PRIDE and PREJUDICE
What data tells us about the LGBT+ community - and how attitudes have changed
ONE in every 50 people in the UK now identifies as lesbian, gay or bisexual.
With Pride season in full swing, it is a good time to look at the milestones achieved - and challenges still faced - by the LGBT+ community.
According to data from the Office for National Statistics, some 630,000 people identified as gay or lesbian in 2016.
That’s a 14 per cent increase from the 541,000 people in 2012.
And the number of bisexual people in the UK skyrocketed over the same period, from 230,000 to 396,000 - an increase of 42 per cent. The number of people identifying with other sexual orientations, such as pansexuality, is also on the rise. Approximately 268,000 people in the UK define themselves as neither straight, gay or bi. The data suggests that more people than ever are embracing their sexuality. Same-sex marriage was introduced in England and Wales in March 2014 - and in Scotland in December 2014 - in a landmark piece of legislation. The following year there were 6,493 marriages between same-sex couples. That was up from the 4,850 marriages in 2014, though there isn’t enough published data yet to see how sustainable the trend is.
Same-sex ceremonies are still banned in Northern Ireland, with DUP leader Arlene Foster a noted opponent.
Another area of progress has been adoption, with same-sex couples first given adoption rights in 2002.
The number of children adopted by same-sex couples reached record highs in 2013/14 - the latest year with available data - with 485 children placed in new homes.
Some 270 children were adopted by gay couples, 205 by lesbians, and 10 by bisexual parents.
IVF is also becoming an increasingly popular choice for LGBT+ couples. The number of lesbian couples undertaking treatment increased by 30 per cent to 1,683 between 2014 and 2016. Social attitudes towards homosexuality have become more positive in recent decades. In 1987, only 11 per cent of people strongly agreed that sex between two people of the same-sex wasn’t wrong at all. This had soared to 64 per cent in 2016 - the last time the British Social Attitudes survey asked the question. Data also shows, though, that gay people still face prejudice - and potentially violence - because of their sexual orientation.
Some 45 per cent of school-age LGBT children said they had faced bullying in the playground in 2017, according to the charity Stonewall.
That figure has fallen from 65 per cent a decade earlier but remains high.
Hate crimes based on sexuality have also risen by nearly 50 per cent since 2011.
In 2016/17 there were 9,157 crimes against LGB people and a further 1,248 against transgender people in England and Wales - and those were only the ones reported to police. Homophobic hate crime was the second most common type of hate crime after race.
It is important to note, though, that the rise could reflect police forces making more effort to identify and prosecute gay hate crime, as well as an increase in actual incidents.