I wanted to see what sort of countries spend the most time searching for the term “shemales” on google. To make it interesting, I compared the search trends between “transgender” and “shemale.” What I found was interesting:

First of all, people look for the term “shemale” a lot more than the rather innocuous term, “transgender.” The red line represents the number of searches for shemales and the blue line represents the number of searches for transgenders. This trend didn’t surprise me since “shemale” is a keyword used when searching for transgender porn. However, what did surprise me is who’s looking for the so-called shemales:

The darker the shading, the greater the number of searches. Here’s a list of the top-10 places that’s looking for “shemales” on the internet:

Note that many of the above places are the most repressive places a transgender person could have the misfortune to live.

Libya is the #1 place on earth that looks for shemales. In Libya, it’s against the law to be GLBT (punishable by up to 5 years in prison).

Here’s more on the top 10:

Pakistan: While transgender people just won a major equal rights victory, anything deemed to be a “homosexual” is punishable by death.

Sudan: If you are found to be GLBT in Sudan, you can receive up to 100 lashes and/or death.

Czech Republic: The Czech Republic is actually relatively good on TG issues.

Afghanistan: The penalty for being TG is death. Period.

Yemen: offers torture, public flogging and death to it’s queer community.

Bangladesh: The penalty for being TG can range from ostracization, torture, life imprisonment and death.

Syria: Homosexuality is illegal and TGs are often viewed as being homosexual. However, the government has allowed a few TS people to transition.

Sri Lanka: While being TG is not illegal, TGs are often victims of harassment and discrimination.

Egypt: While the government has allowed a few TS women to transition, it has outlawed music by the Israeli transsexual, Dana International and the topic is very taboo. Individuals suspected of being gay can be locked up, tortured and sentenced to hard labor.

It should also be noted that all of these countries are exceedingly religious. So, here’s a question: Does living in a hyper-religious culture predispose one to TG porn?