Quote Originally Posted by Shibumi View Post
Louis, the question runs deeper than one report. And then there is of course the fact that you can not really accuse Sweden of being worse without similar data from the USA.

I read the relevant parts of the report now, and violence seem more spread than I thought. Most of the violence though has been pushes and stuff (not that that is much good either). The Gay Organization in Sweden had a huge drive some years ago to raise the awareness, urging their members to report any kind of abuse. I think that more or less sky rocketed the statistics.

Had a talk with an American friend who is gay, and he claim that the situation for gays are way worse in the states. Not evidence as such, I know, but at least here the gays do not have much/any administrative obstacles.

I am not saying Sweden is perfect when it comes to this issue, but I do claim that it is better here. And again, if you want to compare you really have to show the statistics from both involved parties, not just the one.
In general, I have little doubt Sweden is more tolerant of gays than America.

I protested what I thought was unfait criticism over a video. The Texas video to me does not show a backwards place, full of petty religious-conservative ignorants. To me it showed something entirely else: that (again) America has managed to reinvent itself. If, of all places, in Texas people will openly stand up for a homosexual then indeed somthing has changed.

It has been my subjective view that homophobia is well past its heyday of about a decade ago, the first few years of past decade. My spidey sense about America being the world's greatest since Alexis, that Gallup poll hidden in PJ's post provided a nice confirmation of my subjective impression:

The [Tennessee] bill, which was approved 19-11, passed the same day as Gallup released a poll revealing that American attitudes towards homosexuality are changing.

For the first time in Gallup polling history, the majority of Americans—53% believe same-sex marriage should be legal.
A majority is now in favour of same-sex marriage. This is the more important realisation about America. A fierce debate has been waged, is still raging, with many pro and many con. But the direction ios clearly towards openness, towards acceptance, towards tolerance.