Just stumbled on this - it seemed apt.

Genuine awful and no doubt true story by the OP, and doubtless there are plenty of horrible homophobes in Switzerland.

Just like there are racists.

But it is a little presumptuous to judge a nation on one incident.

This is quite an old article, and I will admit I haven't read it all, but it's conclusion doesn't surprise me, and if the ranking of nations about attitudes to foreigners was the same it wouldn't surprise me either.



It's generally very lazy journalism that portrays Switzerland as ultra conservative, hating foreigners, intolerant of minorities - and boring.

Actually, do the research at find out what the truth is rather than trot out the old cliches. And fellow EF'ers, why would you believe the same stereotype - you live here and know what it's like!

Incidently, I live in a small village near Luzern - traditionally a 'conservative' area. The hotel is run by an elderly man who can only be described as a big queen. He employs lots of young men in his hotel.

No one gives a damm.

I didn't make a judgement about the whole country - I asked a question. Research.

I know you didn't. I didn't intend to critisise you, and it's a good thread.

My misinterpretation and my apologies. I would never judge a whole nation based on the actions of one individual. It's often easy to spot a pattern, though. I felt myself to be a victim of overt sexism more than a few times when I lived in Spain, although this certainly didn't happen with every man I met...

That is possible. I am ridiculously good looking.

I also tend to agree with the comments of very vocal homophobes. They are definitely compensating for something. Haha.

Seems very apt hahaha.

Wait a sec. If I've understood that graphic correctly, Switzerland is the 2nd most tolerant nation of those surveyed. Or are you referring to what is actually written in the article itself. I didn't read it myself, it's just your sentence above contradicts the graphic.

Yes, it's saying in terms of homophobia Switzerland is the 2nd most tolerant nation of those surveyed.

How does this sentence contradict that?

They might not be kicking you, but those comments too are unacceptable. The optimal situation is that of Barcelona another forumer mentioned where regardless of who are you holding your hands with, nobody gives a damn about it. The thing is, those apparently innocent comments are just the tip of the iceberg of their homosexuality agenda for the person saying them.

Sorry, I meant this sentence:

There are plenty of places in the world I have lived or traveled where a man and a woman holding hands or showing any sign of affection is an offense, even dangerous, whereas men holding hands is the custom, tradition, common place and not given a look or a thought.

...paradoxically, in some of those very same countries, homosexuals may officially or unofficially be put to death. Strange world....

I wasn't refering to the article when talking about lazy journalism. I'd say the article was research rather than journalism.

My point is journalists often portray Switzerland as homophobic or racist without doing any research. It took me 2 minutes to find that document, and there are other,s so why do journalists look at the stereotype instead of the data?

Because they're lazy.

...also because factual journalism doesn't make the journalist famous and sell as well as sensationalism and smut.

OK, fair enough. It's just the juxtaposition of the graph and the sentence made it seem you were. I agree, that is more a research article at a brief glance.

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I haven't seen it mentioned elsewhere... but in the US the word "gay" has taken a different meaning. i.e. that something is stupid, or dumb. I personally find it very offensive. There's even a campaign out to encouraage kids NOT to use the word this way. It's YouTubable I believe.

Is the word morphing elsewhere or has that definition migrated outside the US?

I was wondering if the guy who unleashed this thread was really Swiss,"fag" isn't. The only overt looks and vocally loud comments I have heard in Switzerland towards gays were from Americans, ending with "...they act like it's normal", from both men and women.

We have neighbors who are a gay couple, both are Swiss, and we like them very much. They are as open about their life and relationship as any hetero couple would be. They said that in the beginning their parents had some difficulty with it, but now that they are both grown, accepted and quite successful businessmen, it has all disappeared. At their parties you will find their parents, family, business associates and both straight and gay friends, all mixing happily, regardless of social standing, which ranks from quite high to normal folks. They travel quite a bit, and have said in some countries they even take separate hotel rooms out of wisdom, but in Switzerland feel as at home and normal as can be.

I translated from "pédé". And I'm a girl (I hoped that much was obvious from my avatar!).

c'mon, the guy who unleashed this thread was the guy you shoved around.

The term "gay" is indeed used in such a way pretty globally these days - thanks in no small part to the internet. I came across this usage myself most often within games (mmorpgs) or gamer forums, sometimes masked as "ghey" () so the naughty word filters are less likely to catch it.