- The Observer, Sunday 26 October 2008
While only six per cent of Britons define their sexual orientation as homosexual or bisexual, more than twice that number (13 per cent) of Britons have had some form of sexual contact with someone of the same sex.
Sixteen per cent of women have had sexual contact with another woman, while 10 per cent of men have had sexual contact with another man.
It seems that much of this can be attributed to youthful sexual experimentation as 23 per cent of the 16-24 age group have had sexual contact with someone of the same sex.
Same sex marriage has been legal in the UK since 2005 , but 45 per cent of Britons still feel that gay couples should not be allowed to get married. When the same question was asked in 2002, 50 per cent held this view, but the introduction of the Civil Partnerships Act has only changed the views of five per cent of the population.
Men are significantly more likely than women to oppose same sex marriages (55 per cent compared with 36 per cent).
There is a broad correlation with age in that older Britons are most likely to oppose same sex marriage. However, a significant proportion (37 per cent) of those aged 16-24 also oppose it.
There are other indications that, despite the gradual absorption of gay culture into the mainstream, many Britons still vehemently oppose homosexuality. Fifty-six per cent of the population currently believe that homosexuals should not be allowed to adopt children and 40 per cent believe that the age of consent for homosexual sex should be higher than it is for heterosexual sex.
The answers to both of these questions have changed little since they were previously asked in 2002.
Most striking of all, almost one in four Britons (24 per cent) believe that homosexual sex should be made illegal. The proportion of the population who hold this view has actually increased by one per cent since 2002. As with all of these questions, men are more likely than women to hold a negative view towards homosexuality. There is also some correlation with social class as those in the ABC1 social groups are generally more likely to hold liberal views than those in the C2DE groupings.
