Pride in London, the UK’s largest LGBTQ+ festival with more than a million attendees, kicks off this weekend. The oldest LGBTQ+ Britons will be able to remember a time in the UK before pride festivals, this first of which took place in 1972, but for younger Britons they have always been.
So how do the youngest LGBTQ+ Britons feel about Pride? The results of a new YouGov survey of 545 16-24 year old LGBTQ+ Britons explores how many have ever attended Pride, how important Pride Month is to them, and whether they see it as more of a protest or celebration?
Our research finds that only half (50%) of young LGBTQ+ Brits have ever attended a Pride event, although a further 37% which say they would like to. Of those who say they either have or would like to attend a Pride event, a third (33%) are doing so this summer (the equivalent of 29% of all young LGBTQ+ Britons).
Pride Month is widely seen as important by the young queer community, with fully 90% saying it is very or fairly important that Pride Month exists – although when asked whether Pride Month is important to them personally, this drops somewhat to 65%.
Personal importance of Pride Month differs greatly between gender identities, with only 44% of those who identify as male saying it is personally important to them, compared to three quarters (75%) of those who identify as female. Similarly, transgender young people are more likely than cisgender young people to say that Pride Month is important to them (80% to 62%).
Almost three quarters (73%) of those who have attended a Pride event say it has made them feel more comfortable in their identity.
Is Pride a protest or a celebration?
Whether Pride should be used as a protest for equal rights or a celebration of the community has been a point of discussion for a number of years. When put to LGBTQ+ 16-24s, half (50%) say it is equally a protest and a celebration, while 43% see it is more of a celebration compared to only 5% who see it as mainly a protest. Again this differs by gender identity – transgender youth are four times more likely than cisgender youth to see Pride as a protest (12% to 3%), and only a quarter (26%) see it as more of a celebration.
Total sample size was 545 LGBTQ+ adults aged 16 to 24. Fieldwork was undertaken between 11-18 June 2024. The survey was carried out online. Figures have been weighted and are representative of UK LGB+ adults aged 16 to 24.
Note: for some transgender/ non-binary respondents, it was not possible to apply weighting due to limited official data. However, there is overlap between those who are LGB+ and those who are transgender/ non-binary; only 3 respondents identified as heterosexual and were thus not weighted in the data.
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