Nearly half of Russians want government to persecute gays
By Will Stroude
Homophobic attitudes in Russia have significantly worsened over the last ten years, a new poll has shown.
The survey by state-run pollster VTsIOM found that the number of Russians who believed LGBT people should be ‘isolated from society’ grew has risen to 20%, up from 12% in 2004, Gay Star News reports.
Meanwhile, almost half of respondents (41%) though that authorities should persecute people with ‘untraditional sexual preferences’ in order to ‘exterminate the phenomenon’. Just 12% agreed that the government should take steps to protect LGBT people from discrimination.
Less than a quarter (22%) said that other people’s sexuality wasn’t an issue for them, compared to 24% in 2004, while 15% said that despite considering LGBT people ‘normal,’ they would not socialise with them.
The study showed that support for gay marriage has also significantly decreased over the last decade, with eight out of 10 Russians opposing it compared to six out of 10 in 2005.
The number of people who explicitly supported equal marriage also fell, from 14% to 8%, while just 3% believe that LGBT should be able to raise children.
The findings come as Russia continues to crack down on the country’s LGBT community. As well as introducing a number of anti-gay ‘propaganda’ laws in recent years, police have continued to arrest people participating in gay rights demonstrations and Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party has recently unveiled its own ‘straight pride’ flag.
Commenting on the results of the survey, Alexei Firsov, VTsIOM’s communications director, said: “In this aspect Russia is about twice as conservative as even China.
“It’s interesting that we are swimming against the current, strengthening, despite global trends, intolerance toward homosexual relationships. This indicator might serve as a parameter of national identification.”
VTsIOM polled 1,600 Russians in 46 regions between 11-12 April and 4-5 July, and claim the margin of error is no greater than 3.5%.
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