Stonewall’s latest social media poll has found that Britain is ready for an openly lesbian, gay or bisexual Prime Minister. In the poll, which had 1073 responses, 59 per cent voted ‘yes, Britain is ready for an openly lesbian, gay or bisexual Prime Minister’ and 41 per cent voted ‘no.’
Ben Summerskill, Stonewall’s Chief Executive, said: ‘Although most people feel Britain is ready for an openly gay Prime Minister, sadly we’re still no closer to getting one. Parliament still chronically under-represents lesbian, gay and bisexual people. For example, there was just one openly lesbian MP in the last parliament. Stonewall recently worked with the Speaker’s Conference to address this and we’ll continue to work with parties to ensure the House of Commons more accurately reflects the people it serves.’
Observations from the social media poll (these are independent views from the online debate and not endorsed by Stonewall):
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Zoe Austin – ‘We’ve not moved away from white straight (mainly posh) males yet. But there’s always hope. One day… *sigh*’
Sarah James – ‘I voted NO as although I would LOVE for that to be the case, I don’t think that other people would deal with it very well!’
Graham G. Hughes – ‘Openly gay with his partner and their adopted child, living in Number 10? No, I don’t think Britain, overall, would go for that. However, we had Hillary and Barack battling against each other for Presidential candidacy in the US, so I think with the UK being that little bit more socially progressive — in my opinion — we’re maybe not far away from an LGBT PM being possible.’
Rosie Jackson – ‘I think Britain is more open minded than people think, I’d say, hell yes!’
Mary Louise Greener – ‘Well the Americans thought they would never have a black president so why can’t we have a gay, lesbian or bisexual Prime Minister…’
Fiona Anderson – ‘Sexuality and gender are not irrelevant. The fact that the leaders of all three main parties are white, middle class, heterosexual married men demonstrates that a bit of positive discrimination is sorely needed.’
