Pride

Pride in London – why it still matters.
This week we celebrated Pride in London.

Why is it still necessary today?
In 2017 NatCen analysed public opinion towards same sex relationships  charting  greater acceptance than in the past.
In 1987, at the height of the AIDS crisis, those who agreed that same-sex relationships were “not wrong at all” were in the minority (11%). Two thirds (64%) said that they were “always wrong”.  Now  thankfully attitudes are much better however,

This week the Government Equalities office published a national LGBT survey which continued to reveal problems.  As a result they have launched an action plan
LGBT Action Plan that sets out what steps the government will take in response to the survey findings.

Shocking headline findings included:

• More than two thirds of LGBT respondents said they had avoided holding hands with a same-sex partner for fear of a negative reaction from others
• At least 2 in 5 respondents had experienced an incident because they were LGBT, such as verbal harassment or physical violence, in the 12 months preceding the survey.  However, more than 9 in 10 of the most serious incidents went unreported, often because respondents thought ‘it happens all the time’
• two percent of respondents had undergone conversion or reparative therapy in an attempt to ‘cure’ them of being LGBT, and a further 5% had been offered it

Stonewall reaction to the news.

Stonewall also launched a report this week that Half of BAME LGBT people (51%) face discrimination within the LGBT community.  Browse their website for examples of research and surveys relating to attitudes and discrimination faced.

FRA has examples of news and surveys which reveal the extent of discrimination faced in EU nations.
There continue to be many countries worldwide where to be gay is illegal – see the map and summaries of legislation on the ILGA website

LGBT images:

LSE Archives has an online exhibition of images from early gay pride marches on its flickr library

Find out more about the archive and library collections.

Finally, welcome to Wearing Gay History, digitized t-shirt collections of LGBT archives across USA.