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‘Straight and very religious’ South African women are big supporters of LGBTI rights

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Historically, South Africa has endured a political climate of intolerance – mainly based on the skin colour differences between people.

It is, therefore, so very refreshing to see the results of the recent 2014 FNS survey which states that 78% of SA women in this demographic fully accept the lesbian, gay, transsexual, and intersexual (LGBTI) community - embracing its constitutional rights.

Interestingly, 75% of these women identified as “completely straight”, i.e. 1 on a scale of 1-9 (with 1 being completely straight) and 58% of women identified as “very religious” (5 on a scale of 1 to 5). Within this demographic a strong correlation was thus shown with regards to religious identity and extent of identification with heterosexuality.  

Groups, who list themselves on extreme poles of any scale, are often less accepting of those at the opposite side of the same scale.

So I found the fact that so many of these accepting women classified themselves as “completely straight” to be very interesting. Basically, these women allow no possibility that they might veer from heterosexuality.

The same applies to the very religious: the devout religious are often considered rigid and unwavering in their beliefs, beliefs which are traditionally conservative and less flexible. However, ‘straight and very religious’ South African women seem to be very accepting of alternate sexual orientations, debunking this notion.

In the 2013 FNS survey, as much as 79% said they were totally heterosexual and only 5% said 5 to 9 and 1% 6-9.  And even further back in time, in the 2008 FNS survey 97% said they were straight, 1% bisexual and less than 1% lesbian.

This year’s results revealed that only 7% of women said that they have ever fallen for a woman. 25% said that they fall somewhere between 1 and 9 on the sexual orientation scale – as in they might be curious as to the same sex. However, only 6% put themselves on the non-heterosexual side of the scale at 5 to 9, and only 2% said they were on 6-9.

Thus, this year’s survey shows that the prevalence of homosexuality is not growing or decreasing, but that it would seem that it is becoming easier for women to state non-heterosexual orientations than before.

This is in part due to the fact that more women are becoming increasingly open-minded with regards to ‘alternative sexual orientations’ – perhaps allowing for a more accepting, safe environment for those women around them who don’t see themselves as a “1”.

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