First insights shared from anti-LGBTQ+ backlash research

A new project, ‘The LGBTQIA+ Cultural Barometer’ aims to measure and understand the current climate surrounding LGBTQ+ culture programming and creatives in the UK, and the impact of backlash. Led by Curious Arts, in partnership with Birmingham's Fatt Projects (Adam Carver), and Marlborough Productions, the research project has shared its first insights, providing “a snapshot into an ongoing and intensifying situation”. Examples of backlash include: event cancellation, harassment, stalking, threats, targeted hate campaigns, protests, and many other forms of abuse intended to intimidate.

The LGBTQIA+ Cultural Barometer has been led by Curious Arts in partnership with Fatt Projects and Marlborough Productions in collaboration with researcher Chloe Turner, with funding from Arts Council England.

The project is documenting and understanding experiences of backlash currently being received against LGBTQIA+ cultural programming and/or creatives in the UKʼs cultural sector (2020-2025), and “reveals the often-devastating impact of these experiences and recognises numerous coordinated attempts to dismantle the infrastructures that support UK LGBTQIA+ culture.

So far, the research has collected data from individuals and organisations across the UK, and conducted an in-person focus group with representatives from 12 LGBTQIA+ led cultural organisations.

Across three key groups – Artists and Cultural Practitioners, LGBTQ+ Organisations, and Non-LGBTQ+ Organisations – the survey results showed that 88-94% reported that they had experienced anti-LGBTQIA+ backlash. 76% of artists, 81% of LGBTQ+ Organisations, and 59% of Non-LGBTQ organisations added that they felt this backlash increased or intensified in 2020-2025 compared to 2015-2020. Roughly three quarters of respondents also believed that the levels of backlash would continue to increase further over the coming years.

In terms of impact, 75% of Artists/Cultural Practitioners and 75% LGBTQ+ Organisations reported that this backlash caused a loss of money, with that figure reducing slightly to 62.5% for Non-LGBTQ+ Organisations. Additional spending/budget needs, creative censorship, and safety and well-being were also among the impacts of cultural backlash investigated in the report.

Adam Carver (they/them) Project Manager, LGBTQIA+ Cultural Barometer stated: “In the last month of delivering this project, our organisations have experienced in-person protests at events, local councils attempting to remove funding from our partner venues (albeit unsuccessfully), and community participants in our work being targeted, doxed, and harassed by prominent far-right leaders outside their homes.

“It is clear to us that we are in a national moment of crisis for LGBTQIA+ culture and communities, the question now is how do we meet it?”

The report adds: “Anti-LGBTQIA+ backlash is happening all across the UK at both macro & micro levels. Anti-LGBTQIA+ individuals, groups, and organisations are targeting new and ongoing LGBTQIA+ cultural activity and trying to erase the cultural work of the past (including archives, museums, and libraries). It reaches from individuals, to organisations, to local authorities, to political parties, and national funding bodies. In addition to targeting individuals, projects, or events, there is significant evidence of coordinated approaches to dismantle the infrastructures that support and enable LGBTQIA+ cultural activity and to prevent future LGBTQIA+ cultural production. To some extent, these strategies are working.

“Incidents of backlash cast long shadows over individuals, organisations, and communities, and these impacts ripple out slowly. The research reveals anti-LGBTQIA+ backlash’s continued and long-term damage to LGBTQIA+ cultural production. Experiences of backlash are concentrated further for those who experience multiple levels of marginalisation.”

The full research highlights summary document, including statistics from the survey, can be downloaded from the Cultural Barometer website: https://www.cultural-barometer.co.uk/research Plus, to stay up-to-date with their work, and the future of this project moving forward, sign up to the mailing list.