How Accepted is Homosexuality in The UK - Coursework Example

How Accepted is Homosexuality in The UK? College: Table of Contents Introduction 3 Homosexuality History 3 Discrimination of Homosexuality 4 Acceptance of Homosexuality 4 Conclusion 7 Bibliography 9 Introduction Homosexuality is among the trends that have gained much popularity in the modern world. It has become a social norm particularly in the western cultures with countries like USA having fully legalized it. The trend has spread even to the conservative societies though some societies have continued to highly rebuke it especially in the African and Asian continents with Uganda’s and Russia’s being some of the most recent countries that have passed anti-gays laws. Homosexuality is a controversial topic that is regularly discussed as people question the morality of being a lesbian or a gay (Grimes, 2014, para 1). However, majority of the people in the world find it as an evil behavior that should not be tolerated with a significant percentage of the world’s population being comfortable with it. This makes the topic such a contentious and a hot debate that many policy makers argue about. In the United Kingdom for instance, the topic has been there for many years with some people fully embracing homosexuality with others strongly opposing it. This research paper is going to explore homosexuality and establish its acceptability in the country. Homosexuality History Homosexuality has a very long history in the United Kingdom, a country that is believed to be the foundation of political and traditional vibrancy, as well as democratic principles that are seized in most modern western countries. In the mid-20th century, indiscreet homosexuals in Britain were experiencing much discrimination and mistreatment including imprisonment because homosexuality was treated as a major offence until it was legalized in 1967. Before the passing of the Sexual Offences Act of 1967, homosexuality was taken as a very serious crime particularly male homosexuality. One century earlier, homosexuality was a capital offence and homosexuals could receive corporal punishments. Discrimination of Homosexuality About forty years down the line after the decriminalization of homosexuality in Britain, homosexuality has remained to be a divisive issue up to date and the prejudice against homosexuals continued to take roots in the decades that followed to an extent that many homosexuals would avoid disclosing their sexuality (Bingham, 2013, para 1-9). However, there has been so change in the way most people view homosexuals. Since its legalization, the gay community (both females and males) has continued to increase and move from the margins of the normal society to be part of society to a point of occupying powerful positions of authority (Post & Zaimov, 2014, para 1-12). There has also been an increase in the number of gays holding political offices, in the mass media and other top-ranking positions. Nonetheless, homosexuality remains to be a hot debate in the United Kingdom, which is perhaps the most secular nation on earth. Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Bill is one of the most recent issue that revived debate on this controversial topic. Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Bill illustrated the, providing a tension between Camerons desire to endorse socially liberal traditionalism on issues like gay rights and social authority (Grimes, 2014, para 2-6). Acceptance of Homosexuality Homosexuality has gradually been accepted by the UK societies over the past three decades. By 1980s, stigmatization against gays was very common with remarks by top ranking leaders like Margaret Thatcher showing the level of homosexuality stigmatization that existed in UK. Thatcher was quoted saying, “Children who need to be taught to respect traditional moral values are being taught that they have an inalienable right to be gay (Park and Rhead, 2013, para 3).” This stigmatization led to the introduction of the Section 28 of the Local Government Act in1988, a legislature required local government not to promote homosexuality in any way in the schools and among the youths. In the 1990s, the stigma drastically reduced and the first homosexual pride event was held in Manchester in1990 with other events following like that of the Brighton and London Euro pride held in 1992 and 1992 respectively. In addition, many other public figures started to announce that they were gays openly. Other major milestones that were made in the 1990s include the reduction of the age that is acceptable for one to be a homosexual sex from 21 to 18 years by the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. In 2001, the acceptable age one to be a homosexual sex was further reduced to 16years after a long struggle between the House of Lords and the House of Commons (Park and Rhead, 2013, para 4). The major milestone towards accepting homosexuality in the UK in the 21st century include the passing of the Civil Partnership Act in the year 2004, an act that gave homosexuals equal rights to those of heterosexual partners with regard to rights, freedoms and responsibilities. This was accepted in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales and the very first civil-partnership taking place in the subsequent year. In the year 2013, a bill entitled as Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Bill was presented to the country’s parliament with the Scottish Parliament introducing its own Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Bill in the same year. These changes in the law have continued to strengthen homosexuals’ rights in the UK and are considered to be among the best in the world with respect