Cllr. Steve Cooke

British Social Attitudes survey, published in January, found that 36% believed homosexuality to be wrong. So much for nobody in Britain caring about a person’s sexuality any more. It’s a lot better than the 62% in 1983, but there’s a long, long way to go.

Yesterday the Sun published a poll they’d commissioned that asked ’should gay people be Cabinet ministers?’ This added to Jan Muir’s vile article not so long ago on Stephen Gately’s death and numerous other editorial comments and stories demonstrate that the tabloids are part of the problem.

I know a lot of people think it should no longer be a problem for people to be open about their sexuality – the law is on their side after all – but the reality is that ought and is are not the same. Coming out is still something that can have enormous negative consequences.

Not so long ago a young man who lives near me woke in the middle of the night to find a gang of youths had broken into his home – they stabbed and terrorised him simply because he was gay. We should not underestimate the harm being done to people through social pressure, hidden prejudice and emotional assault either.

No – it’s not an easy thing to be gay for everyone, and we should not condemn those who remain in the closet.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010 at 7:47 am and is filed under General Politics, Polemic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.