By a huge lead, the most gay friendly people in Europe are the Dutch and lagging badly, the least gay friendly are the Poles. So says a European study on prejudice, or Group Focused Enmity as they nicely call it, which was published last month. Eight countries were surveyed. In order of anti-gay prejudice they were: Poland, Hungary, Portugal, Italy, France, Britain, Germany, Netherlands. An astonishing 43% of Europeans still think that gay sex is immoral. Even more, 53%, think gay marriage is wrong.
But before you start to feel over-persecuted, how about this: 24% say that "Jews have too much influence", 55% of Europeans believe that "the Islam is a religion of intolerance", 31% agree that "there is a natural hierarchy between black and white people". How retro is that? And could you be one of them?
Disciplinarians, right wingers, religious people and patriots are among those who are most likely to be prejudiced. You can read the full 21 page press release here it's very readable, or "continue reading" for highlights.
Prejudices are widely share across Europe. But countries differ with general lowest rates in the Netherlands, followed by Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and comparably highest overall levels in Poland and Hungary.
The headlines were:
Immigrants
50.4% of the Europeans somewhat or strongly agree that “there are too many immigrants” in their country. This statement indicates a generalized and blind rejection of immigrants.
Jews
24.5% supposes that “Jews have too much influence in [country]“. Here, a traditional facet of anti-Semitism appears that mirrors anti-Semitic conspiracy myths.
Muslims
54.4% of the Europeans believe that “the Islam is a religion of intolerance.” This makes obvious that many Europeans share a generalized negative image of the Islam (and of Muslims as the agreement to additional statements reveals).
Coloured people
Nearly one third (31.3%) of the Europeans somewhat or strongly agree that “there is a natural hierarchy between black and white people”. Thus, they agree to a very blatant and direct statement indicating the belief in ethnic hierarchies legitimised by implied natural differences.
Women
A majority of Europeans of 60.2% stick to traditional gender roles that result in economical and power gender inequality as they are demanding that “women should take their role as wives and mothers more seriously.”
Gays and lesbians
42.6% deny equal value of gay men and lesbian women and judge homosexuality as ‘immoral’. However, there are remarkable differences in the level of prejudice between the observed countries. On average, prejudices towards a variety of groups are the lowest in the Netherlands and the highest in Poland and Hungary with many exceptions and country specific patterns.
The actual percentages of people who disagreed or strongly disagreed that homosexuality is immoral or that marriage between two men or two women should not be allowed was:
|
Homo sexuality is wrong |
Same sex marriage is wrong | |
| Netherlands |
16% |
17% |
| Germany |
38% |
40% |
| Britain |
37% |
42% |
| France |
36% |
53% |
| Italy |
36% |
64% |
| Portugal |
44% |
62% |
| Hungary |
68% |
69% |
| Poland |
75% |
88% |
| EU |
43% |
53% |
Why are Europeans prejudiced?
In order of importance, the major causes or indicators of prejudice in a person were
The person favoured discipline.
They feel their financial situation and way of life are threatened by immigrants.
They reject of diversity.
They believe that some people are better than others
They are politically alienated.
They are politically to rather to the right than to the left.
They are more religious.
They feel relatively deprived.
They feel that their group is relatively deprived.
They are patriotic.
They are less educated or of older age
berlin 
There is always going to be sex stereotypes chasing the gay people, most of the gay people hangs with gay people, is hard to see a gay people on a group of straight people and viceversa.
Posted by: sex stereotypes | Tuesday, March 09, 2010 at 22:52