Survey Finds The World Hates Gay People Less Than Ever Before

Here’s a little good news to close out your work week. A new survey has found that acceptance of gay people is up in 90 percent of countries surveyed over the last 20 years.

Researchers at the University of Chicago and the LGBT think-thank Williams Institute at UCLA examined the results of hundreds of surveys on attitudes toward gay men and lesbians in 52 countries collected since 1981. What they found was that acceptance of gays has gone up by an average of about 1 percent per year since 1994.

“This study shows a clear trend toward increasing acceptance across the globe,” Andrew Park, director of International Programs at the Williams Institute, said in a statement.

Countries in northwestern Europe ranked as the most accepting, “followed by the following clusters of countries: Australia/Canada/New Zealand/United States, Southern European countries, Latin American countries, former Soviet Union/Eastern & Central Europe, Asian countries, African countries, and majority Muslim countries.”

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Some of the study’s other findings include:

• Women are, on average, more than one and a half times more likely to be accepting of lesbian and gay people than men.
• In 98% of the countries, those under 30 are more likely to say that same-gender sex is not wrong at all, compared to those aged 65 and older.
• 91% of European countries have become more accepting over the past 20 years.
• Most countries in Africa are ranked in the bottom third of all countries in the world in their level of acceptance of lesbian and gay people.

Read the full report here.

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Graham Gremore is a columnist and contributor for Queerty and Life of the Law. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.