IPSOS Pride report 2026

As far as Pride festivals going bankrupt, to me this is a case of a kind of correction to an out of proportion event.

The cost and size of a lot of Pride events was far larger than what you see for other kinds of events. I was at a Jamaican festival two weeks ago, there was one stage, various local music acts who were Jamaican or had Jamaican heritage, some dance acts, and about 10 food booths.

You can go to Greek Fest or the Syrian festival and they are similar in scope.

Pride seems to think in needs to rival the annual civic festival with events all week, many big acts, a huge parade with multiple streets shut down, etc.

It's not surprising it isn't really affordable.

Maybe. It's 6 weeks old now, though.

Also a very interesting contrast about 20 mins in between Mel Metcalf chair of Durham Pride (Peterlee isn't safe for gay people! They took our £2.5k away!) and Darren Grimes Reform deputy leader of Durham Council (gay equality has been achieved, Pride is just a grift now, my life as a gay man is fine but the T are dragging us down).

I thought what they said about the One Centre in Gateshead was interesting, that 70 percent of visitors have never been on 'the scene' and they wanted a sober space for a mix of ages.

Yes, I see your point, but for recent immigration to have an effect, I wouldn’t expect that effect to be just on how the UK saw gay marriage.

It might affect those. But I would be hesitant to assume that attitude to same sex sexual relationships are joined at the hip with views on marriage. That's the way it's been approached as a cultural argument here but it's by no means the only way to think about it.

Thanks for this useful differentiation:

gender criticism and gender conservatism are completely different things

Oh you mean the people responding are increasingly more likely to be from other cultures? Sorry I misunderstood. But that would affect the general positive views of LGB rights in the survey I imagine. And the reporting is at fault here, see @AimsAndObjectives posts and mine and @BonfireLady discussion of their inaccurate interpretation/their deliberate misinformation, whichever it was.

I was thinking different views on sexuality.

I agree, was just playing devils advocate really, and the Independent and its journalists have close to zero credibility for me.

@BonfireLady It's notable that support has slipped for gay/lesbian marriage by 2% and for other recognition by 4%

That's compared to 2021. If you compare to 2025, support has actually gone up by 2% points overall (marriage up 4pp, other recognition down 2pp). So it seems somewhat stable.
I think adoption and parenting is showing a more significant trend in GB.

Yes, quoting it from elsewhere without looking at the detail behind the 82% would be a very reasonable explanation as to what happened. But even if it's due to incompetence (not checking facts) it would still be misinformation.

The only mitigating factor for journalism misrepresenting facts like this is that the journalist believes it to be true. Morally better than disinformation by a long way.

I'm not a journalist but if I saw a massive drop like that, I'd want to verify I had got the facts right.

I guess for a while that sort of coerced compliance/endorsement worked for them, but I think people have had entirely enough of it.

Listening to the BBC Pride discussion what struck me is the bit where a parade goes through a business park on a weekday. It’s the having to be allies and be seen to be allies that might explain the fall in support. If I’m at work doing whatever I need to do, I don’t want to be part of some performative celebration. I would be v pissed off if I was expected to flag wave for anything at work and when we have the building wide announcement for two minutes silence on Armistice Day I make sure I am not at my desk

The Independent are pretty biased on this sort of stuff. But I guess it’s possible that the journalist didn’t look into the figures properly and got the 82% compounded figure from somewhere else rather than look at the actual 2021 survey results. Incompetence rather than deliberate misinformation in other words.

Yes, very misleading reporting. Appalling reporting in fact. Misinformation at best, with it being impossible to rule out disinformation.

It's notable that support has slipped for gay/lesbian marriage by 2% and for other recognition by 4% but it's totally disingenuous of the journalist to portay it as such a huge drop. Whether it's statistically significant or just observably notable remains to be seen in the following years.

Despite it being a small drop since 2021, I'm glad that the UK has three quarters of the country supporting same-sex marriages, civil partnerships or similar.

Thank you @AimsAndObjectives for looking at the original figures and questions.

I assume the trend over time will be visible in the same question in the years between 2021 and 2026. Pink News seems to have a far more optimistic take on the trend, from a YouGov poll this year: https://www.thepinknews.com/2026/07/01/uk-yougov-same-sex-marriage-poll-results/

I bet Preston Davey, a hugely high profile case, is why they didn’t ask the questions this year.

Was just thinking the same thing.

The thing is, it's not as if transpeople don't have needs and need protections.

It's just that they can't and shouldn't be piggy backing onto the needs of others precisely because it doesn't ultimately serve themselves.

I wonder if the percentage agreeing with same-sex adoption and/or surrogacy has now been affected significantly by the cases of Preston Davey and the Drewitt-Barlows.

GB seems to be shifting slightly against same-sex couples having the right to adopt, and against them being likely to raise children as successfully at hetero-couples. I think it would be helpful to see this question broken down into male and female ss couples.

Two questions that appear in 2021, 2024 and 2025 are asking for agree or disagree on the following:

Single sex-couples should have the same right to adopt as heterosexual couples do
% agreeing in 2021/2024/2025
GB 72% 72% 66%
Global average 61% 62% 59%

% disagreeing in 2021/2024/2025
GB 19% 18% 25%
Global average 31% 29% 32%

Single-sex couples are just as likely as other parents to successfully raise children
% agreeing in 2021/2024/2025
GB 76% 74% 67%
Global average 62% 63% 61%

% disagreeing in 2021/2024/2025
GB 15% 15% 22%
Global average 30% 27% 30%

'The precision of Ipsos online polls is calculated using a credibility interval with a poll where N=1,000 being accurate to +/- 3.5 percentage points'

So I have highlighted where GB opinion seems to be shifting down for agree and up for disagree, whereas global averages are not changing significantly.
Interestingly, those questions were not asked in 2026.

Well, that was a waste of time and money.

Ah, at last someone saying that it's the force-teaming with TQ+. Interviewer pushing back hard. No mention of public displays of fetish etc