The Gender Gap Report Southeast Europe: The Tolerance Divide

How Gender Shapes LGBTQ+ Acceptance Across Southeast Europe

Across Southeast Europe, debates over LGBTQ+ rights have become one of the defining cultural fault lines of a rapidly changing region. While some countries have moved toward greater recognition and inclusion—most notably Greece, which became the first Orthodox-majority country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage—others continue to see LGBTQ+ identities remain heavily contested in public life. From Pride marches requiring extensive security protection to political actors using anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric as a tool of mobilisation, the region presents a deeply uneven landscape of acceptance and resistance.

In the latest installment of The Gender Gap Report, based on our 2024 Southeast Europe Youth Study of nearly 9,000 young people across twelve countries, the focus is on tolerance towards LGBTQ+ people among young people. The findings reveal a clear pattern: young women are consistently more accepting than young men, but the size and meaning of this gender gap depend heavily on where young people live, their religious background, age, and political orientation.

The regional picture is marked by two simultaneous realities. First, LGBTQ+ acceptance remains relatively low compared to Western and Northern Europe, with both young men and women across Southeast Europe scoring below the midpoint on a composite acceptance index. Second, a generational shift is underway: young people are substantially more accepting than the broader populations of their countries, suggesting that attitudes toward LGBTQ+ rights are changing across the region—even if the pace and direction of that change vary dramatically.

This ninth issue in the ten-part series explores the tolerance divide not as a simple story of progressive youth versus conservative societies, but as a complex interaction between gender, geography, religion, and social context. It shows that young women’s greater acceptance is real and statistically significant, but it is not universal: in some countries and communities, national and cultural forces outweigh gender differences entirely. Understanding when the gender gap appears—and when it disappears—is key to understanding the future trajectory of LGBTQ+ attitudes in Southeast Europe.