38% of Ukrainians declare their negative attitude towards LGBT people, relatively indifferent attitude prevails (45%), 13% declared a positive attitude, according to the results of the study “Perception of LGBT people and their rights in Ukraine”, conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) May 13-18, 2022.
If among people aged 70+ only 30% have a positive or indifferent attitude towards LGBT people, then among 18-29-year-olds there are already 83%. Among respondents with higher education, 66% have a positive or indifferent attitude towards LGBT people, and only 49% among respondents with complete secondary education or lower. In terms of income, the proportion of those who have a positive/indifferent attitude is growing from 47% among the poorest respondents to 66.5% among the richest.
At the same time, there is no significant regional difference: in the west of Ukraine, 56% have an indifferent or positive attitude, in the center – 60%, in the south – 57%, in the east – 56%.
Only 11% expressed a negative attitude towards the participation of LGBT people in the defense of Ukraine from Russian aggression, 66% of respondents expressed their approval.
64% of respondents are of the opinion that LGBT residents of Ukraine should have the same rights as other citizens of the country. Only 26% are in favor of some restrictions.
Among those who have a positive or indifferent attitude towards LGBT people, the vast majority (87.5% and 78% respectively) believe that they should have the same rights. Even among those who generally have a negative attitude towards LGBT people, 42% are in favor of equality (48% are for restrictions). Younger, more educated and more affluent respondents, as well as residents of large cities, are more supportive of equality.
“The inconsistency of respondents on LGBT rights is manifested in the issue of registered partnerships for same-sex couples without the right to joint adoption. Even for this format, support is 24%, while 42% do not support such an initiative. At the same time, for another 27% this issue indifferent… Among those who have a positive attitude towards LGBT people, 58% support the idea of a registered partnership, 20% do not support it… Among those who have a negative attitude, the majority (71.5%) are against such an idea, although 10% support it,” the KIIS press release says.
During the study, 2,000 respondents were interviewed by computer-assisted telephone interviews (CATI) in all regions of Ukraine controlled by the government until February 24, 2022. The statistical error of such a sample (with a probability of 0.95 and taking into account the design effect of 1.1) does not exceed 2.4% for indicators close to 50% and 1.1% for indicators close to 5%, but under conditions war, an additional systematic deviation is added, which does not prevent the results obtained from maintaining a high representativeness.
