- Homosexuality
- ⚢✔ Legal
- Gay Marriage
- ⚭✔ Legal
- Censorship
- ✔ No censorship
- Changing Gender
- ✖ Legal, but requires medical diagnosis
- Gender-Affirming Care
- ✖ Legal, but banned for minors
- Non-Binary Gender Recognition
- ✖ Not legally recognized
- Discrimination
- ✔ Illegal
- Employment Discrimination
- ✔ Sexual orientation and gender identity
- Housing Discrimination
- ✔ Sexual orientation and gender identity
- Adoption
- ✔ Legal
- Intersex Infant Surgery
- ✖ Parental approval required
- Military
- ✔ Legal
- Donating Blood
- ✔ Legal
- Conversion Therapy
- ✖ Not banned
- Age of Consent
- ✔ Equal
Public Opinion
Recent studies in England indicate that there is significant support for LGBTQ+ rights.
Perception of LGBTQ+ People
Survey results from 62 LGBTQ+ Equaldex users who lived in or visited England.
Overall
Perceived Safety**Survey results represent personal perceptions of safety and may not be indicative of current actual conditions.
Equal Treatment
Visibility & Representation
Culture
Services
History
Homosexual activity in England is legal.
The Sexual Offences Act of 1967 legalized sexual acts between two men who were 21 or older (Excluding men serving in the military), but it placed new restrictions on sex for men who have sex with men. The act prohibited sex in places where a third party was likely to be present.
Censorship of LGBT issues in England is no censorship.
Right to change legal gender in England is legal, but requires medical diagnosis.
1. Must be 18 years of age
2. Must have a gender-dysphoria diagnosis
3. Must intend "to continue to live in the acquired gender until death"
4. Has lived in the acquired gender for at least 2 years.
5. If married: must acquire the consent of the spouse.
Eligibility is determined by a Gender Recognition Panel and if approved then one is granted a gender recognition certificate and may change the gender marker on legal documents.
Gender-affirming care in England is legal, but banned for minors.
This measure originally was meant to last from June 3rd until September 3rd, but was extended twice and is now indefinite. It extends to Scotland and Northern Ireland as well (The Sinn Fein gov agreed to follow it and medicines powers are reserved to the UK)
Legal recognition of non-binary gender in England is not legally recognized.
In 2021, the UK government said (in response to a petition) that legal recognition of non-binary gender identity would have "complex practical consequences for other areas of the law, service provision and public life", and said that they felt existing legislation allowing people to change their legal gender went far enough. Courts have, however, ruled that people with non-binary identities are protected from discrimination by the Equality Act.
On 4 October 2023, then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak asserted his stance on gender identity in a speech at the Conservative Party conference, stating it was “common sense” that “a man is a man and a woman is a woman”.
In January 2024, the High Court in London ruled that (in the case of a US citizen trying to have their non-binary identity recognised in the UK), "We have decided that whenever the Gender Recognition Act refers to ‘gender’ it refers to a binary concept – that is, to male, or to female gender. The GRP [Gender Recognition Panel] accordingly, had and has no power to issue a gender recognition certificate to the claimant which says that they are ‘non-binary’".
The act applied to the entire UK, and Scotland's attempts to recognise non-binary genders have all failed.
LGBT employment discrimination in England is sexual orientation and gender identity.
LGBT housing discrimination in England is sexual orientation and gender identity.
Same-sex adoption in England is legal.
Intersex infant surgery in England is parental approval required.
Serving openly in military in England is legal.
Blood donations by MSMs in England is legal.
Conversion therapy in England is not banned.
In July of 2024, new prime minister Kier Starmer announced his government would put forward a bill to ban conversion therapy. This ban would include sexual orientation and gender identity. As of March 2025, this bill is yet to be introduced.
Equal age of consent in England is equal.