Public opinion on LGBTQ+ issues in Britain since 1945

<p dir="ltr">This chapter uses an extensive array of British polling and survey data since the 1940s to reassess when, to what extent, and in what respects the heterosexual majority came to accept gay, lesbian and trans people as fellow citizens with equal rights. It begins by questioning whether a majority of people supported the partial decriminalization of sex between men in the 1960s and by examining variations in attitudes to homosexuality among different demographic groups prior to the 1980s AIDS crisis. It then proceeds to analyze whether the increasing tolerance afforded to LGBTQ+ people at the turn of the millennium did or did not translate into support for legislative reforms concerning adoption, employment, civil partnership, marriage, and the age of consent. Recent evidence concerning attitudes towards transgender issues, which have become a prominent part of the equality agenda and have engendered political controversy, is considered in a separate appendix.</p>