Gay Port-au-Prince

In this guide · 5 sections

• Read this first — this is not a travel guide
• The legal irony
• What survives
• Is there a Pride or a scene?
• If you want to help

Read this first — this is not a travel guide

Port-au-Prince isn't safe to visit in 2026. Gangs run most of the capital. Over a million people are displaced. The US advisory has been at Level 4 'Do Not Travel' since 2023. The FAA ban on US commercial flights into Toussaint Louverture airport has been extended through March 2026. We can't honestly write travel content about that, so we won't. This page documents the situation and the community that persists inside it.

The legal irony

Haiti never made same-sex relations illegal; they've been legal since independence in 1804. But the penal code, put out in June 2025, dropped the LGBTIQ anti-discrimination protections drafted in 2020. That happened after religious pushback. So legality exists without protection, in a state that can't protect anyone right now. There's no marriage or partnership recognition, and no legal gender recognition.

What survives

Kay Trans Haiti still operates in Port-au-Prince. Yaisah Val, Haiti's first publicly out trans woman, founded it. It's a shelter and lifeline for trans Haitians, one of the only physical safe spaces left, confirmed operating through 2026. SEROvie, the country's oldest LGBTQ+ health group (since 1999), still runs its clinic in the capital. FACSDIS, a lesbian-focused organization founded in 2010, keeps working out of Canapé-Vert, despite gang pressure that has pushed it to consider leaving the city. Kouraj, the movement's historic flagship founded in 2011 (its president Charlot Jeudy was found dead in 2019, a case never solved), can't be confirmed as currently operational. We list it here as history that mattered. Armed groups specifically target queer people. The community survives through private networks under conditions few movements anywhere have faced.

Is there a Pride or a scene?

No. Haiti's only attempt at an LGBT festival, Massimadi in 2016, was banned and cancelled after arson and death threats. There are no gay bars, clubs, or saunas in Port-au-Prince — queer social life happens privately, among trusted networks, not in public venues.

If you want to help

Support Haitian LGBTQ+ people through international organizations that send money to groups like Kay Trans and SEROvie — from outside. When Haiti stabilizes, this page will become a travel guide again. Until then, the most respectful thing a traveler can do is not come, and not forget.