Canadians have little interest in battling over bathrooms and gay rights: Ipsos/Yahoo Canada poll

In April, Bruce Springsteen cancelled a concert in protest of the so-called bathroom bill in North Carolina that stipulates which public washrooms transgender people are allowed to use. But the rocker and others won’t have cause to boycott Canada anytime soon, at least not according to the results of an exclusive Ipsos poll commissioned by Yahoo Canada.

On the issue of transgender access to bathrooms and locker rooms of their choice, most Canadians are either supportive or indifferent. And that indifference shouldn’t be misinterpreted. Indeed, when asked how important LGBTQ issues were to them, a majority of Canadians said “somewhat” or “very.”

Furthermore, on the question of Canada as a world leader in this area, and whether their quality of life had improved over the past 20 years, 83 per cent of LGBTQ Canadians agree.

However, all is not encouraging. On issues ranging from personal safety to feelings of discrimination, LGBTQ respondents provided significantly less reassuring answers than the public at large.

The Ipsos/Yahoo Canada survey was conducted in May, in the shadow of an increasingly rancorous debate in the United States over gay rights, particularly around transgender access to bathrooms and same-sex marriage. Canadians watched as Republican presidential candidates battled each other over who could either be the most intolerant or the staunchest supporters of “traditional values.”

The federal election of Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party would seem to suggest a marked split with sensibilities south of the border, and our progressiveness is something that Canadians have long valued. Yet it wasn’t even two years ago that Toronto had a mayor who made great theatre out of his contempt for the city’s annual Pride celebration.

So who are we? A country that embraces diversity and choice in our sexuality and gender, or are we fundamentally more conservative than we would view ourselves to be? According to the Ipsos/Yahoo Canada survey, the answers are as nuanced and complex as the questions themselves.

Exploring these LGBTQ issues will be the focus of a month-long series at Yahoo Canada that begins June 1 and coincides with Toronto Pride Month.

READ MORE: The bathroom and how it has become an unlikely battleground for trans rights

READ MORE: Experience bears out Ipsos/Yahoo Canada poll on LGBTQ, advocates say

READ MORE: For Canada to be true world leader rights of all LGBTQ people need to be protected

For starters, we’re not especially invested in the debate. When asked to list the social issues that mattered most to them, Canadians place LGBTQ items last, behind concerns for the elderly, and the mentally and physically disabled and issues involving gender or race.

So we’re not terribly fussed. And while that may seem deflating, and definitely less than ideal for the 62 per cent of LGBTQ Canadians who say their issues don’t receive enough attention, it nevertheless could be seen as a marked advance over places where gay rights remain deeply divisive. Indeed, if the survey offered one inescapable conclusion, it’s that Canadians have no interest in battling over bathrooms, nor is there any hay to be made in rolling back rights. (A point clearly recognized by the Conservative Party of Canada at its recent convention in Vancouver where it officially repealed its long-held opposition to same-sex marriage.)

That said key differences do remain among Canadians on this topic. Considerably more women (61 per cent) than men (49 per cent) say they view LGBTQ issues as important. And unsurprisingly, vastly more 18- to 34-year-olds feel strongly about the subject (68 per cent) than those between the ages of 35-54 (53 per cent) and over 55 (48 per cent).

It should be noted that the question here was how strongly people identified with the issues, not whether they were for or against, yet it’s fair to assume that younger people view the subject more strongly and more favourably. There’s no evidence to suggest that Canada’s youth are becoming less tolerant.

However, supporting views are not necessarily shared equally across the country. LGBTQ issues are seen as most important in Quebec (63 per cent) and British Columbia (57 per cent) and least in Saskatchewan and Manitoba (47 per cent).

East-west divide

Regionalism also emerged in experiences with discrimination. While 35 per cent of all LGBTQ respondents said they often faced discrimination, those sentiments were highest in Saskatchewan and Manitoba (25 per cent) and lowest in Quebec and Atlantic Canada (13 per cent). The St. Lawrence River serves as the dividing line, with feelings of discrimination being more prevalent to the west than the east. It’s not evident in the findings, says Ipsos vice-president of public affairs Sean Simpson, why that would be the case.

Yet drilling down, it’s clear that antagonisms continue to exist in Canada, and that LGBTQ Canadians feel them more keenly than their straight counterparts. While 95 per cent of Canadians surveyed said they felt safe in their community, the figure drops to 89 per cent for LGTBQ respondents. Similarly, 80 per cent of Canadians said they felt supported in their community, compared to 70 per cent of LGBTQ surveyed. The number dips even further when posed to transgender Canadians, with only 63 per cent saying they feel supported.

“When you have nearly 40 per cent of a group not feeling supported, that tells you there’s a lot of work still to be done,” Simpson says.

[NDP Leader Thomas Mulclair, left, greets Justin Trudeau at Montreal’s Pride Parade last August.]

Despite that, there remains a clear conviction that Canada is ahead of the curve on LGBTQ issues, with that view being most forcefully held by the community themselves. Eighty-three per cent of LGBTQ respondents said they believe Canada to be a world leader in this area. That compares favourably with the perception of the general public, only 74 per cent of whom feel Canada is ahead of the pack. Again, it’s young people (18-34) who believe it most fervently, 79 per cent seeing Canada as a global leader, versus only 72 per cent of those aged 55 and up.

It gets better

Given the increasingly invested views of the young, as well as the general tone of tolerance across Canada, it’s not surprising that 93 per cent of LGBTQ people surveyed said that they felt life has improved for their community over the past two decades. That sentiment is also widely shared by straight Canadians, 92 per cent of whom supported the statement.

Less predictable, and perhaps worthy of a study in its own right, were the responses people provided about their own sexuality and gender. Only 84 per cent of straight Canadians strongly concurred that they were completely comfortable with their sexuality, the same held when asked about their gender. Of the 16 per cent who expressed reservations, the line divided evenly between men and women. (In contrast, responses to the comfort question ranged in the mid-60s among the LGBTQ community, depending on their identity).

Methodology:

The Ipsos poll was conducted between May 9 and May 11, 2016. A sample of 2,051 Canadians from Ipsos’s online panel was interviewed online. Weighting was then employed to balance demographics to ensure that the sample’s composition reflects that of the adult population according to Census data and to provide results intended to approximate the sample universe. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll is accurate to within +/- 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all Canadian adults been polled. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error and measurement error.

[All above photos courtesy of The Canadian Press.]

Noel Hulsman is the head of media for Yahoo Canada.