Poll: Bulgarians’ basic attitudes towards LGBTI people remain unchanged in 2024, despite attacks
A poll by the Alpha Research agency, the results of which were released on December 11, has found that most Bulgarians believe that the most serious problems in Bulgarian education are not related to “gender ideology”, but to poor discipline, aggression, lack of interest among pupils, the spread of drugs and harmful substances near schools, among other issues.
The survey, commissioned by the GLAS Foundation, confirms that Bulgarians’ basic attitudes towards LGBTI people remain unchanged in 2024, in spite of numerous attacks on the community.
The socio-political context in 2024 was characterised by strong dynamics regarding LGBTI people and their problems, the GLAS Foundation said.
“In a number of cases, influenced by political events such as the European Parliament elections, the early parliamentary elections in Bulgaria, or the Olympics in Paris, LGBTI people were the subject of more or less fierce public debates,” the foundation said.
“As a result of increasingly radicalising propaganda theses, LGBTI people have become the subject of more targeted attacks, as well as special legislative provisions with the amendments to the Preschool and School Education Act,” it said, referring to homophobic legislation approved by Bulgaria’s Parliament in August 2024.
Such a context may deepen in a negative direction the predominantly neutral attitude of Bulgarian citizens towards LGBTI people, the foundation said.
Data from the Alpha Research poll, however, show that for the time being in Bulgaria the heightened public chorus against the LGBTI community has little impact on public attitudes on the topic.
The basic attitudes that Alpha Research tracks in a comparative plan over time generally remain unchanged, with a slight wavering of the strongest support for LGBTI positions on some issues:
First of all, the vast majority of the country’s residents believe that the rights of people with different sexual orientations should be guaranteed in terms of access to healthcare (86 per cent), equality before the law (67 per cent), and property rights (66 per cent).
Somewhat hesitant, but still supported by almost every second person, is the view that LGBTI people should be guaranteed respect and dignity in educational institutions (49 per cent).
For another year, the observation is confirmed that the more personal experience Bulgarians have in direct contact with LGBTI people, the more accepting they are.
The GLAS Foundation said that the changes adopted in the summer to the Preschool and School Education Act, and in particular, the provisions against “non-traditional sexual orientation”, have sparked a public debate on whether such a problem exists in schools in the country.
It said that the poll found that Bulgarian citizens believe that the most serious problems in Bulgarian education, the solution of which cannot be postponed, are of a different nature, not the “problem” envisaged by those who tabled the legislation.
In the first place, people put poor discipline (46 per cent), aggression and conflicts between pupils (46 per cent), lack of interest in school among pupils (42 per cent), distribution of drugs and other harmful substances near schools (34 per cent), insufficient demands on pupils (28 per cent), difficult-to-understand textbooks and aids (21 per cent).
Only after these comes the spread of “gender ideology”, seen as a problem by one fifth of adult citizens.
There is polarisation among Bulgarian society as to whether changes such as those in the education law, as well as the proposed Foreign Agents Bill, solve social problems or, on the contrary, exacerbate confrontation between people: 38 per cent see such laws as a solution, 32 per cent believe that they create additional tension, 31 per cent undecided.
“An important observation is that this polarisation is present among all socio-demographic strata and the only indicator that registers more distinct positions is people’s political sympathies,” the foundation said.
“In short, supporters of right-wing and centre-right parties perceive such legal changes as a factor for further division in society; of nationalist and radical-populist parties – as a solution; and those of left-wing parties are unable to assess.”
The attitudes outlined in this way, although indirectly, reveal the political nature of such legal changes, which do not address the important problems in the respective sphere, but deepen the social division and are used as a tool for intra-party mobilisation, the foundation said.
Commissioned by the GLAS Foundation, Alpha Research did the nationally representative survey among the adult population of the country, in the period October 7-17, 2024. among a sample of 1000 adult residents throughout the country. The interviews were conducted face-to-face with tablets.
(Photo: Ludovic Bertron)
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