Number of gay people in the UK revealed

[SiHart]

This was an interesting story on the BBC website today: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11398629

Obviously this is only for the people who are willing to identify themselves as such, but I thought it was quite telling that London had the highest population and Nothern Ireland the lowest... maybe in time as we become a more enlightened society the figures will change and the patterns of identification will change too.

Si xx

[Captain Tancredi]

I suspect you can probably double that figure, as it reflects only the number of people who are happy for H M Government to know about their sexuality or think it's any of their business. Or, indeed, are out to the person in their household who completes the form. Still, it seems on the low side to me and I wonder whether it doesn't have the potential to change attitudes both ways- in that you could just as easily get some reactionary types asking why society should be held hostage for the sale of 1.5% of the population.

Taking the sectarian business in Northern Ireland out of the equation, I would also expect to see higher proportions of gay people in big cities because you need a certain population size to make gay (or gay-friendly) venues commercially viable. Places like Manchester and Brighton do it well (or so I'm led to understand) which in turn attracts students and workers so the gay community puts down roots and establishes itself as part of the landscape.

[Alex]

in that you could just as easily get some reactionary types asking why society should be held hostage for the sale of 1.5% of the population.

Not quite with you there Ian, when has anyone said that society is held hostage by the gay community?

I'm surprised the figure's not higher myself, but then maybe that's because I live in London, and if I think of the amount of people I know who are gay or bi-sexual out of my social group, it's easily a higher percentage.

But then I've always had good taste in friends!

[Captain Tancredi]

I was just thinking about the Richard Littlejohn-type columnists who will take that figure of 1.5% then look in the pages of Guardian Society (or wherever) to find the latest advertisement for a Gay and Lesbian Inclusion Co-Ordinator at the BBC or some local authority and multiply that by the number of local authorities in the country to get a rough amount of public money being spent to benefit less than a sixtieth of the population.

[Rob McCow]

It's all a question of statistics - 1.5% doesn't sound like much, but if 725,000 gay / bi-curious people turned up at your house you'd have to put an episode of Doctor Who on at the very least.

[Andrew Curnow]

Oh no, I don't have enough cups for 725,000 people. Let's call the whole thing off!

[Rob McCow]

Perhaps the country needs a Gay Totaliser, to proudly display the number of homosexuals in the UK at any given moment.

They could put it on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square.

[SiHart]

That's an awful lot of tea and everyone would be vying for room on the sofa.

Si xx

[SiHart]

I was just thinking about the Richard Littlejohn-type columnists who will take that figure of 1.5% then look in the pages of Guardian Society (or wherever) to find the latest advertisement for a Gay and Lesbian Inclusion Co-Ordinator at the BBC or some local authority and multiply that by the number of local authorities in the country to get a rough amount of public money being spent to benefit less than a sixtieth of the population.

I await tomorrow's Daily Mail with interest as they're bound not to let a story like this pass them by. I'm sure they can spin their own agenda right round this.

Si xx

[WhiteCrowNZ]

the latest advertisement for a Gay and Lesbian Inclusion Co-Ordinator at the BBC

Do you have to be gay to apply? It's an outrage!!! They can take our jobs, but we can't take one of theirs.

That sort of thing?

[Stuart Wallis]

Ah, the Daily Mail complaining about what you can do with your daily male!

It's their turn to rephrase that!

[Philipnet]

Do you have to be gay to apply? It's an outrage!!! They can take our jobs, but we can't take one of theirs.

I do remember that at one University, a man managed to get himself elected as the Woman Officer.

Strangely enough, the following year the rules had changed and only women could run for election for that role

[Captain Tancredi]

Something similar happened when I was a student- in my first year there was a Women's Minibus from the student union back to some of the halls. In my second year it was a Female Priority Minibus- somebody had pointed out that if you had a mixed male/female group, the women could get back to halls for nothing while the men had to either walk down the road for the public bus service or get a taxi, and I think one or two male students had been mugged walking back to halls because they didn't have the money to do either. In my third year the local bus company decided that because it was so well used, it was worth running as a commercial service in term time so they put double deckers on.