LGBTQ Rights Regress in Unexpected Places Yet Advance in Others
Around the world, a community that’s gained many protections in recent years finds that hard-earned rights are being rolled back.
Acceptance of LGBTQ people is growing around the world, and their rights are increasing, too. In the two decades since Pew began polling global attitudes toward homosexuality, almost a dozen countries, from Canada to Kenya, have seen double-digit increases in the share of respondents who say LGBTQ people should be “accepted by society.” Wealthier nations with more developed economies and a higher per capita gross domestic product have tended to lead the way. In Sweden and the Netherlands, for example, more than 90% of those surveyed for Pew’s 2020 report favored more acceptance.
However, a closer look at what’s happening in predominantly Catholic or Muslim countries, among others, shows a more precarious situation, in which hard-won rights aren’t guaranteed and in some respects are being rolled back. Towns across Poland have recently passed anti-LGBTQ resolutions. In Brazil, while the Supreme Court has ruled in support of LGBTQ rights, including by criminalizing homophobia and overturning a ban on gay men giving blood, the community has also seen a surge of violence bolstered by President Jair Bolsonaro’s rhetoric against “gender ideology.”