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ATTITUDES TOWARDS HOMOSEXUALITY IN MAPUTO, BEIRA AND NAMPULA - 2017

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The present work, results from an evaluation carried out by Lambda about behaviors, practices and attitudes toward homosexuality in Mozambique, specifically in the cities of Maputo, Beira and Nampula. Similarly to the evaluation carried out in 2013, the present evaluation, seeks to understand the social behavior of citizens toward homosexuality in order to list evidences for the promotion and protection of sexual minorities rights. The specific objectives of the present work consisted in capturing the knowledge about homosexuality of the selected participants; in gauging sexual education skills; in collecting opinion about sexual practices and sexual orientation; in collecting opinions about homosexuals in public sphere; in searching for perceptions about attitudes and sexual orientation in public sphere; as well as perceptions concerning sexual orientation and violence.

Given the objectives described above, a probabilistic sample composed by 1.425 participants from which, 800 were male representatives and 625 of the opposite sex, was extracted. Concerning the distribution of survey respondents per city, it was noticed that 293 represented Maputo city, 629 represented Nampula city and 503 represented Beira city. These figures suggest that if compared with the 2013 survey, there was more adherence to the present survey with a difference of 475 additional participants. On the other hand, looking at the figures, it’s noticeable that the Beira city had an outstanding representativity..

The selection of the surveyed audience was based on systematic spontaneous sample where a time slot (varying from 5 to 10 minutes depending on the context) was allocated to question each local resident of the surveyed city preferably individuals with ages from 18 years old and above. However, it is worth noticing that due to the nature of the questions asked, there were outstandingly noticeable difficulties in the given answers by the surveyed audience, it is presumed that such fact is associated with the prevailing taboos and stereotypes surrounding the homosexuality and homosexuals.

85% of respondent’s oppose to physical and verbal violence against homosexuals, hence, most of them responded that they would intervene in favor of homosexuals if he/she was in a situation of physical assault.
The gross number of participants said that violence against homosexuals was unjustifiable

Knowledge about homosexuality

The respondent’s in the three cities were youth, with sexual orientation tending to heterosexual and had diversified knowledge about homosexuality

In comparison with 2013 Maputo city dropped 7%

Perception about homosexuality

Respondents admit that homosexuality is an ordinary social phenomenon, they have knowledge about the topic. However, they don’t consider homosexuals as having the same rights as themselves.

Acceptance of homosexual children

When it comes to the respondent’s reaction of the three cities concerning the question about how would they react if they knew that their children were homosexual, there were outstanding unbalanced opinions. However two categories stand out; on one hand, those that would assault the children physically with28% (Beira city), 25% (Maputo city) and 21% (Nampula city) on the other hand, there are those respondents who would accept their children with percentages ranging from 27% (Nampula city); 24 %( Maputo city) to 18% (Sofala city).

A reduction in number of respondents who would accept their homosexual’s children was verified

Interaction with homosexuals

Most respondents do not have contact with homosexuals. Questioned about what attitude they would have if they knew that a neighbor, a medical doctor or someone from their close relationships identifies himself or herself as homosexuals and or is an assumed homosexual; a trend for tolerance and passivity was verified.

Only 3 out of 10 respondents interact with people who are openly homosexuals

In what concerns work relations, it was verified that 37.9% of respondents would respect the homosexual co-worker, 23.7%, would fire them if they could, 13.8% would avoid any contact and 20.6% would act with indifference.

Adoption

When the citizen of the three cities were questioned if homosexual couples could adopt children, we verified two extreme opinions, with a relatively higher number of respondents who defended that homosexuals could not adopt children.

Same sex couples marriage (gay marriage)

Concerning same sex marriage legalization, there is a diverging trend in opinion from the participants of the three cities, we noted that most respondents are against same sex marriage compared to those who are pro/in favor of same sex marriage.

Just like in the 2013 survey, when asked about homosexual marriage, the majority of responders (59.5%) was against the legalization of homosexual’s marriage. In contrast 28.4% of respondents were in favor of same sex marriages.

6.3% of interviewed homosexuals were against the legalization of homosexual marriages

Homosexuals in leadership positions

65.9% of heterosexual respondents are against homosexuals in leadership positions such as country president position. 33% are in favor of homosexuals in leadership positions. 29.6% of bisexual respondents are in favor of homosexuals in leadership positions against 70.4% of respondents who are against homosexuals in a country president post.

In contrast, 56.3%) of homosexuals are in favor of having homosexuals as president of a country against 43.8% of the interviewees that were opposed to homosexuals as country president.

O estudo permitiu notar que, apesar da tendência na aceitação dos homossexuais, ainda persistem vários desafios no que respeita ao gozo dos direitos sexuais das minorias de orientação homossexual, sendo de destacar alguns pontos de partida de acções relacionadas com os resultados do presente estudo. Ora, no estudo anterior propôs-se que se deviam promover campanhas de esclarecimento sobre a homossexualidade lideradas pelo próprio movimento LGBT, campanhas que deviam estar voltadas para a sociedade no seu todo (meio urbano e rural).

Researcher: Dr. Baltazar Muianga (Sociologist)

Technical Council: Dr. Isabel Casimiro (Anthropologist), Dr. Marcos Benedetti (Anthropologist) Dr. Santos Simione (Psychologist)

Graphics & Layouts: Danilo da Silva

with support of

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