Students opinions and attitudes toward LGBT persons and rights: Results of a transnational European project

ABSTRACT

This article presents the research results of the European co-funded project NISO: Fighting Homophobia Through Active Citizenship and Media Education. The project combined research and non-formal education activities in four European countries: Belgium, Estonia, Italy and the Netherlands. The research intended to identify and analyze high school students' opinions about LGBT issues and rights. With a sample of 1,371 students across the four sites, the survey explored students' opinions on homosexuality. Overall, the majority of the sample reported positive views toward homosexuality. Nevertheless, stereotypes about gay men and lesbian women emerged in approximately half of the sample, mainly related to non-conformity with traditional gender roles. Differences among countries emerged regarding attitudes toward LGBT people and the recognition of LGBT rights and appeared to be related to differences in the national context of rights recognition across the four countries.

Keywords:

• European project
• heteronormativity
• homophobia
• students' opinions on LGBTs
• stereotypes

Acknowledgments

This article reports an original elaboration of data gathered and analyzed by the authors and by other project partners. The authors acknowledge and thank for their collaboration the writers of national reports on which this article is based: Federica De Simone, Peter Dankmeijer, Eva Dumon, Anja Geirnaert, Fabrizio Marazzo, Madis Räästas, Marinus A. Schouten, Sven Spreutels, and Christian Veske.

Funding

This article is based on the outputs of the NISO project co-financed by the European Commission and coordinated by the Province of Rome (NISO - Fighting homophobia through active citizenship and media education – N. JUST/2009/FRAC/1179 – 30 – CE – 0377095/00/44).

Notes

1. Italian students obtain the high school diploma, normally, when they are 19 years old and come of age at 18; at this age schools do not need to ask parents permissions for activities engaging them.

2. Data about Estonian respondents are not reported in the graph, as the question in the Estonian questionnaire was slightly different, as it was perceived as particularly sensitive for the questionnaire audience. The Estonian participants were asked to agree or disagree with the following statement “It is acceptable to change sex”: 10.4% of the respondents totally disagreed, 16.7% disagreed, 18.8% neither agreed nor disagreed, 20.8% agreed and 33.3% totally agreed.

3. As mentioned (see note 6) this question was not asked in Estonia for reasons of opportunity.

4. The analysis of each specific item, at aggregated level and for each country is available at the project website www.nisoproject.eu

5. A five-grades Likert scale was used, but the results are here aggregated in a three-grade scale. The original options were “Totally disagree”; “disagree”; “not agree neither disagree”; “agree” and “totally agree.” The first two options have ben aggregated under the label “agree” and the last two options have been aggregated under the label “disagree”…

6. The data for the Estonian sample is not available as the question was not included in the questionnaire (see methodological section).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Antonella Passani

Antonella Passani, PhD, is with T6 Ecosystems in Rome, Italy.

Marie Debicki is with T6 Ecosystems in Rome, Italy.

Marie Debicki

Marie Debicki is with T6 Ecosystems in Rome, Italy.