People We Love 2019: Ravi Roth

Why do you need to follow travel guru Ravi Roth?

The Joy of Meeting Ravi Roth

If you ever have the joy of meeting Ravi Roth, be prepared to be bowled over by his explosive energy. This quality – along with his innate sense of fun, thirst for adventure and genuine love of exploring – is what keeps people coming back to Ravi Round the World. It’s a chronicle of his globetrotting that encompasses includes funny and thought-provoking looks how the locals react to his brand of incandescent homosexuality and his response to local LGBTQ scenes.

“I love the queer community, especially in NYC! have fully embraced who I am and what I stand for. I am simply traveling the world and sharing stories of others who may not be able to speak for themselves on what it is like being in the queer community in every city I go to,” say Roth. “My goal is to be the gay version of the late Anthony Bourdain (RIP). I want to be the face and the voice of gay travel. And I want to entertain, educate, explore the queer culture globally. I want to help eradicate body shaming, homophobia, biphobia, transphobia by bringing visibility to the forefront! How? By sharing people’s stories.”

Ravi Roth’s Memorable Gay Neighborhoods

Metrosource asked whether any stand out as particularly memorable. “Honestly every single gayborhood is special and unique in its own way. The one road in Bali with five gay bars that you can walk in and out of – with your cocktails – is EPIC!”

“The queer culture in Istanbul is why I started Ravi Round The World. I google-searched gay bars and seven came up. I went to all of them. Four didn’t exist! One had the wrong address. There was no site that had accurate information. I had to do some investigative work on Grindr and Scruff to find out where the locals go. But more importantly: was it safe to be out and publicly gay? I learned in Istanbul that it is not accepted and not condoned to be publically gay and the majority of the queer nightlife was underground. It then became my mission to uncover this worldwide – one city at a time.”

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What’s Inspiring Ravi Roth?

Without knowing that he’d be on this year’s PWL list along with another gay Mean Girls alum, Roth brought up the wonderful Daniel Franzese as one of his LGBTQ inspirations. “Daniel has helped me tremendously embrace my queerness and my body. We live in a world where shirtless men in speedos or jocks are on the covers of every magazine, bar poster, or queer media. Representation is missing for anyone but the man with a six pack. Daniel has helped me realize we are all worthy of love and acceptance.”

And though he’s not allowed it to dim his light, Roth has faced the menace of being misunderstood. “I realize that I am lucky being a cis white gay man [because] I am not targeted by the color of my skin. I am more concerned for others and it is up to the cis white gay men to speak out when we see homophobia/transphobia/racism. Growing up I was called a faggot a lot. It made me so sad and left me feeling worthless. We cannot allow the queer youth of today to experience that and I will do everything in my power to end that!”

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Get more travels with Ravi at raveiroundtheworld.com.

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