Abstract
This study examines social attitudes towards homosexuality in two Central-Eastern European neighbouring countries – Romania and Hungary – with many common points, but that do differ in their religious traditions. 
 Our main research question is whether the main religious denomination can influence social attitudes towards homosexuality, after controlling for all the important individual level variables (gender, age, education, type of settlement, family status, employment background, and attitudes related to family and gender norms). Among the examined variables we especially focus on the religious ones since the dominant denominations are different in these otherwise similar societies.
 The empirical base of our study comprises two longitudinal databases: the European Social Survey (ESS) and the European Values Study (EVS). We use data from two ESS rounds (of 2006 and 2008) and three EVS rounds (of 1990, 1999 and 2008). Since Romania participated only in the 3rd and the 4th rounds of the ESS (in 2006 and 2008), the Romanian results from 2008 are the most recent ones.
 We apply descriptive statistics and regression models. Our main conclusion is that belonging to the Orthodox Church had a more negative effect on social attitudes towards homosexuality than belonging to the Catholic Church (as previous studies have also found).
Highlights
Our study examines social attitudes towards homosexuality in two Central-Eastern European countries: Hungary and Romania
Based on descriptive statistical results we can state that Romania and Hungary belong to the less liberal European countries regarding all of the examined European Values Study (EVS) and European Social Survey (ESS) variables, including the ‘justification’ of homosexuality,preference for homosexual neighbours, attitudes towards adoption by same-sex couples and social acceptance of gay men and lesbian women
On the geographical and geopolitical verge of Europe we can find countries that are even less liberal, we can probably state that most North-Western European countries have a more open-minded atmosphere around homosexuality related issues than Hungary or Romania
Summary
Our study examines social attitudes towards homosexuality in two Central-Eastern European countries: Hungary and Romania. According to arguments that can often be heard from policy-makers in this context such issues could not (yet) be on the political agenda since society is not ‘ready’ or ‘mature enough’ for providing full intimate citizenship (Plummer, 2003) rights for gay and lesbian citizens Even though these two countries have many common points – their postsocialist past, the transition period, preferences towards traditional family practices, high gender inequality compared to Western societies, and a lack of long-lasting democratic traditions – they do differ in their religious traditions. By comparing Romania and Hungary we follow the ideas of Neyer and Andersson (2008) who suggested disentangling the effects of country or region specificities on policy effects by comparing the potentially most similar contexts, which display well-recognized differences In this case we try to understand the different homosexuality-related attitudes in two similar countries with different main or dominant religious denominations. This study wants to highlight that homosexualityrelated attitudes are not in the least static or unified, as opinions might change both in time and depending on the various social-demographic factors as well
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