Majority of LGBT people still ‘too scared to come out’
Most members of the LGBT community feel the need to lie about their gender or sexual identity, a new poll suggests.
A poll of more than 1,000 LGBT people – commissioned by Pride in London – asked members of the 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 – also commissioned a second survey among the general population, which they say showed a “striking difference” compared with LGBT people.
For example were more likely to experience workplace bullying as a result of their gender.
In addition, only 16% of the wider population said they felt threatened by other people’s attitudes and just 5% said they worried about holding their partners hand in public.
The survey also found that while 77% of LGBT respondents had revealed their sexuality to friends, only 50% had come out to all of 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.
