Are South African gays among the world’s happiest?
Green indicates more happiness, red the least happiness.
An online survey has found that South African gays live pretty happy lives, relative to most of the rest of the world.
The claim stems from a massive global “gay happiness” survey of 115,000 gay men by the Planet Romeo dating site, in collaboration with Germany’s Johannes Gutenberg University.
In the index, South Africa rates at number 22 out of 127 countries when it comes to the happiness of its gay men.
The score was based on three criteria about which gay men were questioned: How they feel about society’s view on homosexuality; how they experience the way they are treated by other people; and how satisfied they are with their lives and their self-acceptance.
On this “gay happiness index”, South Africa scored 63 points out of a hundred, beating out countries like Ireland (62), the USA (61), and Brazil (39).
Unsurprisingly, South African men gave their lowest rating in the category of how homosexuality is viewed by the public. (A separate 2013 survey found that 61% of the South African public believe that homosexuality should not be accepted by society.)
When it comes to satisfaction with their lives and self-acceptance, local gay men gave themselves a pretty good rating of 71 out of a hundred.
It should be noted that only 252 South Africans took part in the survey, compared to, for example, 29,325 from Germany. This suggests that the results may not be entirely representative or terribly accurate.
Nevertheless, the top ten countries in which gay men say they are happiest are led by Iceland at the top, followed by Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Uruguay, Canada, Israel, Netherlands, Switzerland and Luxembourg.
The ten most miserable countries to live in are Kazakhstan, Ghana, Cameroon, Iran, Nigeria, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Ethiopia and Sudan, with Uganda right at the bottom of the list.
Do you think this survey got it right? How happy do you feel about your life as a gay man in South Africa?
I must be honest…..when I compare my life in SA as a married Gay man to many other countries in the world I tend to end up HAPPY in my life and happy in my own skin! Although I still experience bigotry around me regularly it does not affect me as negatively as it did when I was younger. That could be because I have grown a lot as a person or it could be that others negative opinions do not matter to me anymore. I am surrounded by a lot of love which tends to drown out the hatred out there! With this said…..I still want to be a beacon of light for any Gay people, young or old that might feel they do not have a place they belong. I want to help them feel the acceptance and help them over the hurdles of life. I feel that as a Gay man in my 30’s it should be my responsibility and actually the responsibility of others to help make the path more bearable for the next generation.
Very happy SA is the best country 4 LGBTI yes we do experience some discrimination bt its something u can handle, our family, friends and society they accept us n live the a normal life unlike other country especially here in Africa.
I am certainly very happy and appreciative of being a homosexual in south africa, I read of our brothers and sisters in africa and other parts of the world, where their existance and life purpose will never fully come alive. In as much as the is bigotry, i cant complain about that, no people are ever going to agree on one thing, about anything, and then there will always be radicals of that very disagreement.