In Which Countries is Homosexuality Most (and Least) Acceptable? A Ranking of 98 Countries

Abstract

Homosexuality is generally viewed negatively. That is certainly the case in the Jewish and Christian holy books as well as the Quran, although opinions differ as to interpretation. The practice has been condemned by these religions. An Imam in Orlando, Florida, the site of the mass murder of homosexuals, has gone so far as to say that killing homosexuals would be the compassionate thing to do.It is not the purpose of this paper to review the history of homosexuality, or the pros and cons or moral standing of the practice. Readers can obtain that information by reading the items listed in the reference section of this paper. The goal of this study is more limited, to report the results of various studies conducted by the World Values Surveys on the topic of homosexuality and to rank the acceptability of homosexuality for those countries where the studies were conducted. Those six studies, going back to 1981, asked hundreds of thousands of people in about 100 countries what their views were on homosexuality, specifically the extent to which it could be justified. This study ranks those countries based on acceptability, as measured by their mean scores.The present study is part of a series on homosexuality. Other studies in the series look at trends on the acceptance of homosexuality and examine specific demographic variables such as gender, age, social class, level of education, religion and region to see whether these variables are significant. Citations to some of those studies (with links) are listed in the reference section of the present paper.