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Issue Description
Homosexuality was decriminalised in England and Wales in 1967, yet issues such as gay adoption and civil partnerships are still considered contentious. Many gay people will also suffer misunderstanding, discrimination and homophobic abuse during their lives. This title contains articles on topics including homophobic bullying, teaching about sexuality in schools, the portrayal of gay people in the media and the adoption debate.
The information comes from a wide range of sources and includes government reports and statistics, newspaper reports, features, magazine articles and surveys, literature from lobby groups and charitable organisations.
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Key Facts
- According to current scientific and professional understanding, the core attractions that form the basis for adult sexual orientation typically emerge between middle childhood and early adolescence. These patterns of emotional, romantic, and sexual attraction may arise without any prior sexual experience. (page 1)
- Both heterosexual behaviour and homosexual behaviour are normal aspects of human sexuality. Both have been documented in many different cultures and historical eras. (page 3)
- 16% of men and 15% of women surveyed by Ipsos MORI reported having sexual contact with someone of the same sex as themselves. (page 4)
- Only one in 100 Britons would describe themselves as gay, according to the first government research into the nation’s sexuality. (page 5)
- Some people think that people who describe themselves as bisexual are really gay but cannot admit this. This is not true; you can be attracted to both boys and girls and being bisexual is not the same as being gay. It is also not true that bisexual people are really straight but just experimenting. (page 10)
- Homophobic bullying is almost endemic in Britain’s schools. Almost two-thirds (65 per cent) of young lesbian, gay and bisexual pupils have experienced direct bullying. Seventy-five per cent of young gay people attending faith schools have experienced homophobic bullying. (page 17)
- 43% of people surveyed by YouGov felt that Catholic adoption agencies should not be exempted from the requirement to consider gay couples as potential parents on the same basis as other couples. 29% felt that the Catholic adoption agencies should be exempted, and allowed to reject gay couples wishing to adopt children. Catholic adoption agencies eventually lost their battle to be exempted from the rule to provide equal consideration for gay parents wishing to adopt on 30 January 2007. (page 33)
- Major new polling commissioned by Stonewall has found that the vast majority of Britons, 85%, support the 2007 Sexual Orientation Regulations, newly-introduced legal protections for gay people. Similar numbers would be happy if a relative, their boss or a footballer in the team they support (92%) was gay, the Living Together survey established. (page 36)
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Table of Contents
Chapter One: Sexuality Issues
Answers to your questions, Exploring your sexuality, Just one in 100 tells researchers: I’m gay, Theories, I am what I am and it’s not a choice, When coming out goes wrong, Parents of gay children, Bisexual, Girls who like boys... and girls, The wrong label?, Transgender, Homophobia in the classroom, Homophobic bullying, Sad to be gay, The school report, Prevalence of homophobia in schools, The prince married a man, and lived happily ever after, Making babies the gay way, Gay adoption, Homosexuality in the media: is the press good?, Disappearing act.
Chapter Two: Sexuality and the Law
Civil Partnership Act 2004, Are civil partnerships really civil?, Civil partnerships fall by 55%, The European Convention and Court of Human Rights, Gay adoption in Europe, Church loses opt-out fight over gay adoptions, The right to equal treatment: parental rights, Sexual orientation legislation, Support for LGBT legal protection, Does sexual orientation discrimination apply to me?, Discrimination in employment, ‘Pink plateau’ blocks path to top for gay executives.
Key Facts
Glossary
Index
Additional Resources
Acknowledgements
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The Study Guide for: Sexual Orientation and Society - Volume 153
Each book in the Issues series has a study guide. These four-page guides provide a variety of discussion points and other activities to suit a wide range of ability levels and interests.
Publisher: Independence Educational Publishers
Price: £1.95
ISBN: 978 1 86168 458 5
