Study Shows Albanian Youth Is Homophobic

Albanian youth has a high level of prejudice and intolerance towards gays, or to put it more simply are very homophobic. This fact is confirmed also from a very voluminous study with the theme: “Albanian Youth 2011: Between trust in the future and doubts for the present”. With the support of German Foundation “Friedrich Ebert” (FES) the study has collected data during the period September-November 2011 and for the first time in Albania sheds light on the perceptions of youth on a long list of areas, topics and issues.

 

Part of the study shows initially that Albanian youth, maybe for reasons such as the prolonged transition and huge demographic changes have low trust in each-other, their neighbors and volunteering. This heavy decrease in trust is also associated with low tolerance and high discrimination of Albanian youth towards different social categories being gender, ethnic, economic with main reasons being patriarchal traditional paradigms.

 

The most negative reactions and tendencies of discrimination from Albanian youth seem to be towards gay people. The study shows that “even though Albanian youth are generally open towards different social groups they have a strong sense of prejudice towards gays, therefore they are very homophobic.”

 

Furthermore from the study it seems that the tendency of Albanian youth is to have very low trust in the neighbors with an average of 3.35 out of 10 which is also the lowest value than any other category within the list of values. Along this high lack of trust, the study shows that Albanian youth have prejudices towards many groups including LGBT people. Asked in an experimental form, youth was asked how they would react in case a family or a couple with special characteristics would live close to their house. Thanks to this experiment it was understood that Albanian youth have strong prejudices for people belonging to the LGBT community. Fifty (50) percent of them would not welcome being neighbors with a homosexual couple and would feel bad or very bad about it. Men have a higher percentage of discrimination; more than 67% compared to women (46%) meanwhile homophobia is present in each economic and social category. Youth in rural areas have more prejudices than youth in urban areas meanwhile women result to be more tolerant or indifferent compared to men.

 

This study as well as other surveys reveals that homophobia among youngsters is less related to bad experiences or direct contact and mostly related to lack of knowledge about LGBT issues and sexuality as well as lack of contact with people from this community. This is also conditioned by strong prejudices that prohibit LGBT people to come out.

 

Also, this study is an important document, whose results should alarm the Albanian government and public opinion and make it a necessity to do more work and put more effort in increasing tolerance, trust and acceptance of social groups from Albanian youth.

 

The recommendations related to this part of the study concern the work that needs to be done in the fight against discrimination. More specifically the recommendations are:

 

· In the school and work environments, the fight against discrimination should be a priority, more specifically that against homophobia by using methods of education, socialization and raising awareness. The goal of these actions should aim to establish a norm: Zero tolerance towards discrimination!

· The media should be more careful and responsible by allowing enough space for educational and awareness elements by overcoming the tendency of treating homosexuality as a topic related to scandalous news, giving to homosexuality confrontational and scandalous colors and elements.

· Donors need to increase their support and further encourage civil society and its initiatives for the protection of human rights in general and fight against discrimination in particular.

Even though the data from this study are alarming, PINK Embassy/LGBT Pro Albania believes strongly in the possibility of changing this reality by taking into consideration the long experience it has in collaborating with youth and by also recognizing the fact, which is now supported by studies such as these, that the majority of Albanian youth prejudices towards LGBT people come from the lack of information and human contact.

 

Also, PINK Embassy/LGBT Pro Albania calls upon the Ministry of Education and Science, the Ministry of Youth, other ministries and institutions to join as soon as possible the work that is already being done by LGBT organizations in the country, the Commissioner for Protection from Discrimination, the Ombudsman, the Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities to include in their working plans, educational and awareness projects at the benefit of increasing and improving the knowledge of Albanian youth about LGBT people. The Action Plan, approved a while ago by the Ministry of Labor should serve as reference point to start work in this area.