Back Centre for free elecions and democracy (CeSID) presented results of the research on position of LGBTI persons in Serbia

Centre for free elecions and democracy (CeSID) presented results of the research on position of LGBTI persons in Serbia

CeSID presented results of a public opinion poll on rights and position of LGBTI persons in society as a part of the Belgrade Pride Week. The sample included 1,060 respondents older than 18 years from the teritorry of Serbia who were interviewed in the period between 10 and 20 May 2021. This research is a part of the grant this organisation received within the joint European Union and the Council of Europe action "Promotion of diversity and equality in Serbia“.

A total of 6 percent of those respondents who felt their rights were treatened cited their sexual orientation as a cause. CeSID emphasised that objective parametres that were used to assess public attitude towards LGBTI persons are still far from favourable, but that they imply on certain progress over the past decade in terms of how the public perceive persons of different sexual orientation. They believe that this improvement could be measured by using a social distance scale towards members of LGBTI population. Namely, citizens are now much readier to interact with them compared to the results of 2010 research.

However, they emphasise that acceptance of interaction with LGBTI population does not guarantee a positive attitude towards them. Namely, only two fifths (39%) of those who does not have anything against interaction also had a positive attitude towards this social group. Every fifth respondent (20%) cultivates a negative attitude towards persons of different sexual orientation.

Additionally, current support to the adoption of the Same-Sex Unions Law is still very low and does not exceed 11%, one of key reasons for this being an unfamiliarity with the proposed legislation. It is interesting to note that 61% of respondents who are not familiar with the draft Law does not support its adoption.

As many as 41% of respondents feel Serbia should not legally regulate sex change and gender identity. A high percentage of them have no oninion on this matter (28%), while remaining respondents (31%) believe that the country should regulate this area. However, half of them also believe that the sex change should be banned.

It could be concluded from the collected data that there has been a slight decrease in negative perception towards LGBTI people compared to the findings of the research conducted thirtheen and eleven years ago. Additonally, this research has shown that a significant percentage of respondents does not have an opinion about the position and rights of LGBTI people and therefore public debates on this topic should be organised.

 Results of the research "Towards better understanding of LGBTI persons' rights and their position in society"

 English version

 Serbian version

Belgrade 1 October 2021
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