THE NORTH-EAST has the lowest amount of openly gay people in the country, according to new statistics.

A gay rights charity today claimed the region is “decades behind” as figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) showed just 1.1 per cent of people declared their sexual identity as lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB) in 2013.

The ONS’ Integrated Household Survey, published this week, found that 1.6 per cent of respondents across the UK said they were LGB – a figure that soared to 3.2 per cent in London.

Emma Roebuck, chief executive of GADD (Gay Advice Darlington/Durham), said the significant gap between the North and the South came as no surprise.

Calling for societal – rather than legal – change, she said: “This figure is not accurate – it represents the number of people who felt safe and comfortable enough to tell total strangers who they’re sexually attracted to – 20 years ago, the figure would have been zero so any increase is a positive thing.

“However, we still have that old culture up here – we have a lot of rural areas and a lot of people living in rural isolation.

“In pit villages, people don’t feel as comfortable or as safe saying they are who they are and from that perspective, people need to realise it’s different living in this kind of northern environment than in an urban one.

“It’s not easy to be out in a rural environment – somewhere like Newcastle is fine but in areas of Darlington and Durham there’s less socially and less of a support infrastructure.

“We are about ten to 20 years behind bigger cities and there are still people out there who don’t accept same sex attraction – hate crime is prevalent and safety is an issue.”

To improve the situation Ms Roebuck called for the media to highlight positive stories and provide more realistic role models for people in the North-East.

She said: “Rather than changing legal rights – these are more or less in place now – we need to campaign around social change.

“Asking the question was positive in terms of knowing how many people are out there and judging what services are needed but the number is not representative and doesn’t take into account those who are not out and need the services the most.”

For information or advice, contact GADD by visiting gayadvicedarlington.co.uk or calling 01325 355551.