European Youth: consensus on gay marriage

The debate over equal rights for gay marriage is a hot issue all over Europe.
Some European countries have full equal rights by now, whereas others still
grant few to no rights to homosexual couples. The current European Youth
Poll sends a clear signal: The young participants favour gay marriage by a
clear majority of 85.5%.

73.6% also want same-sex couples to have the same rights to adopt children
as other couples. The young people know, however, that their views are not
necessarily those of the majority in their societies: 80.4% believe, that there
is widespread prejudice against homosexuals in their countries. 64% even
think that open homosexuality is an obstacle to a career in their country.
The answers to this question show great differences between the
participating countries While in Turkey (95%), but also in Italy (78%) or
Austria (77%) many think that homosexuality hinders a career, only 39% do
so in the Netherlands, and only 25% in Norway.

The survey, which is regularly conducted by the European Youth Parliament
in cooperation with Stiftung Mercator drew a record number of participants
on this topic: 5624 participants, 16-27 of age, from 45 European countries
participated between September 12th – 25th.

EYP Austria would like to thank the many contributors in Austria for their time spent on the survey. Extensive material on the survey can be found on the international EYP  website eyp.org. Press releases in German language can be found in the press section.

For further requests, please contact the Austrian Coordinator for European Youth Polls, Jakob Etzel (jakob.etzel@eypaustria.org).