The number of people believing there is nothing wrong with gay sex has fallen for the first time since the Aids crisis. The British Social Attitudes survey puts it at dipping from 68% in 2017 to 66% in 2018, leaving a third of the population in some way opposed. NatCen, who conducted the survey, said that, while further polling was advisable, “liberalisation of attitudes does seem to be slowing down”.
The findings coincide with the first decrease in more than a decade of people comfortable with pre-marital sex. On the plus side, last week also saw the Commons victory for gay legislation in Northern Ireland. Still, what a hammering same-sex couples have had recently – everything from attacks on buses to Ann Widdecombe (the Aunt Lydia of Brexit, anyone?) pondering how science could “produce an answer” to gayness. In this context, is the NatCen survey indicative of new attitudes, or yet more evidence that people are feeling bolder about expressing previously veiled prejudices?
Part of the problem seems to lie with gay sex in particular, rather than gay people generally, the bizarre phenomenon of almost “enforced asexuality”, where gay people (or anyone non-straight) can be accepted, even celebrated, but only so long as the “sex stuff” is played down to the point of being undetectable.
This often seemed to be the “problem” with the late George Michael – that he was an actively sexual gay man, and didn’t care who knew it. To a certain hetero mindset, it seems there are two distinct groups – cultural gays (acceptable), and sexual gays (unacceptable!). Some people pride themselves on “tolerating” what they perceive as cultural gays, but then recoil from evidence of their sexuality.
Perhaps that’s when they start pompously opining to people with clipboards about non-acceptance – as though somehow their homophobia had been forced upon them by gay people who just had to go and spoil everything by having sex.