18% of Russians Think Gay People Should Be "Liquidated"

20 April 2020 17:20

18% of polled Russians believe that gay people should be liquidated and 32% think they should be isolated from society.Unsplash

Nearly every fifth Russian person thinks that gay men and women should be liquidated, according to a survey run by Levada Center NGO.

Nearly every fifth Russian person thinks that gay men and women should be "liquidated," according to a survey run by Levada Center NGO.

The survey, which was answered by 1,614 Russians over 18 years old across 137 cities and towns, served the purpose of finding out the nation's attitude toward people whose behavior "deviates from socially accepted norms."

In that way, 18% of those polled said that gay men and women should be "liquidated." 32% said that they should be isolated from society, another 32% that they should be "left to deal with their own problems," 9% think gay people should be helped, and, finally, 9% found the question difficult to answer.

However, this year's response is a fraction better than to an analogical survey in 2015 or earlier ones. The project has been running since 1989 and the only time Russians' perception of the LGBTQ community seemed to be better than in 2020 was in 1999 when 15% said that gay people should be liquidated and 23% said they should be isolated from society (compare that to 32% in 2020).

The survey, conducted on February 20-26, showed that among the list of those whose behavior can be considered different to socially accepted Russians have the best opinion of homeless and HIV-positive positive (only 2% believe they should be liquidated) and the worst opinion of terrorists and pedophiles (80% and 75% believe they should be liquidated respectively).

Margin of error in survey response is no more than 3.4% for those answers that are close to 50%, 2.9% for those close to 25% or 75%, 2% for results close to 10% and 90%, and 1.5% for results near 5% or 95%.

Levada Center is a non-commercial analytical center that Russian government deems as that serving as a "foreign agent." The NGO disagrees with this statement.