According to a recent LGBT public opinion survey commissioned by the Estonian Human Rights Centre, the attitudes of Estonian people towards LGBT rights are becoming more in favour from year to year. The rise in support for marriage equality has been rapid and one-way Today, 53% of Estonian people support marriage equality. This is 6 percentage points more than two years ago. Considering that 34% of people were in favour and 60% were against marriage equality in 2012, progress over the decade has been rapid and one-way.
The public opinion poll was carried out by Turu-uuringute AS in early April. “The latest developments are primarily related to changes in the opinions of the population whose native language is not Estonian – among them, the share of those in favour of marriage equality has almost doubled compared to 2019 (from 22% to 40%),” said Liis Grünberg, Research Manager at Turu-uuringute AS.
3/4 of young people support marriage equality
“Support of marriage equality among people aged 20-29 is 75%,” said Egert Rünne, Executive director of the Human Rights Centre. “This is a clear message to political parties: if they want to attract younger voters, they have to stand up for the human rights of all people in Estonia.”
Family is family
Support among Estonian residents for adoption has also increased significantly over the last two years – more than half of the population believe that a same-sex partner should be able to adopt their partner’s child. “The Human Rights Centre has drawn attention to the issues faced by same-sex couples, who only want to live a safe family life, through their personal stories and court cases for more than ten years,” explained Kelly Grossthal, Head of Strategic Litigation at the Human Rights Centre. “The results of the survey show that an increasing number of people understand that family is family, regardless of whether children are raised by a father and mother, mother and mother or two fathers.”
The Human Rights Centre has been publishing public opinion surveys on LGBT topics since 2012. The surveys are conducted every two years by Turu-uuringute AS and the 2023 survey will be the sixth largest report on LGBT rights in Estonia.
You can read the summary here (link).
The completion of the survey was supported by the Ministry of Social Affairs.
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