Ireland and our LGBT Community

Basic figures: – A large majority of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that gay men and lesbians (88%), bisexual people (87%) and transgender people (85%) “should be free to live their own life as they wish”. – Women were significantly more likely than men to agree with the above statement in respect to every identity group. People aged 25-34 years were significantly more likely than the general population to disagree with the statement. – On average, respondents were comfortable having people with a minority sexual orientation or gender identity as neighbours. Responses were significantly more positive towards having lesbians (M=8.51), bisexual people (M=8.40) and gay men (M=8.38) as neighbours compared to transgender people (M=7.98). – High levels of empathy were expressed with crime victims across all identity categories. Respondents were similarly empathetic towards heterosexual couples (M= 9.01), lesbian couples (M=9.05) and transgender persons (M=8.86) who are physically assaulted on the street. However, gay couples (M= 8.55) attracted significantly less empathy than a lesbian couple in similar circumstances. – Respondents were significantly more likely to intervene on behalf of a victim with a disability (M=7.86), than on behalf of an LGBT victim (M=6.96), but significantly more likely to intervene on behalf of an LGBT victim than an Irish Traveller (M= 5.82). – Respondents reported similar willingness to intervene on behalf of a lesbian pushed and slapped on the street by a stranger (M=7.38) and a transgender person (M= 7.03) in the same situation. Respondents were significantly more unlikely to intervene on behalf of a gay man (M=6.63) or bisexual person (M= 6.89) compared to a lesbian. – A third of respondents (33%) disagreed that violence against lesbians, gay men, bisexual and transgender people is a “serious problem in my country”, but more than half (58%) agreed that hate crimes hurt more than equivalent, non-bias, crimes.