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Take Pride Report - June 2022
Introduction
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the first pride march in the UK. It is a time for celebrating the
progress we’ve made towards a world where LGBTQ+ can be ourselves and live our lives to the full. It is
also a time to take a hard look at the gap between the world we imagine for our communities and the
world we’re in, where parts of our community are being left behind.
Over the last 50 years, every battle for the rights of LGBTQ+ communities has been fought in the court
of public opinion as well as in the corridors of power. From the fight to decriminalise men who have sex
with men, to the fight for trans people’s rights to be protected and respected, our ability to survive and
thrive has always been constrained by the views of people who aren’t part of our communities.
So what does the general public think about LGBT people in the UK today? Perhaps more importantly,
what do they feel?
In December 2021, Stonewall worked with Opinium to ask more than 2000 adults from across the UK
how they feel about lesbian, gay, bi and trans people.
Our findings paint a picture of growing acceptance: a society beginning to truly take pride in LGBTQ+
people as neighbours, colleagues, friends and family. But the findings also show a small minority of
people who are still holding on tight to the feelings of disgust and fear that drive homophobia, biphobia
and transphobia. Feelings that were all too common when we first marched for our rights though
London fifty years ago.
Methodology
In December 2021, Stonewall asked just over 2000 adults living across the UK how they feel about
lesbian, gay, bi and trans people. We asked separately about each of our communities and offered
respondents the opportunity to tick as many options as they wanted to. The options we gave them
were: respect, admiration, pity, disgust, resentment, fear and envy, as well as ‘can’t choose’ and ‘prefer
not to say’.
These questions are based on a question about public sentiment towards trans people that was tested
and used in the British Social Attitudes Survey of 2019, as part of a piece of work commissioned by the
Equalities and Human Rights Commission. Questions asked are set out in full in Appendix 1, and data
tables in Appendix 2.