How a 'climate of fear' is causing concern for gay people in the UK

Will Young said he is "terrified" to be a gay man in Britain and accused the government of creating a "climate of fear".

The 2002 "Pop Idol" winner criticised Suella Braverman, who has claimed that people were pretending to be gay in order to be granted asylum. "I feel scared when you see a Home Secretary stand up and pick on LGBT migrants," he told the Daily Mirror. "They're picking on minorities, it's just terrifying," he said. "It makes me feel a bit scared as a gay man."

Dan Harry, who found fame on the UK's first all-gay dating show "I Kissed a Boy", echoed Young's remarks, said The Guardian. Harry said that morale in the UK’s LGBTQ+ community – particularly after the recent Conservative Party conference – has "never felt lower". 

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Why do gay men feel things are getting worse?

Young accused the government of stoking culture wars. He said he has "seen a lot of improvements – gay marriage, equal rights" and "seen a lot of rights come my way". But, he said, "now we are seeing a Conservative Party going for minorities", which "deliberately creates a climate of fear".

A BBC poll in May of 501 adults in the UK who identify as gay men found that 53% had experienced discrimination in public because they are gay, and 38% while kissing a partner. But three out of five gay men agreed that they experience less discrimination now than in the past, and four out of five felt that the UK has become more accepting towards gay people in the last decade.

Are homophobic attacks rising?

Sexual orientation hate crimes in England and Wales increased by 41% to 26,152, according to Home Office data for the year ending March 2022. This was the largest annual percentage increase since records began in 2012.

In August, two men were taken to hospital after a homophobic attack in Brixton, south London less than a week after two men were stabbed outside the Two Brewers nightclub, just over a mile away, the BBC reported.

Writing about the attacks on social media, Labour MP Ben Bradshaw blamed "the licence given to transphobes and homophobes by too much of our media and politicians".

Does anyone disagree with Young?

"Contrary to Young's hysteria", said Julie Burchill for Spiked, "there has never been a better time to be gay if you are white, Western and male." 

When the UK dropped down Europe's LGBTQ+ rights ranking last year for the third consecutive year, the then chief executive of Stonewall, Nancy Kelley, told The Guardian that "years of progress on LGBTQ+ policy" has been "rapidly eroded by a UK government that has taken its foot off the pedal".

But a UK government Equality Hub spokesperson insisted that the UK had "one of the world's most comprehensive and robust legislative protection frameworks for LGBT people".

What are the laws on gay rights?

In 2001, the age of consent for gay men was lowered to 16, making it the same as the age of consent for straight people. The Civil Partnership Act 2004 allowed same-sex couples to legally enter into binding partnerships, similar to marriage, and then, in 2013, the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 went further, allowing same-sex couples to marry.

In between those two milestones, the Equality Act 2010 gave LGBT employees protection from discrimination, harassment and victimisation at work. Other key reforms came in 2002, when a law was changed to allow same-sex couples to adopt children, and in 2003, when the ban on "promoting" homosexuality in schools (Section 28) was overturned.