''The Gay Travel Guide For Tops And Bottoms'' is a 2011 international

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

travel guide A guide book or travel guide is "a book of information about a place designed for the use of visitors or tourists". It will usually include information about sights, accommodation, restaurants, transportation, and activities. Maps of varying det ...

by Drew Blancs. The book was published on June 15, 2011, through Icon Empire Press. The author, Drew Blancs, spent 5 years traveling and writing the book. Blancs was a blogger from Los Angeles who had never written a book before and wrote it to assist people with finding compatible sex partners. ''The Gay Travel Guide for Tops and Bottoms'' set a sales record at its publisher ''Icon Empire Press'' for a new release. Robert Joseph of

Goodreads Goodreads is an American social cataloging website and a subsidiary of Amazon that allows individuals to search its database of books, annotations, quotes, and reviews. Users can sign up and register books to generate library catalogs and readi ...

praised the book calling it funny and recommended it "to those who are looking to have a fun way to travel."

The book features reviews written by two men about thirteen countries in no chronological or alphabetical order. The reviews are written

tongue in cheek Tongue-in-cheek is an idiom that describes a humorous or sarcastic statement expressed in a serious manner. History The phrase originally expressed contempt, but by 1842 had acquired its modern meaning. Early users of the phrase include Sir Walte ...

, with each of the two reviewers given their own name depending on whether they prefer to be on top or on bottom during sex. Each man gives a review of their experience in each of the countries listed, as well as each country's taboos, sexual customs, and stance on homosexuality. The countries reviewed in this guide book are:

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

, Canada,

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

, France,

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

, India, Scotland, and Australia. The guide book lists hotels, restaurants and night clubs.

Controversy

The book experienced some controversy when

LinkedIn LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented Social networking service, social network. It was launched on May 5, 2003 by Reid Hoffman and Eric Ly. Since December 2016, LinkedIn has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft. ...

pulled an ad featuring the book from their website, citing that they objected to the sexual references of "

tops Total Operations Processing System (TOPS) is a computer system for managing railway locomotives and rolling stock, known for many years of use in the United Kingdom. TOPS was originally developed between the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP), ...

" and " bottoms" in the title. The publisher responded that this was discrimination through censorship since the ads were targeted for men in the gay travel groups of LinkedIn. Icon Empire press also added that the book was intended as a humorous review and does not list any locations where men can find sex.

Contents

Controversy

References

Further reading