Four in 10 gay men and women in the Netherlands do not think their homosexuality is accepted and 55% do not feel free to walk hand-in-hand with their partner, according to research by television current affairs show EenVandaag.

By contrast, 67% of the population in general think homosexuality is reasonably or well accepted in the Netherlands and just over a quarter say this is not the case.

In total, 28,000 people took part in the online survey, of whom 1,760 said they were gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.

Almost one in five of gay participants said they had had to deal with negativity in the past year and four in 10 said they feel the situation is getting worse, the survey showed.

The survey was published a day ahead of the Gay Pride boat parade which attracts thousands of visitors.

Research

Research published by the government’s socio-cultural think tank SCP earlier this year showed that although 92% of the Dutch think gay men and women should be able to ‘live their lives as they want to’, 35% consider two men kissing in public to be offensive.

One in four people find the sight of two women kissing to be offensive, while 12% find a heterosexual kissing in public to be objectionable.

At the same time, 78% support gay marriage, 65% support adoption by same-sex partners and only 7% would consider it a problem if their children had a gay teacher.

The figures date from 2012 and show an overall improvement in attitudes towards gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, the researchers said at the time.