Attitudes to Transgender Individuals in Hungary and Poland: Mental Illness, Sin, Unacceptable

In 2016, Ipsos and BuzzFeed developed questions for online surveys together with the Williams Institute. The aim was to understand the attitudes to transgender persons in different countries. In general, a majority of those surveyed believe that transgender individuals are a natural occurence (52%). There are, however, big differences between countries with Eastern European ones seeming to have the most difficulty in understanding the concept of transgender.



In Hungary, 43% believe that being transgender is a form of mental illness, in Serbia it is 43%, in Poland 41% (compared to 9% in Spain, 11% in Italy, 13% in France and Argentina). Among western countries, the U.S. is the most likely one to believe transgender individuals have a mental illness (32%), that they are committing a sin (32%), and that society has gone too far in accepting people who dress and live as one sex while having been born another (36%). There is a majority (60%) stating that they would like their country to support and protect transgender people more actively (70% in Spain, 67% in Argentina). Hungary is the least likely to agree (41%), followed by Poland (39%). 70% of people around the world say that their government should protect transgender people from discrimination. Argentina is the most likely to agree (84%), Poland the least like to agree (51%).
As the survey was carried out online, there are limitations to the generalisation of the results (composition of the sample). They are, nevertheless, interesting as the self-selection of participants took place in all countries. The results show the cultural impact on the attitude people have to transgender men and women. More: Global Attitudes Towards Transgender People

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photograph taken in Chicago in 1975 by the great Vivian Maier via