Fifth of Scots not accepting of LGBT people

12 August 2019, 19:09 | Updated: 12 August 2019, 19:10

More than a fifth of Scots do not consider themselves to be open-minded or accepting of LGBT people, a survey suggests.

In an online poll of 1,005 people by Censuswide Scotland, carried out in May this year, 207 (21%) respondents said they are either not at all or are not completely open-minded and accepting of LGBT people.

Of the 630 women who took part in the survey, 112 (18%) responded with that answer, while among the 375 men polled the figure was 95 (25%).

Over-55s were the least open-minded and accepting age group, with 66 people (34%) responding in that way.

Those aged between 16 and 24 years old had the lowest number of respondents who said they were not open-minded and accepting of LGBT people, with 13 of 122 respondents sharing that view.

The study also asked respondents whether other people would ever describe them as being homophobic.

It found around 13% of men (47) and around 5% of women (34) said they thought others could describe them as homophobic.

Jordan Ferguson, from Censuswide Scotland, said: "The Censuswide Scotland opinion poll has been tracking public attitude across a range of important issues in 2019.

"This particular study looked at how open-minded and accepting of LGBT communities respondents consider themselves, while also asking them to consider how they may be perceived by others.

"Our results found there to be a number of Scots who do not consider themselves open-minded and accepting of LGBT people.

"The responses vary across the age groups with the older respondents being the least likely to consider themselves open-minded."

Colin Macfarlane, director of Stonewall Scotland, said: "Statistics like this are an important reminder of how much work we still have to do to achieve LGBT equality.

"Stonewall was founded 30 years ago and since then we have seen significant progress in LGBT rights such as lifting of the ban on lesbian, gay and bi people serving in the military, same-sex couples applying for adoption being granted equal rights and the introduction of same-sex marriage.

"But we can't be complacent. Our work won't be finished until every lesbian, gay, bi and trans person is accepted without exception."