to protecting gays and lesbians. People’s attitude towards the issue of homosexuality can therefore be said to be becoming tolerable especially after the acknowledgement of senior and public figures who are of homosexuals. However, from the above analysis it is clear that this has been a bumpy road and a long journey especially after the outbreak of HIV/AIDS, which many associated with homosexuality. According to various studied that have been conducted by agencies like the British Social Attitudes, about half of the population in the country in the 1983 were against homosexuality and condemned it as a highly wrong behavior with only two people out of ten (20%) showing their tolerance for the behavior. People’s opposition towards the behavior continued to grow because of various factors like HIV/AIDS and by 1987, about two-thirds of the population highly condemned it. However, the attitude towards this issue continued to become more tolerant in the following years as people learnt understood HIV/AIDS much more (Clements, 2012, para 7-13). By 1998, the number of people who viewed homosexuality as a wrong behavior had dramatically reduced to 39% with that of the people who were embracing it rising to 23%. By 2007, there was recorded another drastic change whereby only 26% of the people interviewed found the behavior unacceptable (always wrong) with the number of people accepting it rising to 39%. By 2012, roughly 47% of the population had fully embraced the behavior and they had no bad attitude towards homosexuals with only 22% of the respondents were found to stick to the traditional notion that homosexuality is evil. Studies conducted on the same topic to ascertain people’s attitude towards premarital homosexuality revealed that people’s attitudes to homosexuality were markedly less liberal compared to their attitudes towards premarital sex. It also showed that premarital sex stabilized to some extent from the year 2007 with attitudes to homosexuality continuing to be more liberal. According to the analysis done by various studies, it has been noted that each successive generation in the United Kingdom has been more liberal than the previous one. People who were born in the 1930s were found to be the generation that still holds on the notion that homosexuality is still unacceptable and evil. These are the people who were interviewed in the 1980s and their number has continued to decrease with the upcoming generations continuing to embracing the behaviors thus accounting for the 34 points decline in the number of people who found homosexuality as very wrong for a period of three decades (Park and Rhead, 2013, para 7). Another factor that has accounted for this tolerance on people’s attitude towards homosexuality is religious beliefs. Non-religious people usually do not find any problem with this behavior with statistics showing that only a very small percentage (about 16%) the nonbelievers oppose it. Even for the believers, the perception has continued to decrease as people forfeit the original teachings of their religion. Currently, a significant percentage of the Christians particularly Catholics and Anglicans have fully embraced homosexuality. Some churches like the Anglican have even publicly accepted homosexuality and they have conducted gay’s marriages. Education is another factor that was noted to be playing a major role in making people accept homosexuality. According to the 2012 research study, about 19% of the graduates against it while the non-educated were found to account for about 47% of the people who thought that homosexuality is evil (Clements, 2012, para 10-16). Analysis of homosexuality with respect to political party supporters in the country shows that Labour party supporters have become more liberal in the last three decades. By 1983, 67% of the party supporters were against homosexuality and termed it as always or mostly wrong with the 2012 statistics showing that only 29% of its supporters were against it. By 2012, Conservative Party supporters showed a major decline since the number of people opposing homosexuality dropped from a half to a third in a period of one decade (from 2003 to 2012) (Park and Rhead, 2013, para 13-15). Conclusion In conclusion, homosexuality has been a hot debate over the past decades whereby numerous progresses with respect to recognizing and accepting homosexuals have been witnessed in various parts of the world. In the UK, homosexuality started so many years ago though the most recognizable change came about in 1967, when homosexuality was decriminalized. Despite this decriminalization, opposition and stigmatization of homosexuals persisted up to the end of 1980s. Since then, the behavior has been widely accepted with a study conducted in 2012 showing that only about 22% of the country’s population believed that homosexuality is very wrong, with about 47% of the country’s citizens found to be comfortable with this conduct. Bibliography Bingham, J. 2013. Revolution in attitudes to homosexuality is biggest change in generation. The Telegraph. Viewed May 12 2014, Clements B., 2012. Attitudes towards Gay Rights | British Religion in Numbers. Viewed May 10, 2014, Grimes D., 2014, Why is it proving so hard to root out homophobia? . Viewed May 10, 2014, Park Top of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Bottom of Form A. & Rhead R. 2013, Personal relationships | BSA 30 | NatCen. Viewed May 10, 2014, Zaimov S., & Post, C. 2014. Archbishop of Canterbury on Gay Marriage in UK: Church Has Accepted That Its the Law. The Christian Post. Viewed May 12 2014, < http://www.christianpost.com/news/archbishop-of-canberbury-on-gay-marriage-in-uk-church-has-accepted-that-its-the-law-117002/ > Read More