A survey by a global organisation campaigning for equality and freedom for LGBTI people has found that 28.5 per cent of people believe engaging in same-sex relationships should be a criminal offence.
The second annual survey conducted by the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA) asked more than 105,000 participants from 77 countries and territories to respond to the statement "People who engage in romantic or sexual relationships with people of the same sex should be charged as criminals".
It found a diverse range of responses; with some countries producing single percentile figures in support of criminalisation and others seeing support in nearly one in two people.
Graph depicting the responses to whether same-sex relationships should be criminalised by survey participants from all 77 countries and territories (ILGA-RIWI Global Attitudes Survey) Source: ILGA-RIWI Global Attitudes Survey
Among the 1,204 Australians who took part in the survey, two-thirds disagreed that same-sex relationships should be a criminal offence, while 16 per cent of respondents believed it should be criminalised. The rest, 18 per cent, remained neutral.
Of the 77 countries that were part of the into global attitudes towards sexual, gender and sex minorities, 25 continue to criminalise same-sex sexual activity.
The report says "in criminalising states, unsurprisingly, the percentages that agree that same-sex romantic or sexual relationships should be criminalised increases substantially".
Tasmania was the last Australian state to decriminalise homosexuality in 1997, 22 years after the first; South Australia.
"Much of the data elicited in this survey simply acts to confirm what sexual, gender and sex minority communities already know from personal or anecdotal experience," the report says.
"A finding that emerges repeatedly in this survey is that when respondents know people belonging to sexual and gender minorities, their opinions tend to be more inclusive and less harsh."
Africa (45 per cent), Central Asia (45 per cent) and South Asia (42 per cent) were more in favour of punishing people in same-sex relationships, while Western Europe and North America had similar results to Australia and New Zealand, generating strong disagreement rates.
The 2017 survey had a marked increase in sample size from the inaugural 96,331 respondents from 53 states last year, with a finding that 25 per cent of total responses believed it should be a criminal offence.
The ILGA-RIWI also surveyed attitudes into religion and sexuality with 59 per cent of Australians surveyed saying they were able to accept people with same-sex attraction in their religion, and seven out of ten agreeing that there should be protections against workplace discrimination.
