Dutch teens' acceptance of homosexuality plummets in 4 years: study

Dutch secondary-school students are way more negative about homosexuality this year than they were four years ago. The biggest drop was observed in boys, but, according to NU.nl, girls also now often describe it as “disgusting.”

The share of boys who view homesuality positively halved from 40.3 percent to 23.3 percent, according to the HBSC report from Utrecht University and the Trimbos Institute, based on a four-yearly survey of Dutch 11-16-year-olds. Half of girls remain positive towards homosexuality, compared with more than three-quarters four years ago.

Acceptance of homesexuality was reported to rise as both boys and girls get older. Among 11-12-year-olds, one-third of boys think positively about homosexuality, but that figure appears to fall once they enter secondary school.

During the study, more than 7000 students had to respond to statements or questions such as, “I find it disgusting when two boys kiss each other,” and “if someone at your school is gay or lesbian, would that person be honestly able to confess that at school?”

Only 45 percent of secondary-school students believe you can honestly say at school that you are like people of the same gender as you.

The study also found that the response got more negative the more vocational a school track was. Kids with a migration background were around 9 percent more negative about homosexuality than kids born in the Netherlands.