Census 2021 – Sexual Orientation, England and Wales

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), over 1 million people in the UK identified as LGBT+ in the 2021 census.

This represents a significant increase from the 2011 census, where only 480,000 people made such a declaration. The 2021 census found a higher proportion of young people identifying as LGBT+ than older age groups, with around 7% of 16 to 24-year-olds identified as LGBT+, compared to just 2% of those aged 65 and over.

These findings may be partly attributed to a greater acceptance of LGBT+ people in society and a growing willingness to self-identify and could also be a sign of increasing social acceptance of LGBT+ identities among younger generations.

From a geographical perspective, the census also revealed some interesting differences in the LGBT+ population across different regions of the UK with London having the highest proportion of people identifying as LGBT+, with around 3.5% of the population identifying as such. In contrast, the East Midlands had the lowest proportion of LGBT+ people, with only around 1.5%. These regional differences may reflect broader cultural and societal attitudes towards LGBT+ identities in different parts of the country.

In Tower Hamlets, statistics showed that 3.96% identify as Gay or Lesbian, 2.52% as Bisexual, 0.13% as Queer, and 9.76% chose not to answer. Statistics for Gender shows 0.57% stated having a different gender to the one assigned to them at birth, 0.14% are non-binary, 0.14% identify as Trans Male, and 0.14% identify as Trans Female.  These statistics show a high population of LGBT+ people living in Tower Hamlets compared to other regions across the UK. In London, Tower Hamlets is one of 9 other London Boroughs, including Central London, Southwark, Lambeth, Westminster, Camden, Islington, Haringey and Hackney, out of the total 32 London Boroughs that have the highest LGBT+ population.

Another key finding of the census was the multitude sexual orientations and gender identities within the community, with many people identifying as non-binary, pansexual, or asexual, among other identities, highlighting the importance of recognizing and respecting the wide range of identities and experiences within the LGBT+ community.

On publication of the results, Nancy Kelley, Chief Executive of Stonewall commented: “Today is another historic step forward after decades of Stonewall campaigning to record sexual orientation and gender identity in the Census, finally painting an accurate picture of the diverse ‘Rainbow Britain’ that we now live in, where more and more of us, and in particular more young LGBTQ+ people than ever before.”

While the census provides valuable data on the LGBT+ population, it is worth noting that there may be limitations to the accuracy of this data. Some individuals may choose not to disclose their sexual orientation or gender identity for a variety of reasons, including privacy concerns, fear of discrimination, or simply because they do not feel comfortable doing so. Additionally, the census does not capture the experiences of people who may be questioning their sexuality or gender identity, or those who do not feel that the available options for identification accurately reflect their experiences.

There is still work to be done to ensure that all members of the LGBT+ community feel safe, respected, and valued in society. It is important to continue to raise awareness about the unique challenges faced by LGBT+ people and work towards creating a more inclusive and supportive society for all.

August 2021 Newsflash

Find our August Newsflash here!

https://mailchi.mp/eac595014cc5/august-newsflash-8877861

July Newsflash

Find our July Newsflash here – https://mailchi.mp/0066fbd11c97/july-newsflash

July Blog

LGBT Foundation Report ‘If We’re Not Counted, We Don’t Count’ A good practice guide to monitoring sexual orientation and trans status

The LGBT Foundation’s good practice guide to monitoring sexual orientation, launched in 2017, provided advice on how to implement the Sexual Orientation Monitoring Information Standard.  The Sexual Orientation Monitoring Information Standard published in October 2017 by NHS Digital and NHS England provided a consistent mechanism for recording the sexual orientation of patients 16 and over across all health services and Local Authority social care providers in England.

Though the Information Standard was ‘fundamental’, it was not mandatory to implement. However, it received extremely negative press at the time of its launch. This image below highlights the negative headlines from the press, including some LGBT+ media outlets.  

Image credit: If We’re Not Counted, We Don’t Count Guide

Despite such negative press, since its launch in 2017 a huge amount of progress has been made in regards to allowing services across the country to effectively monitor sexual orientation.  The Government Equalities Office launched the National LGBT Survey in 2017 which received 108,100 responses from people who self-identified as having a minority sexual orientation or gender identity. The results were broken down by safety, education, health, and employment for different LGBT groups. You can view the results online here: data viewer for the results of the 2017 LGBT survey. Furthermore, the 2021 census was the first ever to ask about sexual orientation and trans status, a significant step forward for counting the LGBT community.

