More than 4 million men were the targets of violent anti-gay attacks last year, a survey released by a Netherlands-based website indicates.
The results compiled for PlanetRomeo.com’s Gay Happiness Index were published Wednesday, ahead of the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia on May 17.
The index provided a report card on the rights and acceptance of gay men in countries around the world.
PlanetRomeo.com, a dating website, compiled the statistics about the world’s gay population and ranked countries from best to worst for gay happiness, based on public opinion of gay men, public behaviour and life satisfaction.
Canada can take pride in being the happiest place for LGBTQ individuals in North America, taking sixth place on the list of the 127 surveyed countries — 20 spots ahead of the United States.
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As with many happiness and quality-of-life indexes, Scandinavian countries (Iceland, Norway, Denmark and Sweden) hold the top spots.
Uruguay, which has some of the most progressive LGBTQ legislation in Latin America, ranked fifth.
The least happiest country for gay men was Uganda — a country that has been the target of international condemnation for its attempts to pass anti-gay legislation that has often been referred to as draconian.
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“It is a known fact that 1/3 of all countries in the world still view homosexuality as a crime, and in seven countries it is punishable by death,” read a press release for the index.
There are five countries that have clear laws that could result in gays being executed: Iran, Sudan, Mauritania, Sudan and Yemen. Certain parts of Somalia and Nigeria, governed under sharia law, also punish homosexual acts with death. Laws in Qatar and Yemen may also punish same-sex acts, in some circumstances, with death.
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The sad statistics of what gay men have to face go beyond violence and examine the discrimination many face in their personal lives.
While an estimated 66 million gay men are not out to their families, some 13 million who are open about their orientation “were banned from their family home.”
Approximately 41 million gay men want to escape their home country, according to the index. It said homosexuality and homosexual acts are criminal in one-third of the world’s countries — a crime that’s punishable by death in a number of countries.
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PlanetRomeo.com said 115,000 gay men responded to the survey, which was conducted in collaboration with Germay’s Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz.
“Assuming 2.5% of all people are gay men, then there are at least 175 million of them on the planet. When applying the survey results to the entire world population, the estimated outcome is shocking,” the news release read.
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