Statistics on Discrimination of Homosexuals

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Over the last centuries and especially the last decades, acceptance of homosexuality by people in the West and in Asia has increased, as is shown by this graph (figures for the US):

(source)

(source, data for the U.S.)

(source, data for the U.S.)

(source)

Same-sex marriage as well is becoming more acceptable:

(source)

This graph may be a bit hard to read but it tracks popular support for same-sex marriage at different points in time, for the different states of the U.S., and it indicates whether same-sex marriage is or isn’t allowed in those states.

Gay marriage has increased in popularity in all fifty states. No news there, but what was a surprise to me is where the largest changes have occurred. The popularity of gay marriage has increased fastest in the states where gay rights were already relatively popular in the 1990s.

Policies on gay marriage are highly congruent with preferences – pretty much, gay marriage is legal where more than 50% of the people support it, and illegal where the policy has less than 50% support. (source)

However, in large parts of Africa and the Middle East the situation is worse. The following graph shows the status of homosexuality laws in the world. I know one cannot deduce public opinion from laws in non-democratic countries, but there must be some correlation:

Public opinion is as follows:

(source)

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