The LGBT Foundation conducted a primary care patient experience survey in 2017 and found that “LGBT people who shared their sexual orientation with their GP were 21.4% more likely to feel their GP met their health needs than those who did not. Trans people who shared their trans status with their GP were 62.1% more likely to feel their GP met their health needs than those who did not.”

However, routine monitoring of sexual orientation has not been embedded in the majority of health and social services across the country and there is a significant gap in trans status and gender identity monitoring, both of which the Sexual Orientation Monitoring Information Standard does not include.

With trans status and gender identity being excluded from the Information Standard, this updated good practice guide to sexual orientation and trans status aims to address this gap in knowledge with information on how to implement Trans Status Monitoring (TSM) & inclusive gender monitoring as well as updated guidance, tips and case studies of good practice in sexual orientation and trans status monitoring.

As discussed in the June blog, LGBT+ communities face a wide-ranging variety of health inequalities such as higher rates of smoking, drug/alcohol dependency and mental health issues. In addition, LGBT+ communities also experience higher rates of homelessness, domestic abuse and sexual violence which can lead to significantly worse health outcomes. Health inequalities can arise at any point during people’s lives, but often when LGBT people access services to address these inequalities they experience further discrimination and marginalisation.

The Covid-19 pandemic has increased these pre-existing inequalities. It has also highlighted the lack of data being collected on LGBT+ communities within the health and social care sector. It has highlighted how essential monitoring is in enabling healthcare providers to identify inequalities and address them by adapting and improving healthcare services for the LGBT+ community.

This new guide aims to push monitoring “further up the agenda and highlight the case for its importance” in a bid to increase data collection. One of the aims of the forum is to promote sexual orientation and trans status monitoring to ensure there is knowledge about the needs of the local community. Let’s change the narrative of negative press around monitoring and voice our support this updated guide, spread the word and save LGBT+ lives.

For more information and to download the guide:

https://lgbt.foundation/monitoring

Additional Resources:

e-Learning for Healthcare – Sexual Orientation Monitoring Information Standard module

NHS England – Additional guidance on the Sexual Orientation Monitoring Information Standard

LGBT Foundation – Sexual orientation monitoring guide (2017)

Building Health Partnerships – Clinical rationale for sexual orientation monitoring

The Tower Hamlets LGBT+ Community Forum will be holding the next LGBT Practitioner’s Network focused on this updated monitoring guidance – if you are a healthcare professional please join us! Email lgbtforum@elop.org to register.

LGBT+ Practitioner’s Network 

Thursday 22nd July

Lunch & Learn:  12.00 – 13.00

TOPIC:  Good Practice Guidance to LGBT+ Monitoring

This will be a Bitesize session unpacking the LGBT Foundation and NHS England new good practice guide to monitoring sexual orientation and trans status. There will be a 30 minutes presentation and then time for questions & discussion.

June Blog

LGBT+ Health Inequalities and Tower Hamlets Health & Wellbeing Strategy 2021-2025

Over the last year the coronavirus pandemic has highlighted how inequalities in wider society reflect inequalities in health and wellbeing. With the LGBT+ community already facing increased levels of health risk in a range of areas, many have been disproportionately affected by the impact of Covid-19.

Dr Michael Brady, National Advisor for LGBT Health, has previously said: “Wherever the question is asked, LGBT people experience poorer outcomes in healthcare” and so it can be assumed that the coronavirus pandemic would create a knock on effect of similarly poor outcomes.

However, the Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch has said that the government has not found “that LGBTQ+ groups specifically have been disproportionately affected.” Former LGBT+ government adviser, Catherine Meads, responded to this claim, saying that the government was “conflating no problem with no data”. Meads has recently spoken out about the lack of research conducted by the government into the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on LGBT people, saying it “has not been done” and that the LGBT+ community has been “forgotten about”. She has warned that it is difficult to assess the impact due to this lack of analysis. Meads also emphasised the lack of research as being a persistent problem relating to the LGBT+ community, leading to people having “assumed all sorts of things to do with the health of the LGBTQ+ population”.

