Why is homosexuality perceived negatively in lithuania?

Public opinion research has repeatedly shown that Lithuanian people declare more negative views towards homosexuality when compared to other European countries. Despite the fact that Lithuania has moved towards the principles of the Western countries and has moved from communist repression of homosexuality, negative social attitudes, intolerance related to homosexuality are still visible.The problematic situation with the topic is also reflected by continuously repeated political debates, warnings and criticism regarding discrimination problems from the EU institutions. Scholars across the world have been analyzing the reason which could be affecting people’s attitudes towards homosexuality. In Lithuania, however, this topic of the homosexuality is still open for interesting and relevant findings. Hence, having in mind the lack of in-depth analysis of Lithuanian people’s view on homosexuality and the problematic nature of this topic, this paper attempts to understand the main reasons which lead to negative attitude towards homosexuality in Lithuania. To reach the answer, paper includes theoretical framework and assumptions which have been established by different scientists who have been dealing with topic of the homosexuality, have been analyzing factors which affect people’s views towards it. Five main notions which could explain the negative attitude towards the homosexuality were constructed which cover three different dimensions: moral-ideological, geopolitical, socio-economical. Combining theoretical framework with presented definitions of homosexuality and negative attitude together with outlined notions which could possibly explain the negative attitude have led to the main tool of this research: the semi-structured questionnaire. 20 Lithuanian people were interviewed to in order to collect possible explanations of their attitudes towards the homosexuality. Considering the results, almost half of the informants have described their attitude towards homosexuality as negative. Findings suggest that main factors which lead to negative attitude are importance of traditions (especially understanding of traditional family), education (from family, from school), activities of LGBT communities. The latter has been a negative factor even to the informants who have positive or neutral attitude towards the homosexuality. These factors added up to previously declared theoretical assumptions. Theoretical notions related to moral (religious) beliefs and ideology have been mentioned as factors but findings suggest that strong claims about their effect on people’s view on homosexuality could be exaggerated in the context of Lithuania. Informants of the research suggested that religion plays only a small role when evaluating homosexuality while ideological views of people are often not defined. Summing up, this paper could suggest some valuable findings to social scientists who are willing to analyze the topic of homosexuality in the context of Lithuania. Firstly, findings demonstrate that conservative views which are often associated with negative attitude towards homosexuality could be the explaining factor, but informants of this study have been explaining their negative views by the factors of tradition, definition of traditional family. They did not express their views as conservative in this regard. Secondly, findings raise an important question for future plans of LGBT communities if they want to change the attitudes of Lithuanian people. Currently it seems that active demonstrations and fight against intolerant society is backfiring as activity from LGBT communities was considered as a negative factor by majority of the informants. This raises the questions whether LGBT community itself could significantly worsen current attitudes towards them, or this is will one day break “the ice” of Lithuanian citizens when speaking about the homosexuality