Britain supports the gays

23/5/07

A nationwide survey found that almost 9/10 Britons support gay and lesbian legal protections

The vast majority of Britons support newly-introduced legal protections for gay and lesbian people, according to a nationwide poll. The 2007 Sexual Orientation Regulations, which came into effect on May 1st, assure that businesses cannot discriminate on the grounds of sexual orientation.

The legislation has been fiercely opposed by right-wing religious institutions, most notably Catholic adoption agencies that launched efforts to be exempt from the regulations.

The Stonewall-commissioned "Living Together" survey also found that 73% would not mind if their child’s teacher was gay, 80% would not mind if a relative was gay, and 88% would not mind if member of royal family was gay.

YouGov, a market research firm, surveyed over 2,000 people across Britain to analyze public attitudes toward gay people. The discovered that an astonishing 85% of people support the new laws, and that 73% of people think more should be done to tackle anti-gay hate crime.

“We wanted to establish whether the shrill voices in modern Britain still opposing equality are actually representative,” Stonewall Chief Executive Ben Summerskill said,

“While a significant majority of Britons are clearly not prejudiced, as this polling demonstrates, their voices are often drowned out by a minority who are.”

In April, the House of Commons passed the regulations with 310 votes to 100, dismissing efforts made by a group of Tory MPs to block them at committee stage. From the Tory party, David Cameron, Gordon Brown, and even Ruth Kelly voted in favour of the regulations.

Catholic adoption agencies have until the end of 2008 to comply with the new laws.