Do you think Gay people have equality in the UK?

[demay]

Do you think Gay people have equality in the UK? Same-sex marriage is legal now, but what do you think from the people you know?

(Personally wondering if people realise how much of a problem homophobia still is in the UK)

What do you mean by equality?

Legally yes.

But remember OP. It's considered oppressive and abusive to voice any opinion which is different from that expressed by a member of any "protected class".

It's the contemporary version of freedom of speech.

I honestly think the main threat to young gay people today is being told from an early age that their rejection of gender stereotypes means that they're the "wrong sex" and that they should undergo sterilisation under the guise of a sex change. Horrifying. It's conversion therapy with a different name.

I think it's vastly better than it was but no, I don't think they have equality yet. I'm basing that on the experiences of close friends and relatives who are gay. There is still work to be done. Homophobia definitely still exists. Negative stereotypes of gay people still exist.

In my world yes, but then I personally know very few gay people (all the ones I know are in relationships, not sure if that makes a difference) All of them seem perfectly nice people and I'm happy they're happy. Teen DS is utterly baffled that being gay could ever be an issue. I will however freely admit my sample is rather small and probably not indicative of the bigger picture!

At work I deal with a fair amount of hate incidents and surprisingly few homophobic ones. Perhaps the tide is turning?

Nope. My sister and her wife get 2 rounds of ivf on the NHS. If they were a straight couple with the same infertility issue they'd get 4.

Just one example but nope not even close

They're lucky to get any IVF on the NHS.

I agree that legal equality and actual lack of discrimination are not the same. I think people forget how fast things have changed. Lots of gay men alive today grew up in a world where their sex lives were illegal. Anyone my age grew up in a world where the age of consent was different for gay and straight people, and where state schools were instructed to treat homosexual relationships as 'pretend.' You don't change things in an instant.

Not in Northern Ireland.

Absolutely not. It's really sad actually

No.
Inequality is insidious.
There was a recent tweet reminding catholics not to support pride month because its agenda is 'dangerous' to children...
These constant microagressions and always being 'other' by default get very tiring.

Plus I have the double economic Inequality of being in a lesbian relationship. I have no doubt that my standard of living would be much higher if I was in a heterosexual relationship.

Overall it's pretty good but that hides specific issues within communities (and I don't just mean Muslims in Birmingham) there's still people, mostly men who reject their kids if they come out as gay, religious reasons sometimes but in DD's friends case they were not, but the dad (met him just the once) was a walking stereotype - England shirt, white trainers, shaved head, tattooed.

We've come a long way but don't be complacent

We have oh so far to go. Maybe we are onnthe first rung of the ladder, but it’s a very fragile step.

Not while the DUP have any power. Ian Paisley Jr. Is a sitting member of parliament ffs.

No we fecking dont.

Depends on your community I think .

I’m gay in a rural village in Scotland , born into a very very catholic family . I’ve still got family I can’t tell , my dad doesn’t know , I wouldn’t feel comfortable to be openly gay in many situations . I think I’m the only person in both my mum and my dad’s families as far as we know . So I don’t feel equal in the sense that I’m scared to admit it if I fancy someone on TV, feel uncomfortable saying who I find attractive ... and there’s no real TV that accurately portrays being a lesbian , as far as I see it anyway . It’s always about sex , not just love, or it’s a token lesbian ... I still feel like lesbianism is sort of less equal , less spoken about , almost forgotten at times .

Not in NI, as they can’t marry.

But then again this is a province where women have no say over their own bodies, but I can’t imagine the woman hating, homophobic fuckers in charge, give a shit.

And people like @agnurse wouldn't even recognise that the reason they feel that way us homophobic bigots like that. They'd blame it on the gay lifestyle of some such shite.

No there's not equality, and Lesbians seem to be very far down the pecking order.
The Patriarchy still benefits gay men more than straight women in lots of ways, for example.
It seems to be a pyramid of entitlement with straight men at the top and lesbians at the bottom, when you'd hope in fact that it would be a level playing field. There's still a long way to go.

Legally, we’re getting there in GB, socially no we still have a very long way to go.

Yes I can get married, I can’t be sacked for being me and I’m allowed to be a parent.

However people like me don’t exist at school, we don’t receive any RSE which puts us in a very vulnerable situation.

I can’t walk down the street holding a partners hand and feel safe, I can’t kiss a partner goodbye without worrying about being verbally or physically abused. How many of you have been spat at for walking too close to someone or beaten up?

Mentioning a partners name in a new situation e.g new work place, new colleagues etc can lead to someone never talking to you again, or worse in my experience.

Until I can be myself outside of my own home and outside of a gay bar things won’t be equal. I don’t live in a small town etc, I live in shoreditch a so called accepting place.

theguyliner.com/gay-stuff/saturday/

The first paragraph sums up how some of us feel in public quite well.

Simon, that was a great article and it's awful that gay people should have that happen to them. As the article points out, it happens to women too. Swap 'faggot' for 'stuck up bitch' and it's happened to me numerous times.

I realise my privilege at not having to come out as straight, or worry about holding hands in public with my husband and all those things that can easily be taken for granted. I know progress has been made like gay marriage, but it can be taken away just as easily as it came and there's a long way to go.

One day, maybe in 40 years, when the world is frying and we're all fucked anyway, people will just be people, black, white, women, men, LGBT. All fucked equally.