year. (Followed by Stockholm last year and, erm, Kiev this year). But the reverberations of Vienna’s moment in the gay sun can still be felt today. This city of roughly 1.7 million is wonderfully, truly LGBTI-friendly. Even the traffic lights are gay.
But, in its way, it’s friendly towards everyone. Perhaps because the people who live here are really, really happy. Vienna topped Mercer’s 2016 Quality of Living Ranking, measuring the happiness of city-dwellers around the world. In the country proper, things aren’t perfect. A far-right political trend is gaining momentum, and same-sex marriage is still not legal, although Austria introduced civil partnerships in 2010.
By Jamie Tabberer – Full Story at Gay Star News
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