This Sunday is the Vancouver Pride Parade.
I learned a lot during my decade and a half teaching Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the UAE. It provided me with much that most people don't have the chance to experience. I know many people who get used to life there and find it hard to leave.
I left those places because they could not provide me with many important things. People can learn to make do in many situations but it should not be a substitute for really being free to express oneself. The whole concept of personal freedom is extremely foreign to large swatches of the world.
North American values and ideals can get quite twisted at times, but there's still an underlying respect for diversity. There's something noble about perhaps not supporting something but upholding the basic right of others to be different. Agreeing to disagree is quite respectful. These facts boil down to the major reason I'm living in Canada.