Poll shows Russians support bans on ‘gay propaganda’, hurting religious feelings

(Interfax – July 3, 2013) The recent laws criminalizing “propaganda” of homosexuality and actions aimed at hurting believers’ feelings have the support of the majority of Russians, privately-owned Russian news agency Interfax reported on 3 July, quoting figures from the latest opinion poll carried out by Levada Centre.

Figures on the center’s own website (http://www.levada.ru/) show that 16 per cent of those polled “fully support” the changes to the law that made offending believers’ feelings punishable by imprisonment, and another 39 per cent lean towards supporting them. Nine per cent said they firmly opposed the new law and 28 per cent leaned towards opposing it, with 8 per cent of don’t knows.

There was a much greater degree of support for the law introducing heavy fines for the propaganda of “nontraditional sexual relations”: 35 per cent were fully and another 41 per cent mostly in favour, with just 4 per cent firmly opposed and 13 per cent mostly opposed to the law.

Asked what prompted the State Duma to pass the law, 56 per cent chose “low moral standards among the young” and 46 per cent, “the need to oppose the pernicious influence of the West”. Other answers were less popular, with 15 per cent going for “the difficult demographic situation in the country”, 12 per cent for “the wish to divert public attention from pressing socio-economic problems” and 7 per cent for “the wish to create another tool to persecute dissenters”.

The opinion poll was carried out on 20-24 June on a representative cross-section of 1,601 people aged 18 and over in 130 population centers in 45 regions.

According to other figures on the Levada Centre website, when asked how many gay, lesbian or bisexual acquaintances they had, 80 per cent said none, 9 per cent said one or two, 3 per cent said three or more, and 9 per cent did not know.

Asked whether their attitude to an acquaintance who confesses to be “a member of sexual minorities” would change, 50 per cent said it would worsen, 29 per cent said there would be no change, and 2 per cent said it would improve.

There was a considerable variation in answers when people were asked what they would do if their own child confessed to the same. The largest share, 26 per cent, chose “I’ll try to discuss it with them and sort things out”. The second most popular answer (22 per cent) was “I’ll turn to specialists”, followed by “I’ll be sad but let them live the way they want” (11 per cent), “I’ll try to persuade or force them to lead a heterosexual life” (8 per cent); “I love them and wish them happiness whatever the sex of their partner” (6 per cent); and “kick them out and never contact again” (5 per cent).

Asked whether their own sexuality could change as a result of propaganda, 68 per cent said definitely not, 17 per cent said probably not, 5 per cent said it might, and 3 per cent said it definitely would. Asked whether it could have been changed by propaganda when they were children, 46 per cent said definitely not, 18 per cent said probably not, 12 per cent said it might have, 6 per cent said it definitely would have, and 18 per cent said they didn’t know.