London is often cast as a centre of liberal, progressive tolerance: a nursery for changes in how we live to grow strong that then spread to the rest of the UK. So is it a great place to find a gay friendly flatshare?
From the BBC’s Living in Squares to Julian Temple’s London – the Modern Babylon, we see the capital as a dense swirl of different cultures, ways of life and, overwhelmingly, progression. But recent studies find that London may not be all that gay-friendly after all.
Damning Figures
This year, it emerged that Londoners are over five times more likely to reject support for a gay child. The YouGov poll found that 13% people in London wouldn’t support their child if they were gay.
Compare this to the North, where only 1% would adopt the same attitude.
Pink News Chief Exec., Benjamin Cohen explains that “Beyond the liberal, metropolitan elite, there are clearly many people in the capital who would react negatively to their child being gay or transgender.”
But this is just a survey of the personal views of people in city that has had waves upon waves of socially conservative religious immigrants over the last century, right?
Wrong. London is also the place you are most likely to be the victim of homophobic crime, with 19% of lesbian, gay and bisexual Londoners being a victim in the last three years.
Shining Lights
Among these worrying surveys are some encouraging signs. London has some of the most gay-friendly employers and universities in the UK.
It is especially gratifying to see institutions meant to represent the people high up Stonewall’s gay-friendly employer list. The Home Office and Tower Hamlets council-run homes service performed especially well, gaining “star performer status” and second place on the list respectively. MI5 also come in at 7th and Islington’s borough council at 13th.
UCL also deserves praise for scoring 9/10 in Stonewall’s Gay by Degree rating.
Trends
Overall, areas with historical left-wing and liberal roots tended to produce the best gay-friendly employers. The Labour strongholds of Tower Hamlets and Islington are joined by Brighton and Hove, and Newcastle City Council in the top 20 employers.
Lloyds Banking Group, based in Halifax, came third, while Wales really deserved a special mention.
Not only was Cardiff University the best-scoring gay-friendly university, it also sits 24th on Stonewall’s Workplace Equality Index. Da iawn, prifysgol caerdydd! What’s more, the National Assembly of Wales (soon to be parliament?) ranked 4th, topping off a great year for Welsh gay equality.
Search for flat shares in Cardiff, London or anywhere in the UK today at Roomgo.
