Beaten, Bullied, Badgered: EU Study Finds Widespread Homophobia in Europe

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/eu-survey-shows-widespread-homophobia-in-europe-a-900505.html


A Gay Pride parade in Paris on June 30, 2012. One in four participants reported being the victim of an assault or threats of violence in the past five years

In Europe, the acceptance of homosexuals, bisexuals and the transgendered is far from a foregone conclusion. Many still face discrimination, social isolation or outright assault. That's the conclusion reached by the EU's Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) in its largest study to date. The survey shows that a large portion of the LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender) community feels it cannot openly acknowledge its sexual orientation.

Nearly half of respondents (47 percent) said they had experienced discrimination because of their sexual orientation in the past year. With 46 percent, Germany came in one percentage point under the EU average. Around one in four participants reported being the victim of an assaultor threats of violence in the past five years.

Six percent of survey participants said they had been physically attacked in the past 12 months, a portion of which occurred within their own families. Women were more frequently the victims of sexual assault. Transgender respondents reported that they consistently experience more intolerance than do gays and bisexuals.

The FRA calls the study the most comprehensive of its kind to date. The data was collected online from more than 93,000 respondents, who came from the 27 countries of the European Unionand Croatia. All of the participants were over 18 years old and identified themselves as trangender, gay or bisexual. At least 20,000 of the answers came from Germany -- more than from any other country.