One In Five Russians Want to ‘Eliminate’ LGBT+ Community
A new, independent Levada Centre poll revealed that almost one in five Russians believe that the LGBT+ community should be “eliminated”.
Although figures remain high in this year's poll it is a little encouraging that numbers have seen a slight drop, marking a slight softening in attitudes towards the LGBT+ community since 2015. In 2015 21% advocated for the “elimination” of LGBT+ people while this number dropped to 18% this year. Similarly, in 2015 37% said that gays and lesbians should be “isolated from society” with that number dropping to 32% in this year's poll.
“The stigmatization of socially vulnerable people has decreased over the past 30 years, and norms that require helping and not isolating from them have expanded,” Levada sociologist Karina Pipiya said in a recent interview.
As ‘The Moscow Times’ report, Positive attitudes have also improved over the past five years, with 9% of the respondents favoring helping the LGBT community, up from 6%, and 32% saying they should be “left alone,” up from 24%.
“Besides state support measures, the development of the non-profit sector and the emergence of organizations working to improve the image of vulnerable groups in the eyes of society play an important role,” Pipiya said.
Among other groups presented in Levada’s “Social Distancing” poll, terrorists elicited the least amount of tolerance, with 80% of the respondents advocating for their “elimination” in 2020. They were followed by pedophiles at 75%, murderers at 61% and extremists at 44%.
“The rigid approach toward the need to destroy those who can do harm and even those who don’t contribute to society doesn’t mean that people are ready to take up arms,” political analyst Alexei Makarkin said.
“There’s now a new generation that has fewer [Soviet-era] frustrations. Roughly speaking, these are people who did not stand in queues,” he continued.
The survey was conducted among 1,614 respondents in 50 Russian regions.
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