Are we banned in Panama?

[soloyo215]

I am currently in a cruise thorough the Panama Canal. We decided to spend a couple of days in Panama City before boarding. I was unable to access this website from anywhere in Panama and in the ship while we were in the Panama region. The ship is now in Costa Rica, and suddenly here I am.

Don't know if anyone has tried accessing this website from Panama, but I'm just wondering. Panama is quite stup... I mean, conservative when it comes to the LGBT people and their rights.

Does anyone know?

[Peter Eater]

No, but generally things are not so great in Panama. This is a pretty good info source:

https://www.equaldex.com/region/panama
 

Maybe your ship’s WiFi was restricted in the canal.

[+ JamesB]

6 hours ago, soloyo215 said:

I am currently in a cruise thorough the Panama Canal. We decided to spend a couple of days in Panama City before boarding. I was unable to access this website from anywhere in Panama and in the ship while we were in the Panama region. The ship is now in Costa Rica, and suddenly here I am.

Don't know if anyone has tried accessing this website from Panama, but I'm just wondering. Panama is quite stup... I mean, conservative when it comes to the LGBT people and their rights.

Does anyone know?

I can say with 100% certainty that this site is not banned in Panama.

[+ JamesB]

5 hours ago, Peter Eater said:

No, but generally things are not so great in Panama.

 

I´ve been living part time in Panama for over 15 years and in my experience, most Panamanians could not care less about your sexual orientation.

[+ SirBillybob]

18 minutes ago, JamesB said:

 

I´ve been living part time in Panama for over 15 years and in my experience, most Panamanians could not care less about your sexual orientation.

Not divided even a little?

[soloyo215]

10 hours ago, Peter Eater said:

No, but generally things are not so great in Panama. This is a pretty good info source:

https://www.equaldex.com/region/panama
 

Maybe your ship’s WiFi was restricted in the canal.

Thanks. It was both the ship and the hotel in Panama.

4 hours ago, JamesB said:

 

I´ve been living part time in Panama for over 15 years and in my experience, most Panamanians could not care less about your sexual orientation.

I wish I could say the same, but unfortunately, my experiences is that we are tolerated and that's for as long as we comply with their norms, which are quite homophobic. However, I trust that you have experienced that country much more than I have.

Thanks to all. I'm not sure what happened there.

[+ Vegas_Millennial]

6 hours ago, SirBillybob said:

Not divided even a little?

The canal bridges the divide... Like connecting two oceans

[maninsoma]

Maybe it was just filtering software doing its job on the networks you were using.  For example, I can imagine a cruise line employing a filter on their network so people aren't pulling up porn on their phones in public areas.

[Peter Eater]

17 hours ago, JamesB said:

 

I´ve been living part time in Panama for over 15 years and in my experience, most Panamanians could not care less about your sexual orientation.

Have you tried walking down the street holding hands with your boyfriend?

Also, there’s always a difference between what the people care about and what the laws say. For an example, see the United States. 

Edited Wednesday at 01:22 PM by Peter Eater

[soloyo215]

2 hours ago, maninsoma said:

Maybe it was just filtering software doing its job on the networks you were using.  For example, I can imagine a cruise line employing a filter on their network so people aren't pulling up porn on their phones in public areas.

I thought of that, but it was just this website. RM, and other websites (I didn't access porn, though) worked perfectly fine. Either way, I did enjoy my short stay there as much as I could.

The message I got was about the IP address being blacklisted. Not sure which IP address.

[+ Vegas_Millennial]

13 hours ago, soloyo215 said:

my experiences is that we are tolerated and that's for as long as we comply with their norms...

That's good advice for everyone traveling to another country.  Be respectful of your host country's norms.  We often here of "rude Americans" when traveling, but we wouldn't if more would comply with the host country's norms.  Why else would we want to travel if everywhere was the same?!  And vice versa, guests to the US should comply with the norms here as well.

Regarding Panama, our IT department at work has blocked anyone from Panama accessing our website, to prevent hackers.   My department discovered this when we outsourced some work to another company that had a Panama location, and their Panama office couldn't access our US based site.  IT said they have so many hacking attempts from Panama, that it was just easier to block access from the entire country.

Edited Wednesday at 02:08 PM by Vegas_Millennial

[marylander1940]

Several buildings I visit often have Net Nanny I'm able to see this site but I can't open Rentmen if I'm using their lobby internet access.

 

Edited Wednesday at 02:36 PM by marylander1940

[+ JamesB]

Just to clarify, this reflects my experience living in Panama, specifically Panama City.

Panama is a strongly Catholic and socially conservative country. Homosexuality has been legal since 2008. (Yes, it was criminalized before that). Same-sex marriage is not recognized and joint adoption by same-sex couples isn’t allowed, though single LGBT individuals can adopt. There are no explicit anti-discrimination laws protecting sexual orientation, although in everyday life, attitudes can be more relaxed than the legal framework might suggest. In fact, you will see clear discrimination against straight people in the service industry.

Public displays of affection between same-sex couples are relatively uncommon but that’s also generally true for straight couples. In Panama City and in places like Bocas del Toro, more expressive or flamboyant presentation is typically accepted, though it may draw more attention in other parts of the country. It’s not quite as open or carefree as Western Europe or major U.S. cities but it’s also not particularly restrictive in daily life.

One interesting cultural exception is among the Guna people of the San Blas Islands, who recognize a third gender known as “omeggid.” Individuals assigned male at birth who live as women are accepted and integrated naturally.

Violence against LGBT individuals is quite rare. Panama City hosts a large and increasingly visible Pride parade every June, which has grown significantly in recent years. Overall, while legal progress has been slow due to religious and conservative influences, social attitudes, especially in urban areas, tend to be more indifferent than hostile. Most Panamanians, in my experience, simply don’t make much of an issue out of someone’s sexual orientation.

[soloyo215]

2 hours ago, marylander1940 said:

Several buildings I visit often have Net Nanny I'm able to see this site but I can't open Rentmen if I'm using their lobby internet access.

 

That's still around?

3 hours ago, Vegas_Millennial said:

That's good advice for everyone traveling to another country.  Be respectful of your host country's norms.  We often here of "rude Americans" when traveling, but we wouldn't if more would comply with the host country's norms.  Why else would we want to travel if everywhere was the same?!  And vice versa, guests to the US should comply with the norms here as well.

Regarding Panama, our IT department at work has blocked anyone from Panama accessing our website, to prevent hackers.   My department discovered this when we outsourced some work to another company that had a Panama location, and their Panama office couldn't access our US based site.  IT said they have so many hacking attempts from Panama, that it was just easier to block access from the entire country.

Seems like there's an IT history between the countries.

Regarding the norms, I wasn't referring to that. I was more talking about their homophobia, which is the social norm there. Not all social norms have to do with culture.

[+ JamesB]

I almost forgot to address the OP. If you travel frequently and/or use public WiFi in places like hotels, restaurants or airports, I highly recommend installing 1.1.1.1 + WARP by Cloudflare. It’s one of the best free options for improving your privacy and security online without much hassle or noticeable impact on speed.

It helps protect your data from being intercepted on public networks or monitored by your ISP, and it can also get around many basic content filters. That said, it’s not designed specifically for bypassing geo-blocking, even if it occasionally works that way.

[marylander1940]

5 hours ago, soloyo215 said:

That's still around?

 

Alive and kicking!

I haven't tried reading RM with VPN...

Edited Wednesday at 10:25 PM by marylander1940