Fifty years of gay rights but some the Brish media are peddlg the same homophobia

Contents:

• GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• A TIMELE OF GAY RIGHTS THE UK
• STONEWALL RTS: 50 YEARS ON OM THE RTS THAT CHANGED GAY RIGHTS HISTORY
• LAVENR MENACE, WT & WIL AND OTHER 80S GAY LERATURE SUPPLIERS WERE LIFAVERS
• GAY RIGHTS

GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

In the Early Morn and Medieval perd, the church and eccliastil urts termed the approach to homosexualy, seeg as at odds wh Christian valu of heterosexual marriage and procreatn. The 1970s saw a shift polil nscns towards pri and equal rights; the UK was the of the first Gay Pri para, the openg of Gay’s the Word bookshop, and the lnch of Swchboard, one of the first LGBTQ+ helpl. The 2000s saw the age of nsent lowered to the same age for homosexual and heterosexual acts, the UK Government lifted the ban on lbians, gay and bisexual people servg the Armed Forc and Sectn 28 was repealed.

Patrick Nelson is a rare historil example of a Black gay man whose life is well documented, both through ary rerds and ship logs ntaed our llectn, and through the love letters sent between him and Dunn Grant ntaed the Tate archiv.

It’s also important to pot out that this piece of legislatn me after many years of the AIDS crisis durg which homosexualy was creasgly stigmatised and associated wh disease.

A TIMELE OF GAY RIGHTS THE UK

Approval fell the 1980s when the Aids crisis and the troductn of sectn 28 - a law prohibg the promotn or teachg of homosexualy schools - uld have swayed public opn acrdg to NatCen, the thk tank which ns the a steady and rapid rise om the early 1990s reflects a wir trend of social liberalisatn, somethg also seen changg attus to pre-maral sex.

STONEWALL RTS: 50 YEARS ON OM THE RTS THAT CHANGED GAY RIGHTS HISTORY

Approval of pre-maral sex grew ially among the young - as they got olr they retaed that belief, and soon both old and young were more liberal on the same-sex relatnships the shift attu has been quicker - not only did young people wh liberal views get olr, but olr people changed their mds, might part be bee chang the law, such as the legalisatn of civil partnerships and then gay marriage, have a powerful fluence on people's views, a NatCen spokman suggts. 1967 - Sex between two men over 21 and " private" is crimalised1980 - Decrimalisatn Stland1982 - Decrimalisatn Northern Ireland1994 - The age of nsent for two male partners is lowered to 182000 - The ban on gay and bisexual people servg the armed forc is lifted; the age of nsent is equalised for same- and oppose-sex partners at 162002 - Same-sex upl are given equal rights when to adoptn2003 - Gross cency is removed as an offence2004 - A law allowg civil partnerships is passed2007 - Discrimatn on the basis of sexual orientatn is banned2010 - Genr reassignment is add as a protected characteristic equaly legislatn2014 - Gay marriage be legal England, Wal and Stland3. Government has attempted to redrs this legacyGiven this legacy of crimalisatn, the ernment troduced a scheme October 2012 allowg those prosecuted unr funct gay-sex-related laws, to have their nvictns removed om police and urt Home Office timat that there were about 50, 000 such offenc rerd on the system om the 1950s until of the 50, 000, only an timated 16, 000 are for people who are still livg and so able to all of the 16, 000 offenc are eligible to be "disregard".

Rerdg of homophobic hate crim has risenA steep rise homophobic hate crim has been rerd over the past five years, but this is thought to be large part down to an crease people reportg cints rather than a genue rise crime.

LAVENR MENACE, WT & WIL AND OTHER 80S GAY LERATURE SUPPLIERS WERE LIFAVERS

The Natnal Police Chiefs Council's lead on homophobic crim, Assistant Chief Constable Mark Haton, says: "Tradnally, homophobic hate crime has been signifintly unr-reported and we do not believe that current statistics accurately reflect actual levels of abe. It's strikg that people aged 16-24 are more than five tim more likely than those aged over 65 to intify as gay, lbian or Office for Natnal Statistics keeps rerds of people who intify themselv as gay, lbian or bisexual - 1.

This is likely to unrtimate the real numbers as the survey don't pture sexual attractn or 2005 the ernment tried to timate the size of the lbian, gay and bisexual populatn and me up wh a larger number - 5-7% of the populatn.

Gay people say they feel ls happy than their straight peersPeople who intify as gay, lbian and bisexual report lower levels of well-beg than heterosexuals the ONS looks at happs, life satisfactn, and the extent to which people feel their life is worthwhile. Gay and lbian people report higher levels of anxiety than straight people, but bisexual people are even more likely to suffer om the lbian, gay and bisexual people are also more likely to suffer om suicidal thoughts than their straight iends, acrdg to a 2014 survey by LGBT support chary Metro. Same-sex upl have gaed equal marriage rightsCivil partnerships were legalised 2004 throughout the Uned Kgdom, wh the first ceremoni takg place at the end of the followg 140, 000 people entered to civil partnerships between 2005 and 2015, the last year for which figur are the UK, gay and lbian upl were granted many of the same rights as married heterosexuals, albe wh a few differenc around issu like private-sector meant that upl uld no longer be kept out of hospal rooms when their partner was sick, they would no longer lose their home or bs bee of tax laws, and they had parental rights over marriage was legalised a later, wh the first ceremoni takg place England, Wal and Stland 2014.

GAY RIGHTS

Countri where gay marriage is legal2010 Iceland, Portugal, Argenta2013 Uguay, New Zealand, France, Brazil2014 UK (excludg Northern Ireland)2015 Luxembourg, Ireland, Mexi, USAA further 28 untri guarantee some civil-partnership regnn acrdg to ILGA. Beg gay is still crimalised many parts of the worldBra is markg 50 years sce the partial crimalisatn of homosexualy but same-sex relatns are still illegal across vast swath of the world.