World LGBT tolerance map

[Thanas]

[Phantasee]

Why is the scale so uneven? Why not 15-30-45-60-75-90?

[FaxModem1]

Odd that those surveyed, the Western map is mostly tolerant, while the eastern half is mostly intolerant. What's the cultural root of this?

[Kitsune]

The grey is "unknown" really. The Netherlands really should be dark blue while bet most of Africa would be pink or red.

[AniThyng]

Odd that those surveyed, the Western map is mostly tolerant, while the eastern half is mostly intolerant. What's the cultural root of this?

Christianity* and Islam accounts for one part.

Traditional gender roles in confucian society accounts for the other part.

*Yes, Christianity. This should be no surprise since that drives western anti-homosexuality movements as well. Malaysia's anti sodomy laws are secular British-style laws. Britain itself might have moved on, but its former asian/african colonies not so much.

And please don't tell me Islam is not a culture

[Arthur_Tuxedo]

This could be a geography fail on my part, but I'm surprised that the heavily-Catholic Philippines are more tolerant than Japan, and that the only countries to score 85%+ are Span and Germany, not the first countries you would have suspected of tolerance 50 years ago.

[K. A. Pital]

I guess it really depends on the understanding that people put into "accepting homosexuality". The question itself is general enough that people can imagine anything. And believe me the way religious folk describe gays, some may be imagining a gay-led 1984 state when being asked this, since that's what the propaganda tells them would happen if they let gays be. Or marry.

[Thanas]

that the only countries to score 85%+ are Span and Germany, not the first countries you would have suspected of tolerance 50 years ago.

Turns out when society puts an effort into getting rid of certain groups of people it changes?

[CaptHawkeye]

How Merkelian of you Thanas. :V

I think this has less to do with ostricization and more to do with education and the kinds of values your society prioritizes.

[Alyrium Denryle]

How Merkelian of you Thanas. :V

I think this has less to do with ostricization and more to do with education and the kinds of values your society prioritizes.

Which is extensionally equivalent to "putting an effort into getting rid of certain groups of people"(By which we mean Nazis). Germany is awesome that way.

[Thanas]

How Merkelian of you Thanas. :V

I think this has less to do with ostricization and more to do with education and the kinds of values your society prioritizes.

Which is precisely what is meant with getting rid of certain kinds of people (see Nazis, racists and bigots). If it is uncool to be a raging conservative or fascist, you then get less of them.

[fgalkin]

that the only countries to score 85%+ are Span and Germany, not the first countries you would have suspected of tolerance 50 years ago.

Turns out when society puts an effort into getting rid of certain groups of people it changes?

Except not really...

http://www.spiegel.de/international/ger ... 51972.html

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Thanas]

that the only countries to score 85%+ are Span and Germany, not the first countries you would have suspected of tolerance 50 years ago.

Turns out when society puts an effort into getting rid of certain groups of people it changes?

Except not really...

http://www.spiegel.de/international/ger ... 51972.html

A country is not uniform and disadvantaged regions might breed radicalism in isolated cases. None of that changes the general perception of an issue like LGBT tolerance.

[Siege]

Tolerance and acceptance are not binary states where either everybody is or nobody is. The Netherlands is accepting of homosexuality, but if you spend a few minutes searching for it I'm sure you'd be able to come up with a half dozen or more incidents of homosexuals being harassed and/or ostracized by bigots. Just because the majority of society accepts something doesn't mean everybody does; 85%+ acceptance is a good start but it still leaves plenty room for a vocal minority.

[K. A. Pital]

Non-acceptance isn't a monolithic "hate gay" minority or majority either, there are huge differences between, say, Central African "non-acceptance" and the same in East Asia, like China and S. Korea. I'm positively sure that "non-accepting" Koreans pose a far smaller threat to homosexuals than non-accepting people from the Middle East.

[AMX]

Why is the scale so uneven? Why not 15-30-45-60-75-90?

Because that would be even worse.
Note that the scale is symmetric - all segments are the same size, except the one in the middle.
Your proposal still has one small segment, but it's at the end, making the scale both uneven and asymmetric.

[Simon_Jester]

The impact of this map is reduced by all the gray countries.

Why is the scale so uneven? Why not 15-30-45-60-75-90?

It is even- it's symmetric about 50%. Suppose that in Boravia 70% of the population accept gays, and in Moronia 70% of the population reject gays. Boravia should appear just as 'blue' as Moronia appears 'red,' not more blue or less blue. And that's the way this graph works.

This could be a geography fail on my part, but I'm surprised that the heavily-Catholic Philippines are more tolerant than Japan...

Japan is extremely conservative about social roles, and has very rigid expectations about how people live their lives. This happens to the point that they now have a serious problem because women aren't getting married because if they do, society will pressure them to basically become domestic slaves to their husbands. If they don't want that they stay single... which seems to tie into Japan's low birth rate.

[Irbis]

Odd that those surveyed, the Western map is mostly tolerant, while the eastern half is mostly intolerant. What's the cultural root of this?

I wonder what were the methods or sources used on them. Barely third countries in EU covered, not to mention rest of the world. Especially seeing in countries I have personal experience with the answer will wary hugely depending on how the question is phrased.

But to answer your question, in the old Warsaw Pact countries sources are multiple, but can be summed as Communist parties being at best gay neutral (to outright prosecuting in the more backward ones, though not as much as regimes they replaced did) while their opponents, usually centred around churches fuelled by West money "for democratic opposition" (it would be funny if it wasn't so sad...) developed into far right hating every leftist idea while walking on religious leash.

Mild, social-liberal left wing of the political scene that would be most gay friendly was rabidly fought by both of the above forces, leaving them very weak before 1989 and having to do the work their equivalents in the West were doing since 1950 in last 25 years, in societies frozen by de facto cold civil wars almost as they were in 1940s, at best.

[Thanas]

What I find encouraging here is that the most tolerant nations in the Americas are Canada and Argentina. Canada is a given, but Argentina was a fascist dictatorship not so long ago and has undergone enormous economic stress. The fact that they did not go "HATE HATE HATE" is very encouraging.

[Ahriman238]

And I suspect if the US section were divided into states you'd see some red, some blue, and lots of inbetween. But it cheers me to think we're trending towards acceptance.

[spaceviking]

Japan might be redder than the Philippines because it is an older population. Age demographics might explain some of the other surprises.

[wautd]

Weird how they didn't included certain parts of Italy

[TimothyC]

Weird how they didn't included certain parts of Italy

Those circles represent the Vactican and San Marino.

[Spoonist]

Its completely missing scandinavia which should be blue and eastern europe which should be red.

Compare with these maps:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_right ... _territory

[Irbis]

Non-acceptance isn't a monolithic "hate gay" minority or majority either, there are huge differences between, say, Central African "non-acceptance" and the same in East Asia, like China and S. Korea. I'm positively sure that "non-accepting" Koreans pose a far smaller threat to homosexuals than non-accepting people from the Middle East.

I agree. For example, this Eastern European "non-acceptance" would look like complete pipe dream in actual non-accepting African or Asian country. This map is basically worthless, IMHO.