Majority of Brits would support family coming out – but trans people don’t feel safe on the street
By AMELIA HANSFORD
Published by Pink News on 5 July, 2022
Revellers walk over a rainbow-coloured pedestrian crossing on Regent Street during the 2019 Pride parade in London, England, on July 6, 2019. (Photo by David Cliff/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
A new report from YouGov has revealed that a majority of British households are accepting of all LGBTQ+ people – but, more damningly for the UK, that trans people still don’t feel safe in the streets.
The statistics were released by Europe’s largest LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall on Tuesday (5 July) as part of two surveys for all British adults and those who are specifically LGBTQ+ identifying.
According to YouGov, the general public is 79 per cent likely to support a family member coming out as lesbian, gay, or bi. Meanwhile, 63 per cent they would support a family member coming out as trans.
It also found that 74 per cent of Britons support LGB people adopting a child and 67 per cent would support a surrogacy pregnancy, while numbers are around 10 per cent lower for trans and non-binary people.
The statistics showed that, despite the disparity between LGB and trans identities, a majority of households support all LGBTQ+ identities forming families through adoption, surrogacy or IVF.
Despite this, LGBTQ+ people still feel less safe in public than the general population, which Stonewall said demonstrates “the impact of hate crimes and harmful rhetoric“.
Seventy-four per cent of cis LGB adults feel safe in the streets of the area they live, with 78 per cent of all Britons feeling the same way. Comparatively, only 57 per cent of trans people said they felt safe in their area.
“This year marks the 50th anniversary of the first Pride march in the UK,” Stonewall said. “50 years on, we can take pride in a United Kingdom where the majority of the public are supportive of their LGBTQ+ neighbours, work colleagues, family and friends.
“However, we can’t take progress for granted. Throughout the past 50 years, the LGBTQ+ community has withstood numerous smear campaigns from those who wish to push us back into hiding.”
The statistics also looked into other sections of day-to-day life and how LGBTQ+ identities are affected by the current political and social climate. It also included sections on public attitudes, media portrayals, family formation, safety, workplace and mental health.
According to data, the majority of LGBTQ+ people formed their opinion of their own community through personal experiences, at around 67 per cent, whereas Britons as a whole found it was through family and friends that they formed their opinions of the LGBTQ+ community, at 38 per cent.
By far the lowest for both the general public and LGBTQ+ people were newspapers, which only helped 12 per cent of the general public and 14 per cent of LGBTQ+ people form their opinion on the queer community.
“There’s still a long way to go to achieve equality in the workplace,” Stonewall said, pointing to the 64 per cent of LGBTQ+ respondents who agree that LGBTQ+ people face discrimination at work, with a further 70 per cent on their gender identity.
This comes just a few days after the Trades Union Congress (TUC) released statistics saying that queer people are paid 16 per cent less on average, equating to around £6,703 less per year.
The poll, which was also conducted by YouGov, surveyed around 1,000 HR managers and found that only 13 per cent were actively monitoring pay gaps, while 20 per cent plan to address the wage inequality.
Finally, Stonewall’s thread showed that 58 per cent of LGBTQ+ respondents were negatively impacted by COVID-19, compared to the 45 per cent of general Britons.
Fifty-one per cent of LGBTQ+ adults had also been diagnosed with a mental health condition over the last year.
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