IPSOS Pride report 2026

[ArabellaScott]

https://www.ipsos.com/en/ipsos-pride-report-2026

'Where we continue to find diverging views is on transgender access to single-sex facilities, healthcare provision and participation in sport.'

Ipsos' annual global report looks like it's showing steady support for LGB people, and support for anti discrimination, but declining support for T people getting everything they want whenever they want.

(Report was released in July)

It's great to see that despite the very heavily biased wording of this survey, it's yet another professional poll that shows the vast majority of people in the UK want single sex spaces.

Why aren't more politicians taking this on board?

Of course, because its grotty to see people necking in public.

A wee kiss is fine. But I don't want to see tongues slobbering about and enthusiastic grappling.

I suppose it's a sPeCtruuuum ...

https://yougov.com/en-gb/articles/22408-one-ten-britons-offended-public-hugging

'Kissing in public is fine with most Brits - so long as you keep your tongue in your mouth
A huge majority of 92% of Britons say holding hands in public is acceptable, and 90% say the same for hugging.
Two thirds are also comfortable with people around them kissing without tongues (68%). But going translating your kiss into French risks disapproving looks, as just one in six (15%) are comfortable with people kissing with tongues in public.'

Also;

'Women are less keen on public kissing
A closer look at the data on attitudes to open-air kissing reveals some groups are considerably more likely to be comfortable than others with a public smooch.
75% of men think kissing without tongues in public is acceptable, but just 62% of women agree. Young people are significantly more likely than older groups to be comfortable with it – eight in ten (78%) 18 to 24s are fine with a public kiss, compared to six in ten (58%) of those aged 55 and above.
Kissing with tongues is where Britons draw the line – though again, age and gender makes a considerable difference to people’s views on the matter. One in five men (20%) are comfortable with it, compared to just one in eleven women (9%). 18 to 24 year olds are three times more likely than those aged 55 and above to think it’s acceptable (20% vs 6%).'

Yes, I think it is that whole 'male hierarchy' thing that men immerse themselves in. They seem to relate to each other very much through that lens. However, when I dug a bit deeper, they were able to understand why women might need or want single-sex sports and spaces. They had simply accepted their existence, without really questioning why we need them. So, hopefully, they have learnt something. Tbf, I think a lot of the silly women who support this stupidity have never really had cause to understand why we need these spaces too.

I think it's probably a bit of a mix.

However - sport is a 'men's issue'. Men talk about it, read about it, care about it. Half the fecking news is taken up with sportsball, and its seen as an acceptable topic for discussion.

I wonder if the whole premise of sport (sublimated aggression, competition as a playful means of fighting) means it's also seen as more acceptable for 'robust' views. Men can whang on for hours about what is and isn't fair, and they are far more relaxed about hurting people's feelings.

Women's dv shelters ... I'm sorry, this will sound harsh, but most people and especially men, just don't care. Most people think abuse is a very niche issue, that women who experience it are generally partly at fault themselves for getting into the situation. It's not that they don't care that men are accessing the service, it's that they don't care about the women using it in the first place.

They are also seen as a 'women's issue'. Women are, on the whole, firstly more 'be kind' and considerate of vulnerable men, and secondly more likely to attract attacks and opprobrium if they speak up.

Remember the woman who stood up and called 'shame' on Nicola Sturgeon?

https://news.sky.com/story/shame-on-you-nicola-sturgeon-heckled-over-scottish-government-gender-reforms-12758613

Exceptional, and exceptionally brave. Look at what happened to Roz Adams.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c6248z383x7o

As has been said before, women on this board are often especially gender non conforming, and a big part of that is that many are less concerned about being 'agreeable' and displaying the 'masculine' traits that distinguish us from a doormat.

Another issue is visibility. Sports is full of photos, we have astonishing visuals of Lia Thomas, that weightlifter bloke, Fallon Fox, the lanky Aussie footballer, the Italian/Irish bald footballer, Iman Khelif. These are (aside from the fat weightlifter) big, burly, healthy, muscly, men wearing lycra and sweating and being photographed and filmed from every angle in bright daylight.

