EHRC Launch ‘Sexual Orientation Explored’ Report, powered by YouGov

Today the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a new report: Sexual orientation explored: A study of identity, attraction, behaviour and attitudes in 2009 This report presents the findings of a survey of 5,000 people including 2,750 identifying as gay, lesbian or bisexual.

It was launched at the event ‘Beyond Tolerance’, hosted by Ben Summerskill of Stonewall and Trevor Phillips of the EHRC.

Some of the report’s most interesting findings:

Public attitudes towards LGB people were not consistent. People were happier to accept openly LGB people as close friends, managers at work or as their GP, and were less accepting regarding candidates for prime minister, religious leaders and parents.

Approaching six per cent of people identified themselves as LGB and almost 91 per cent as heterosexual/straight.

For the majority of people, sexual orientation appears to be fixed. Only five per cent of respondents indicated that they had changed how they think about their sexual orientation.

The study showed that sexual orientation was most likely to become ‘fixed’ by the age of 25. There is evidence that gay men were likely to have arrived at their current orientation earlier than lesbians.

Lesbians were most likely to report sexual attraction outside their stated identity (19 per cent reported attraction to men for example). Around one in ten heterosexual women (10 per cent) and gay men (12 per cent) reported being sexually attracted to women and slightly fewer heterosexual men (six per cent) reported sexual attraction to other men.