African Youths Oppose Boosting LGBTQ Rights, Survey Shows

Antony Sguazzin
·2 min read
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(Bloomberg) -- Young people in Africa are overwhelmingly opposed to strengthening the rights of the LBGTQ community in their countries, highlighting the challenges facing the group across the continent, a survey showed.

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Of 4,500 people between the ages of 18 and 24 interviewed across 15 African countries, about three of five disagreed when asked if their country should do more to protect the rights of LGBTQ people, according to the findings of an Ichikowitz Family Foundation survey provided to Bloomberg on Tuesday. Most “strongly disagreed” with boosting freedoms.

The continent is a difficult place for LGBTQ people, where homosexuality is banned in more than 30 of Africa’s 54 countries — and the attitudes of the continent’s young suggest that change may not come in the short term.

“Legislative protections remain weak across the continent,” the researchers who collated the results of the survey said in a response to questions. In “Somalia, Somaliland, Mauritania and Northern Nigeria homosexuality can be punishable by death,” they said.

In May Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni approved laws to make punishments for same-sex relations harsher, including the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality,” a categorization that includes same-sex relations with someone under 18 or while infected with HIV. Ghanaian lawmakers are considering punitive legislation against gay people, while Kenya’s President William Ruto slammed a pro-LGBTQ ruling by the nation’s top court.

Still, attitudes across Africa vary.

In South Africa, where same-sex marriage is permitted, 83% of respondents were in favor of more LGBTQ protections, followed by Mozambique with 67% of respondents assenting to the question and Gabon with 62%. Respondents the most opposed to boosting rights came from Malawi, with just 9% in favor, Sudan with 16% and Uganda with 21%.

The negative attitude toward the LGBTQ community is in sharp contrast with views on a range of equality issues. In the survey, 79% of respondents were concerned about the lack of rights for women and 81% about gender-based violence. Protection for refugees won support with 83% in favor and 64% said it was a moral obligation.

The Ichikowitz Family Foundation was founded by Ivor Ichikowitz, who also founded Paramount Group Ltd., a South Africa-based defense and aerospace business. He is now chairman of the foundation.

The foundation has carried out a series of surveys of the attitudes of African youth on matters including the influence of foreign powers on the continent.

(Adds detail on the foundation in last paragraph)

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