For obvious reasons, women in shelters are not in the papers, not talking about the issues. Nobody is photographing the men accessing women's shelters unless they are subsequently on trial (Katie Dolatowski, Barbie Kardashian, Cameron Downing, etc).

Women's shelters are just not nice things to think about or talk about. They are not media friendly, they are sad and troubling things to think about. They reveal the horror of what happens to women at the hands of men, every day. Nobody wants to think about it, on the whole.

Anyway. That's depressed me.

Back to the survey.

The most interesting thing about it, I think, is the nuance that Red points to. It shows that the UK is far from being the fascist pit of homophobia that trans activists have attempted to portray. On the contrary, the UK is among the most accepting and tolerant of LGB people.

The gap (growing gap elsewhere, but really marked in the UK) between that and the acceptance of 'trans' self ID, puberty blockers, and access to single sex spaces is very telling.

These issues are not the same.

The 'T' is different from the LGB.

Given the reality denying TRAs antics and the increasingly visible and unreasonable demands led by men with questionable and sometimes violent histories, I was worried LGB people would face greater discrimination or intolerance because of the forced teaming.

It’s a relief to read that the actually quite tolerant British nature remains LGB accepting (as it should) and hope that there is greater recognition of LGB✂T.

https://www.equaldex.com/region/turkey

'Recent studies in Turkey show a discernible level of opposition to LGBTQ+ rights among the population.'

"Support for trans athletes competing based on their gender identity has dropped from 32% in 2021 to 22% in 2026 across 23 countries*, with opposition the dominant view in almost all countries, including historically supportive ones."

Excellent news!

Also glad to see, as others have said, that the UK is simultaneously rejecting outrageous TRA demands and holding strong in support of lgb rights

I appreciate PPs points in regards to the more worrying aspects of the survey.

When it comes to public displays of affection, or specifies kissing and holding hands. I see couples holding hands all the time, and giving light kisses while out and about- it can’t be that the majority of people find it disgusting regardless of orientation! If it hadn’t given those examples I’d expect a more negative reaction, but it’s clear they meant very mild, everyday affections.

On representation, I’m surprised so many people feel it’s already over-the-top! If I were to scan the main TV channels or whatever’s on at my local cinema, I think I would find very few gay characters and storylines. And off the top of my head, even less trans characters and storylines, though that’s not something I tend to look out for. Gay characters and stories are something I go out of my way to find so I make sure I’m tuning in at the right times, but the rest of the day? Or week? Or month? It’s overwhelmingly straight, really. I’m not saying it should ever tip too far in the other direction, but it would be nice to be able to channel surf with the expectation that I might find something with a gay character rather than having to seek it out.

The TRA framing is not surprising given the authors are not only Canadian academics but gender studies academics so we’d expect no less from them than this piece lacking any real analysis or critical reflection. In any event, the question is very very open to wide variations of interpretations: People should be able to express their gender however they choose.

There’s little context provided for what is meant by ‘however they choose’ and possibly respondents disagreed with any male feeling themselves female being free to enter any female single sex space. Canadians might be getting a bit fed up of with abuse of that freedom eg getting annoyed by men taking women’s sports titles. There was that male Canadian weight lifting coach (?) declaring himself female to enter a female weight lifting competition in order to beat a trans identifying man who’d been the previous champion.

And what’s interesting is the less positive support for affirmative answers to that question despite the preceding text that says: The next statements are opinions that may be held by members of Canadian society when it comes to gender roles for women and men and violence in relationships. If I’d read that and then was asked "People should be able to express their gender however they choose" I may have thought the question was alluding to gendered roles more broadly.

Given the reduced support, makes you wonder if the over representation of TQ+ characters in film, advertising etc. vs the actual 0.33% (except in Vancouver where surely it’s 33%) of the population and the cases of men in women’s sports is causing a backlash.