Deputy Chief Executive of the LGBT Foundation Rob Cookson added that not enough has been done by the government “to understand and act on the needs of LGBT communities during the pandemic”, suggesting that LGBT+ people experience a “broad range of health inequalities across their lifetimes and face increased risk factors for the virus having serious health implications”.

Image credit: LGBT Foundation Website

LGBT Foundation Hidden Figures Report 2020

The LGBT Foundation took matters into their own hands during the pandemic, carrying out their own research into how the coronavirus pandemic was impacting the LGBT+ community. In May 2020 The LGBT Foundation published findings from their research in a report which can be found here:

https://lgbt.foundation/coronavirus/hiddenfigures

The report states that:

“The research uncovered some of the wide-ranging and profound effects the pandemic has had on the lives of LGBT people in areas such as mental health; isolation; substance misuse; eating disorders; living in unsafe environments; financial impact; homelessness; access to healthcare; and access to support.”  

Key Findings from the Survey

LGBT Foundation’s Covid-19 community survey of LGBT people living in the UK has found that:

• 42% would like to access support for their mental health at this time.
• 30% are living alone at this time.
• 25% would like support to reduce their isolation, such as a befriending service.
• 18% are concerned that this situation is going to lead to substance or alcohol misuse or trigger a relapse.
• 8% do not feel safe where they are currently staying.
• 16% had been unable to access healthcare for non-Covid related issues.
• 34% have had a medical appointment cancelled.
• 23% were unable to access medication or were worried that they might not be able to access medication.
• 64% said that they would rather receive support during this time from an LGBT specific organisation.

Tower Hamlets Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2021 – 2025

The Tower Hamlets Health and Wellbeing Board consists of local government leaders, health and social care professionals and other partners across the council and voluntary sector. Together, they aim to provide a joined-up approach to improving the health of residents in the borough.

The Board has drafted a new Health & Wellbeing Strategy for 2021 – 2025. It is led by the following principles:

Image credit: Tower Hamlets Council Website

They set out five Ambitions for Health & Wellbeing in Tower Hamlets in 2025:

We can all access safe, social spaces near our homes

Children, teenagers and families are healthy, happy, and confident

Young adults have the opportunities, connections and local support they need to live healthy, fulfilling lives

Middle-aged and older people are enabled to live healthy lives and get support early if they need it

Anyone needing help knows where to get it, and is supported to find the right help

If you live or work in Tower Hamlets then you have until the 25^th June to give feedback on what is important to you in the borough. Be part of shaping future priorities for the LGBT+ community in the coming years by sharing your view or experience.

To complete the survey click on this link:

https://talk.towerhamlets.gov.uk/hwbb-strategy/survey_tools/health-wellbeing-strategy

For more information on the strategy and to read the full draft, click on this link:

https://talk.towerhamlets.gov.uk/hwbb-strategy

References

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/lgbt-covid-data-government-b1848995.html

https://lgbt.foundation/coronavirus/why-lgbt-people-are-disproportionately-impacted-by-coronavirus

https://metro.co.uk/2021/06/19/in-focus-why-the-lgbt-community-feel-discriminated-against-by-covid-14793385/

https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2021/06/07/former-lgbt-adviser-catherine-meads-uk-government-covid-19-independent/

June Newsflash Pride Edition

Find our June Newsflash Pride Edition here – https://mailchi.mp/3447732826c4/june-newsflash-pride-edition

May Blog

Conversion therapy – sometimes called “reparative therapy” or “gay cure therapy” – tries to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity. In practice, it means trying to stop or suppress someone from being gay, or from living as a different gender to their sex recorded at birth.

Teresa May announced in 2018 that the UK would ban conversion therapy, and last summer the current Prime Minster said plans for a ban would be brought forward.  The  30 March 2021, marked one thousand days since the ban was first promised and  as a result of a lack of action three advisers to the LGBT advisory panel resigned amid concerns that the government was being too slow to act. 

In the Queen’s Speech on 11^th May, the government announced a consultation will be held in England and Wales before the law changes. This will explore how to ensure the ban does not have “unintended consequences”, and that medical professionals, religious leaders, teachers and parents can keep having “open and honest conversations”.

Stonewall released a statement saying “We don’t need a consultation to know that all practices that seek to convert, suppress, cure or change us are dangerous, abusive and must be banned. Lesbian, gay, bi, trans, intersex and ace communities have been waiting almost three years for the UK Government to follow through on their promise to ban all conversion practices, and any delay leaves us at further risk of abuse”.

