Brighton gay capital
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It would be six months later that the Marquis of Queensberry, father of Wilde’s lover Lord Alfred Douglas, hired a private detective to track Conway down, threatening him to reveal all.
Male homosexuality was wretchedly legislated a criminal offence up until the first half of the twentieth century, whereas lesbianism was not subject to legal punishments.
As society shifted in widening acceptance of LGBTQ+ lives, our city today continues to hold Pride each year.
The fashionable metropolitan atmosphere of the town made it the ideal venue for premiering new plays before transferring to London.
With the advent of the railway opening in 1841, journeys between London and Brighton became easier and cheaper. Responses submitted to The Badger answering the question ‘What does being queer at Sussex mean to you?’ largely contradicted the negative findings of these research reports.
The venue is named after James Ledward who was one of the city's most prominent supporters of LGBTQIA+ rights. Students reported feeling more comfortable displaying their sexuality in public, knowing they will not be judged or harassed for doing so. After the 1967 partial decriminalisation of homosexuality, the Gay Liberation Front held meetings there in the opening years of the 1970s.
The venue is also the office for the magazine GScene. To find out more visit The Ledward Centre website.
Weddings
If you are planning to say ‘I Do’ then Brighton & Hove has a wide variety of wedding venues including hotels and iconic attractions such as The Royal Pavilion and Brighton Palace Pier.
However, even with a plethora of safe spaces being offered to members of this community, University Compare’s study did not award the same praise for the overall safety of the city, ranking it as 26th in a list of 50. In her determination to show that women could participate in exercise and were not hindered by their biology, Harriet took part in various swimming feats.
She was originally to swim from Rottingdean to Brighton, but due to unpredictable weather conditions, this course was altered so that she and her fellow swimmer Helen Saigeman set off from Shoreham Harbour to Brighton’s West Pier.
Her determination paid off. The festival also includes an arts and film festival; dog show and village party. Find out more on our Weddings page.
Brighton and Hove has the highest proportion of people identifying as bisexual, pansexual, asexual and non-binary in England and Wales, new census data shows.
The data on sexual orientation, from the 2021 census, shows that Brighton and Hove had the largest LGB+ population among those aged 16 years and over, with 10.7 per cent of those who answered the question claiming a non-straight identity.
The city also had the largest percentage nationally of people identifying as bisexual (3.7 percent), pansexual (0.7 percent), asexual (0.1 percent) and queer (0.3 percent).
From the results on gender identity, Brighton and Hove had the highest percentage (0.4 percent) of people who identified as non-binary.
Nationally, 89.4 percent (around 43.4 million people) identified as straight or heterosexual, but in Brighton and Hove this figure was lower at 80.6 percent.
Meg Brosnan from the Ledward Centre and Rainbow Hub said: “It’s not just the nightlife that attracts us to Brighton (or if it is, it’s not the only reason we stay).
“It’s the LGBTQ+ specific services, care and support that are available here.
“This is not by accident – we’ve set these up for ourselves because we recognised the need and knew no one was going to set them up for us.
“There’s a real culture among LGBTQ+ people of Brighton of doing things for our community, by our community.
“What I’m grateful for is not the knowledge that there are more LGBTQ+ people in Brighton per capita than elsewhere in the country (because we can’t know that for certain), but that more LGBTQ+ people in Brighton and Hove feel comfortable enough and confident enough in their identities to express that on a census form.
“That, to me, is hopeful.
“I’m very proud to count the Ledward Centre and the Rainbow Hub as being part of this tradition of LGBTQ+ people doing it for ourselves.
“However, it’s bittersweet knowing that there are ongoing and specific needs of our community, particularly our trans and non-binary siblings, that simply aren’t recognised or considered at an institutional level, so we have to keep building services and support largely on our own.”
The voluntary question on sexual orientation, which was asked for the first time in 2021, was asked for those aged 16 years and over, with 92.5 percent of the population answering the question.
For an individual, sexual orientation can be different to their actual relationships, meaning that the answers only show how people identified in the census survey.
The ONS says that the data collected from the question will help “meet the need for better quality information on the LGB+ population for monitoring and supporting anti-discrimination duties under the Equality Act 2010.”
Nationally, the LGB+ population sits at 3.2 percent, with the most common identity being gay or lesbian.
Seven of the other local authorities in the top 10 were in London, with the largest LGB+ populations in the City of London (10.3 percent), Lambeth (8.3 percent), and Southwark (8.1 percent).
In Wales, the local authority with the largest LGB+ populations was Cardiff (5.3 percent).
Brighton and Hove has the second biggest percentage of those who identify as gay or lesbian (5.8 percent), with the City of London having the largest population (7.6 percent).
Nationally, a total of 92.5 percent of the population aged 16 or over answered the question, which was posed for the first time in the 2021 census.
The question on gender identity – which refers to a person’s sense of their own gender – was also a voluntary question, asked to those over 16 and was asked to provide the first official data on the size of the transgender population in England and Wales.
Brighton and Hove did not feature in the top 10 local authorities with the largest proportion of gender non-conforming people, with Newham (1.5 percent) and Brent (1.3 percent) topping the list.
However, Brighton and Hove had the highest percentage (0.4 percent) of people who identified as non-binary – someone who does not identify with the binary categories of man and woman.
The percentage of non-binary people in the rest of England and Wales is only 0.06 percent.
The population of trans women stood at 329 and trans men at 362 (both at 0.1 percent).
Gender identity refers to a person’s sense of their own gender, whether male, female or another category such as non-binary, which may or may not be the same as their sex registered at birth.
A total of 45.4 million (93.5 percent) said their gender identity was the same as their sex registered at birth, or cisgender, while 262,000 people (0.5 percent) said it was different, or gender non-conforming.
Nationally, around 2.9 million people (6 percent) didn’t answer the question on gender identity.
To many, Brighton is known as the ‘gay capital’ of the UK.
The city’s vibrant reputation has made it a popular safe space for members of the LGBTQ+ community, dating back to the 1930s, in which it flourished as a holiday destination for lesbian and gay couples. Since then, Brighton has hosted countless pride month celebrations and formed a friendly environment where people can express themselves freely. Despite the city’s high ranking in terms of its nightlife and LGBTQ+ venues, concerns about safety persist, indicating a need for better safeguarding of this community.
High society was drawn to the town, with its most famous visitor George IV first arriving in 1783, a then 21-year-old Prince of Wales. Since the early 2000s, the UK has seen a significant rise in the amount of young people seeking higher education, with 24.7% in 2006 jumping to 38.2% 15 years later – and Brighton seems to be full of us.
Alongside this increase comes a growth in Brighton’s nightlife scene, evidently shown as the city secures itself as 2nd in the ranking of ‘friendliest city for students’, with the highest nightlife score of 4.5/5.
Corroborating the research is a two year study conducted by a collaboration between the University of Brighton and the mental health charity, MindOut, who have analysed the struggles faced by queer individuals who have recently moved here.
In their project, researchers found that many LGBTQ+ people had sought guidance from MindOut in regards to their declining mental health, social isolation, and shifted sense of belonging.
A craving for entertainment resulted in the construction of various theatres that came and went in Brighton, culminating with the opening of the Theatre Royal on New Road in 1807, which is still operation today. Elphinstone-Dick powered on, with The Brighton Gazette noting that she was still fresh and undaunted in her journey.