Most people in Britain claim to be accepting of lesbian, gay and bisexual people, but around 40% still don’t want their children to be told it’s acceptable to be gay.
A survey by research company Kantar found that over 90% of the public are happy to have gay or bisexual people as colleagues, neighbours and leaders, yet four in 10 would not want six-year-olds to be taught it’s OK to be gay. The shocking contradiction was revealed as LGBT-inclusive sex and relationships education classes become mandatory in all schools across the country.
“In the UK, we have come a long way, but this study shows that social progress is not guaranteed,” said Craig Watkins, UK chief executive of Kantar, in a statement to Reuters. “Although we see high levels of comfort of LGB people in community leadership roles, notable proportions of people have concerns about the education of children.”