The main soaps have quite a lot of gay characters and storylines

such an interesting survey. makes me proud to be british! thanks for posting Arabella

That’s not a surprise given the move away from being a secular to an Islamic country under Erdogan.

And to respond to @gayhistorynerd comment that It’s overwhelmingly straight, really. I’m not saying it should ever tip too far in the other direction, but it would be nice to be able to channel surf with the expectation that I might find something with a gay character rather than having to seek it out.

Perhaps it is not over representation per se but more that there are LGBTQ+ characters in high profile films/tv such as Alice in Borderland, Euphoria, Heartstopper, Big Sky, Control Z, I May Destroy You, Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars, White Lotus, The Last of Us, Baby Reindeer, Heated Rivalry and so on. Many of these shows are from the streaming giants such as Netflix or Prime rather than traditional channels (though we could mention Dr Who and It’s a Sin) that aim to be edgy to garner airtime and viewers’ attention.

I don't really watch TV so can't really comment on the representation of gay/lesbian/bi characters. But while so much film still even fails the very basic Bechdel test, I think sexism is perhaps a larger issue.

Bumping past the visitor’s 2010 zombie threads…

Thanks for crunching the numbers @RedToothBrush

They illustrate very clearly that Terf Island objects not to trans people per se, but to men being in women's spaces. As we've said all along!

If organisations such as Amnesty had any intellectual openness they would notice the huge gulf between the views of the UK and Turkey and realise that gender criticism and gender conservatism are completely different things

Thanks for crunching those numbers @RedToothBrush

Break downs like that are great for the Stats archive thread.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5445880-statistics-poll-evidence-archive-thread?page=1

It would be very interesting to see this poll done with neutral language/questions.

It’s a relief to read that the actually quite tolerant British nature remains LGB accepting (as it should) and hope that there is greater recognition of LGB✂T.

The deliberate conflation has got to go. It was only a coattails initiative anyway, pretending that trans-identified people need extra rights by somehow vonnect them to discrimination that gays and lesbians had suffered in the past. Stonewall and their adherents seem to be shifting to the "Trans+" now anyway. I expect that they will completely drop the LGB as soon as they feel they don't need to use them anymore.

Not RTFT yet so apologies if this is repeated elsewhere in the comments...

Assuming it is correct reporting, this seems concerning:

An Ipsos Mori poll published this week, part of the Ipsos Mori Pride Report 2026, suggests only 66 per cent of Britons agree with same-sex marriage, down from 82 per cent in 2021. It has been legal in England since 2014.

It would be a significant backwards step for gay and lesbian rights if there is a public shift away from equal rights. TBF I'm slightly amazed that 82% were in favour of it in the first place. Obviously that's great if true but (again if true) I wonder what has caused such a dramatic shift away from supporting this.

Hopefully it's not a failure to separate LGB from T+ when thinking about rights. But perhaps it is?

Maybe the question was worded in a slightly different way in 2021? It does seem like a dramatic drop which doesn’t reflect the rest of the findings. As you say, 82% seems quite high in the first place, so maybe that was misleading? I’m interested in whether that’s the only 2 times people have been asked about it. Anyone know?

I saw a Reddit post the other day where a woman complained that she was kissing her girlfriend at a table in a cafe, and the manager was filming them. It was clearly not an affectionate kiss, but what I used to think of as a "soap opera" kiss.

Quite a few people, more than I expected,said that while the guy was a creep, there was no expectation of privacy in a cafe and maybe they shouldn't be kissing there if they thought it's too private to film.

And there was definitely a sense with many posts that they did not want to see people kissing in public.

I wonder about a change in question as well. But it also might reflect immigration.

But it could also be about people questioning the premise more. I've heard people more than once in recent years argue for polygamous marriage or open marriage as good because it's supposedly normal for gay men. Including people like Andrew Sullivan. Which is something back in the 90s some conservatives were warning about but we're told it wouldn't happen. Including by Andrew Sullivan.

So I wonder if that also could have ch as need people's thinking.

Interesting suggestions. Why immigration - marriage fraud?