Stonewall has released its first major report in almost a decade, detailing how LGBTQ+ people polled about issues concerning equality and safety, among others.

The report, released on October 30, collected data from almost 3,500 LGBTQ+ adults in the UK, with most responses coming from England and Scotland. Demographically, 1,600 of these respondents identified as gay or lesbian, and 1,500 as bisexual. Additionally, just over 400 identify as trans+. 

The findings highlighted that “the greatest burden of inequality often falls on the more marginalised within our community… including those with disabilities, ethnic minorities, and, invariably, trans+ people.”

The report itself was divided into six different categories: Equality, Belonging, Safety, Health, Work, and Future. 

Equality
This section focused on progress, challenges, and the State, and how LGBTQ+ people interacted with and were governed by the UK. Some of the key findings in the Stonewall report identified that almost half (48%) of LGBTQ+ people believe that acceptance is higher than it was a decade ago. However, only 26% of trans people held that same belief. 

Despite this perceived progress, half (50%) of LGBTQ+ people are pessimistic about where equality for queer people in the UK is going, and this figure rose to 80% of trans+ people. Additionally, only 23% said they trust institutions run by the State, including the police, courts, and other government bodies, to protect the rights of LGBTQ+ people, and more than double that amount (50%) distrust them. 

A fifth (20%) of those surveyed identified the legalisation of same-sex marriage as the most significant improvement in LGBTQ+ equality in the past decade. Despite this, a cisgender lesbian woman, aged between 25 and 34, noted that “Obviously gay marriage was legalised over 10 years ago, but it takes a few years of gay weddings to happen for people to start to accept this socially. I feel that by the time I got married in 2020 that there was little prejudice or unconscious bias.” 

Belonging
Family, friends, and community were the main focus of this category, and these results were among the most positive across the board. Two-thirds (67%) of LGB+ people were open about their orientation to family, and 88% were open about it to their friends. Additionally, 93% of this group felt accepted by their family, and that number rose to 99% when asked if they felt accepted by their friends. 

However, for the trans+ community, those numbers were lower. Only half (52%) of those polled were open about their gender identity with their family, though 85% were open about this to their friends. On top of that, 86% felt accepted by their family and 95% by their friends. 

Safety
Across the UK, “discrimination, hate crime, and other forms of abuse against LGBTQ+ people continue to be a pervasive harm,” according to the Stonewall report. 

The report identified that 7% of LGBTQ+ people had been questioned about their sex assigned at birth when using single-sex spaces. When looking at the trans+ community’s responses, those numbers rise significantly.

However, this number is concentrated in a few demographics — 41% of trans men and 32% of trans men, as well as 11% of lesbians, reported that they had experienced this questioning. 

An asexual transgender woman, aged over 65, stated, “I was attacked for using the women’s toilets in a pub. I was shaken at the time, but have felt much more nervous about going out since.”

These findings come following the introduction of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC)’s guidance earlier this year, which says that single-sex spaces should be segregated based on biological sex.

Of the LGBTQ+ people who reported experiencing a hate incident over the last year, just under a fifth (18%) reported it to police. More than half (54%) of them were dissatisfied with the police response. State reports indicate that hate crimes against LGBTQ+ people in the UK are still incredibly high, and many continue to go unreported to police. 

The most common forms of hate crimes reported were verbal harassment/intimidation and sexual harassment. Additionally, almost a third (64%) of trans+ people reported experiencing transphobic abuse online in the previous month. 

 

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Health
This section of the Stonewall report looked into LGBTQ+ health, mental health, and wellbeing services. While there have been several positive changes across the field in recent years, including the appointment of a National Advisor for LGBT+ Health in England and the renewal of HIV Action Plans, things like access to gender-affirming care for trans+ people continue to be an issue.

A fifth (20%) of LGBTQ+ people indicated that they are “not very open” or “not open at all” about their identity with healthcare professionals, and 18% of LGB+ people said that healthcare staff lacked understanding of their health needs. That number rose to 39% of trans+ people surveyed. 

Additionally, a tenth (10%) of all LGBTQ+ people reported that they struggled with accessing healthcare because of their sexuality/gender identity. For trans+ people, that number rose to a third (33%).

In terms of mental health, more than half (54%) of LGBTQ+ people had considered suicide, and 22% had attempted suicide. When focusing specifically on the trans+ community, 71% had considered, and 32% had attempted suicide. 

Work
Many LGBTQ+ people have to consider things beyond pay when looking for a job — safety and respect also play a huge role.

Almost a third (30%) of LGB+ people reported having hidden or disguised their orientation at their place of employment over the past year, and 46% of trans+ people said the same. 

For younger generations, workplace inclusivity seems to play a larger role. A bisexual genderfluid person, aged between 18 and 24, noted that “When interviewing for my current job, I learned that my line manager is LGBTQ+, which was a major factor in accepting the job offer.” 

Future
The future — including financial planning, family formation, and older age care — can feel like “a luxury” that some LGBTQ+ don’t feel they can afford. More than half (55%) of LGBTQ+ people don’t have confidence in financial security during retirement. Additionally, the majority of LGBTQ+ people do not have plans to have children in the future, with many indicating that it’s too expensive. 

When asked about older age care, only a third (33%) of LGBTQ+ people had confidence that care providers would understand their needs, and that drops to 18% of trans+ people. 

Response
Simon Blake, the organisation’s CEO, stated that the data from the Stonewall report should serve as a “wake-up call for all of us”.

“While we have made real progress towards equality for LGBTQ+ people, progress is not the same as arrival,” he said. “The work that follows now is urgent: we must rebuild trust in the institutions that are meant to protect us; we must create safe and inclusive spaces for work and play; we must build understanding and tolerance into our health and education systems; and we must bring an end to the unjustified scapegoating, anger and violence being directed towards trans+ people.” 

At the crux of this report is that focus on how much starker these issues seem to be for the trans community, something that Blake went on to call “a dark stain on our shared humanity.” 

Despite these issues, the author of the report’s foreword, Sandi Toksvig, claimed that equality is “inevitable, even when progress is hard to see,” but that doesn’t mean it will be automatic.

“It takes work, and it takes evidence like this to show those in power exactly what needs to change,” Toksvig wrote.

“Prejudice thrives on silence and assumption. Data does not leave much room for either. We cannot allow another generation to grow up with the silence, fear and prejudice that so many of us did.” 

 

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