Canadians are ‘leading' in LGBTQ2 support amid global declines: Ipsos
Support for LGBTQ2 rights and visibility remains strong among Canadians and has increased over the past year, a new poll suggests, even as global attitudes continue to decline.
Data released Friday by Ipsos in its annual Pride Report showed Canada was among the few nations where support has gone up among 26 countries surveyed, although that support is lower than levels seen in 2021.
'Canada does appear to be leading in its support on a whole range of metrics,' said Sanyam Sethi, vice-president at Ipsos Public Affairs.
The report found nearly eight out of 10 Canadians surveyed said they support same-sex marriage or legal recognition, that same-sex couples should have the same right to adopt children as heterosexual couples, and that LGBTQ2 people should be protected from harassment and discrimination in employment, housing and access to businesses.
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Globally, between 60 and 75 per cent of respondents supported those same positions.
Canadians were also found to be more supportive of LGBTQ2 visibility, with majorities or pluralities approving of public displays of affection, being open about their sexual orientation or gender identity, and seeing more openly LGBTQ2 people on screen, in sports and promoted within companies and brands.
Those attitudes were also above the global average, sometimes as much as 10 points.
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Although support for transgender rights in Canada was slightly below that for gay, lesbian, bisexual or non-binary people, Ipsos found it remains well above the global average and has also increased slightly since last year.
'It's really a breath of fresh air, especially when we look around the world and see in lots of places there's actually a rollback of rights and negative opinions are increasing, to see that Canada is still holding strong,' said Carmen Logie, a University of Toronto professor and the Canada Research Chair in global health equity.
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Twelve per cent of Canadians identify as LGBTQ2, Ipsos said.
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Canada joined Ireland, Thailand, Spain, Argentina and Mexico as the few countries that saw support increase over the past year, despite remaining below 2021 levels.
However, those countries regularly outpaced Canada across all questions asked by Ipsos.
Generational gender split?
The report also noted a widening gender gap for support of LGBTQ2 rights and visibility depending on age.
While baby boomers and Gen X men and women were largely aligned in their support, those attitudes diverged among millennials and especially Gen Z, the poll found, with more young women supporting LGBTQ2 issues than young men.
That was true in Canada as well, with Gen Z women sometimes outperforming their male counterparts by as much as 20 points on some questions.
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Sethi said Ipsos has found similar gender divides among Gen Z Canadians on other issues as well, beyond LGBTQ2 rights.
'This is a generation growing up together but not seeing eye-to-eye on most issues,' she said.
Canadian support on all questions posed by Ipsos is also well above levels reported in the United States, where the Trump administration has undertaken sweeping measures against diversity initiatives in government, education and business.
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On many issues — including same-sex marriage, which has been legal for a decade in the U.S. — American support has dropped over the past year and is down overall from 2021, the data suggests.
Fewer Americans even said they had an LGBTQ2 friend, relative or co-worker when asked compared to last year, while Canada and other countries saw gains.
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Shelley Craig, a professor at the University of Toronto and the Canada Research Chair on sexual and gender minority youth, noted U.S. media and political narratives — particularly those seen in the 2024 election cycle — have spread in Canada as well.
She said those attitudes have taken the form of online misinformation, hate speech and attacks on LGBTQ2 people in recent years.
'We're seeing more Canadians than before who might have been assuming everything was fine speaking up a little bit more, and I think that is part of the bounce back we're seeing,' she said.
Craig also gave credit to the work done by LGBTQ2 organizations in Canada to boost education and awareness to push back on more negative narratives.
'There is a lot of room for growth, because we are not where we have been in the past in terms of overall acceptance,' she said.
—With files from Global's Kyle Benning
These are the results of a 26-country survey conducted by Ipsos on its Global Advisor online platform between Friday, April 25, and Friday, May 9, 2025. For this survey, Ipsos interviewed a total of 19,028 adults aged 18-74 in Canada, the Republic of Ireland, South Africa, Türkiye, and the United States, 20-74 in Thailand, 21-74 in Singapore, and 16-74 in all other countries. The sample consists of approximately 1,000 individuals each in Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Spain, Türkiye, and the U.S., and 500 individuals each in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Hungary, Ireland, Mexico, the Netherlands, Peru, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, and Thailand. Samples in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, and the U.S. can be considered representative of their general adult populations under the age of 75. The '26-country average' reflects the average result for all the countries and markets where the survey was conducted. It has not been adjusted to the population size of each country or market and is not intended to suggest a total result. The precision of Ipsos online polls is calculated using a credibility interval with a poll of 1,001 accurate to +/- 3.5 percentage points and of 500 accurate to +/- 5.0 percentage points. Percentages cited may not always add to 100% or to the sum of each value due to the effects of rounding.
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