Support for Democracy and LGBT+ Issue Attitudes: Survey Evidence from Contemporary Italy

Liberal conceptions of democracy postulate the acceptance of minorities, the strengthening of their rights and liberties, and hence ultimately the pursuit of greater equality. This extends to sexual and gender minorities (LGBT+). Conversely, over the last few decades, illiberal political actors such as parties and elected representatives have increasingly opposed LGBT+ rights, in conjunction with the opposition to other constitutive elements of liberal democracy (e.g., political and media pluralism, separation of powers, etc.). Does this association between critical attitudes towards democracy and LGBT+ rights also hold in public opinion? We seek to answer this question through original survey data on a representative sample of the Italian voting-age population in 2024. As a socioculturally traditionalist country with some of the lowest levels of LGBT+ equality in Western Europe and a stable right-wing government led by a large radical right party, Italy constitutes a prime setting in which to gauge the linkage between anti-democratic and anti-LGBT+ attitudes. Leveraging fine-grained issue-level data on topics ranging from same-sex marriage and adoptions to simplified administrative procedures to change IDs and the possibility to change names in school and university registries for trans* and non-binary people, we regress respondents’ attitudes concerning LGBT+ issues on their support for democracy. Our multivariate analyses consistently and robustly show that, controlling for relevant sociodemographic and political factors, there is a significant, negative, and linear association between anti-democratic and anti-LGBT+ attitudes. Across the board, the weaker is respondents’ support for democracy, the stronger their opposition to LGBT+ rights. By providing empirical evidence of a direct linkage between anti-democratic and anti-LGBT+ attitudes in public opinion at times of increasing pressure on liberal democracy across Western countries, our findings carry important implications for studies on electoral behaviour, party strategies, and the contemporary state of liberal democracy, as well as adding to the ever-expanding literature on LGBT+ politics.