Homophobia in Britain?

i don't think its too bad, but there is has undeniably been an increase in homophobia, especially from recent immigrants. there have been some nasty stories in the evening standard recently (london daily newspaper) where east european, or muslim people have yelled at, chased or violently attacked gay couples.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/gay-couple-t... this kind of thing; oddly, NEVER reported in the national news, i assume cos the attackers were asian, as in the rochdale scandal, its just swept under the carpet. ffs.

i had 'aids spreaders' yelled at my girlfriend and me by black guys on a bus in brixton.

before i was out, i was routinely bullied at school for being a bender, lezzer etc (love how they knew when i was still figuring it out, ha ha).

i don't know where you've grown up, but you are lucky; the more conservative (either big C, or small c in working class areas), the more likely you are to encounter it.

overall, i don't think overt homophobia is much of an issue country wide here, but the latent stuff *does* bother me; people using 'gay' to mean 'lame' is common; saying 'gay' as a term to mean 'less manly', all that i find incredibly offensive. people being surprised that you can be gay but not 'look' it, too; sure, thats not a big deal, but its more ignorance, stereotyping.

im bi sexual, which most people don't know, so its something i probably hear more than your average gay person (cos they wouldn't say it in front of someone they knew was queer).

sexuality is nothing id bring up at a job interview, for example, and i still have to pick and choose when, and to whom, I'm out to. the whole reaction thing is just.... boring. awkward...

but yeah, overall, I'm always thankful i live here, now, than most other countries. i know france, scandinavia, germany etc are ok, but some of the usa, much of easten europe, most of africa, even lots of australia; are still pretty backward in many cases :/

a couple of years ago i met a lovely guy in cornwall, a methodist, who said his local chapel had divided over methodisma's attitudes to gays; i was surprised, as i thought methodists were really pc. but it turned out his break away chapel were the homophobes; they couldn't deal with accepting gay people, to the point they'd started their own, new, anti gay chapel; it was so sad (so unchristian, to my mind, too).

i watched moonface cameron on news night last night, interviewed by evan davis (who is gay); as much as i hate cam, he did genuinely seem to be unconcerned and very pc about gay issues, and said it should be as much right davis's choice to kiss his husband in public, as cameron's right to snog his wife. I'm glad we've reached this point, but i know too there are plenty of tories in who are all foaming at the mouth over marriage equality.

unlike the old witch thatcher, who brought in clause 28, which banned discussing being gay in school, as it was regarded as 'promoting' homosexuality.

you know, cos thats how they get em; talking about it, giving out free sparkly pink stickers, then WHAM! they wake up queer, humming show tunes :P

the saddest thing about this is, its never occurred to me to report any of this to the police, but without better figures on this, its never seen as much of an issue :/

bet tim s didn't report it either.

I was in London last year with my boyfriend and we got "fagguts" shouted at us, thats all though, and that wasnt even that bad.