According to the Government Equalities Office, organisations disassociating themselves from the term “conversion therapy” and labelling themselves differently is one of the main obstacles when it comes to banning it. Conversion therapy can include talking therapies and prayer, but can also include more extreme forms. A number of organisations including the British Psychological Society, the UK Council for Psychotherapy and the National Counselling Society have published a Memorandum of Understanding agreeing that the practice is “unethical and potentially harmful”. It isn’t just psychologists that want the government to move forward with their promise. The Church of England condemned conversion therapy in 2017, and social justice groups such as Humanists UK and Stonewall have long called for it to be banned.

About 5% of the 108,000 people who responded to a 2018 LGBT government survey said they had been offered some form of conversion therapy, while 2% had undergone it. Those from an ethnic minority background were twice as likely to be affected. About 10% of Christian respondents and 20% of Muslims said they had undergone or been offered conversion therapy, compared to 6% with no religion. More than half said it was conducted by a faith group, while one in five received it from healthcare professionals. The figure is higher among transgender respondents. Almost one in 10 trans men said they had been offered conversion therapy, and one in 25 said they had undergone it.

In Northern Ireland,  politicians have passed a non-binding motion calling for a ban on conversion therapy “in all its forms”.

We would like to see a clear and comprehensive timeline for the implementation of the Bill to ban all forms of conversion therapy to stop the continual damage it has done to the LGBT+ community.

Equality and Human Rights Commission

A diverse range of LGBT+ Voluntary and Community Sector leaders have today written to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, urging them to step up for our LGBT+ communities.

They have questioned the Commission’s record on LGBT+ people’s rights, but particularly trans people’s rights. There is growing frustration and disappointment that they are no longer using their powers to advance equality for LGBT+ people, and in particular are choosing to put their efforts into intervening in a case where gender-critical beliefs are being argued.

Leaders are asking the EHRC to set out their next steps for better engagement and real action for our communities, particularly as on IDAHOBIT yesterday we saw ILGA Europe publish its annual map of LGBT+ rights across Europe and we saw the UK slip down the rankings.

Paul Roberts, Consortium’s Chief Executive said, “at a time when we are seeing relentless campaigns to remove and restrict trans and non-binary people from public life the EHRC should be at the forefront of defending the hard fought rights of our communities. Instead, they are focusing their energy on the exact opposite and providing legitimacy for the misinformation and negative public discourse that sees trans and non binary people forced to defend their very existence. This is unfair, is unjust and we demand to know why the EHRC isn’t doing more to protect and defend those seeking anything more than equal protection.”

#TogetherWithTrans

April Blog

As the UK starts to ease its way out of another lockdown, this week brought the news from the US that former police officer Derek Chauvin had been found guilty on all charges of killing unarmed Black father George Floyd last May. Floyd’s death sparked protests and movements around the world to address systemic racism and to fight for Black Lives Matter, and whilst this feels like a moment of justice it is difficult to celebrate when real justice would have meant that George Floyd was still alive. 

The Black Lives Matter movement rallied across America demanding justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade and others, killed by police officers across America. This sparked Black Lives Matter UK protests in solidarity, but also for those who have been killed by police or died in police custody in the UK, such as Mark Duggan, Sarah Reed, Joy Gardner, Sheku Bayoh and many more.

In our own community, violence against LGBTQ+ black people continues with police violence, systemic racism, portrayal in the media, representation in organisation and in politics, schools and university curriculum, access to healthcare and social need; discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation. Particularly black Trans lives are disproportionally affected, and since 2013, more than 130 transgender and non-binary individuals have been killed in the United States, according to a report by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. It is our responsibility to continue to educate ourselves and others and stand with our community. Documentaries such as Disclosure, as well as Paris Is Burning and Kiki, are essential viewing, but also challenging transphobia and racism even within the LGBTQ+ bubble. Read articles and books by black trans people and support their work; educate yourselves and don’t stay silent.

Become a No Place For hate champion in Tower Hamlets;

https://forms.towerhamlets.gov.uk/service/No_place_for_hate

Power, by Audre Lorde;

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/53918/power-56d233adafeb3

LGBT+ History Month Album