Tag Archives: Pride in London

Majority Of LGBT+ People Still Feel The Need To ‘Hide Sexuality’

According to a new poll, the majority LGBT community feel the need to lie about their gender or sexual identity.

The poll – commissioned by Pride in London – asked more than 1,000 members of the LGBT community how they felt about discussing their private lives in public.

A massive 74% said they still felt the need to hide their sexual orientation or gender identity.

A further 59% of respondents said they felt threatened by other people’s attitudes and behaviours towards them.

Other findings showed that 41% of gay men also said they would think twice about holding a partner’s hand in public.

The charity – which organises London’s annual gay pride event – commissioned a second survey among the general population, which showed a “huge difference” compared with LGBT+ people.

In particular, a larger proportion of the LGBT+ community had “felt threatened by other people’s attitudes and behaviours towards them”, and were more likely to experience workplace bullying as a result of their gender.

It found 77% of LGBT+ respondents had revealed their sexuality to friends, while 50% had come out to all their colleagues.
Chair of Pride in London, Michael Salter-Church, said:

Great progress has been made in the name of LGBT+ equality in recent years, but these figures show the striking reason why Pride is still as important as ever”.

The latest figures show that homophobic attacks all also saw a rise between 2014 and 2015.

The results also showed that the number of homophobic incidents recorded was nearly double those of Islamophobic crimes, and three times the number of anti-Semitic crimes.

The Met data showed that 1,667 homophobic offences took place in the 12 months to July 2015 – up from 1,289 in the 12 months to July 2014.

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30,000 Revellers Gather for Pride in London – #freedomto

An amazing 30,000 people took part in the Pride parade yesterday in central London.

The Parade was lead by gay actor Sir Ian McKellen who marched with Stonewall, and together they set off from Baker Street, travelling along Oxford Street, Piccadilly Circus, Pall Mall and down to Trafalgar Square before ending at Whitehall.

London Pride is a celebration that the whole capital can be proud of. It’s inspirational to see so many thousands of people not just celebrating everything we’ve achieved as a community but also continuing to fight for LGBT equality here in Britain and around the world.”

Ruth Hunt, Stonewall’s Acting Chief Executive

With the incredible Eurovision winner Conchita Wurst then headlining the celebrations, with Sinitta, Heather Peace and Sam Bailey also joining in at the big stage at Trafagal Square, the event took over the capital.

This year’s theme was “#freedomto“, and participants were encouraged to send in “selfies” which could feature as advertisements on the Tube network, organisers said.

We have had a record number of attendees this year, with over 30 floats and 210 groups. The atmosphere has been amazing. The rain could not dampen the spirit, and people think it has been the best Pride.”

Michael Salter, chair of Pride in London