Boys Snogging Boys is growing in the UK

Here's an interesting bit of news. An study has revealed that boys fancy a snog from other boys sometimes.

Based on in-depth interviews of 145 British university and high-school students, Anderson and his colleagues discovered that 89 percent had kissed a male heterosexual friend on the lips at some point. A total of 37 percent had engaged in "sustained" kissing with another man, Anderson said. The men all identified as straight, and they didn't see the kisses as sexual.

"These men have lost their homophobia," Anderson said. "They're no longer afraid to be thought gay by their behaviors, and they enjoy intimacy with their friends, just the same as women."

A recent trend
The trend toward male same-sex smooches has skyrocketed in recent years, Anderson said. It began on the professional soccer field, where players often share exuberate kisses after goals. That made kissing between men acceptable for college and high-school players, Anderson said. Then the players took the same behaviors to nights out in pubs, spreading the trend to non-athletes.

Despite stereotypes of the homophobic jock, athletes were more likely to have kissed another man than non-athletes. Just over 80 percent of non-athletes had kissed a man, compared with 95 percent of athletes. [Related: Sex Quiz: Myths, Taboos and Bizarre Facts]

Of the guys in the study who hadn't shared a same-sex kiss, all found the practice acceptable. One student who had never kissed another lad joked with the researchers that when he told his friends about the study, they'd probably ensure that his classification changed. That night, Anderson received a text from the student reading, "I'm in the majority now." 

Maybe they should look into this phenomenon in America.


source 

BBC gets criticized for the portrayal of LGBT people on TV

The BBC network conducted research of the portrayal of LGBT folks on TV and radio. This is what they found:

• The research found that 37% of the LGB respondents rated the BBC’s portrayal of LGB people as good or very good, but 24% rated it as poor.

• It also said that, while 44% of them agreed that the BBC’s portrayal was realistic, 37% thought it was stereotyped. Of the sample, 27% also thought the BBC’s portrayal was outdated, with 23% describing it as groundbreaking.

• BBC’s research found that half of the UK population is comfortable with LGB portrayal, but that 18% are not. Taking the heterosexual responses alone, 21% felt there was too much portrayal of gay men on television. From the LGB sample, 52% said there was too little portrayal of lesbians on TV, compared with just 11% of the heterosexual population.

• The results found that viewers want LGB characters to become more established before storylines around their sexuality are developed and feel that storylines should not just revolve around their sexuality. 

• Both LGB viewers and those heterosexual viewers who were found to be comfortable with LGB portrayal said that LGB characters should experience “more positive resolutions to storylines”.

• In comedy and entertainment, it was found that jokes at the expense of the LGB community were accepted if they came from within that community. The research found that humour with “apparently malicious intent and without an LGB person present to respond” was considered unchallenged homophobia.

Interesting... I always thought they were waaay ahead of us. For info, go here.

Are Gay and Lesbian Characters Underrepresented on British TV?

I'm a little shocked about this info.

According to this research from UK based gay advocacy group, Stonewall, gay and lesbian characters are underrepresented in British TV:

A survey for the gay equality charity monitored more than 120 hours of programmes watched by the young.

It said gay people were mainly portrayed as promiscuous, predatory, or figures of fun.

Stonewall said homophobic bullying in schools was unsurprising when gay people were so often depicted on TV in a derogatory or demeaning way.

The report, called Unseen on Screen, says ordinary gay people are almost invisible on the 20 programmes most watched by the young.

It says just 46 minutes out of 126 hours' output showed gay people positively and realistically.

I always thought they had a wide range of LGBT characters in everything. Think of the all gay movies that came from the UK. And hell, Queer As Folk (the better one) start there.

I'm really surprised to hear this.