The United Kingdom’s Office for National Statistics has produced data suggesting that only 1.5 percent of UK adults are gay, lesbian or bisexual.

As part of a yearly data collection effort, ONS questioned 247,623 people about their sexual identity. In the case of face-to-face interviews, respondents were shown a card that said “heterosexual/straight, gay/lesbian, bisexual, other” and told to read out a number beside the word that “best describes how you think of yourself.” In telephone interviews, respondents were read the four categories and told to “please say ‘yes’ when you hear the option that best describes how you think of yourself.”

ONS then applied the results to the UK population and reported that 1 percent of adults are gay or lesbian, of which two-thirds are men, 0.5 percent are bisexual, of which two-thirds are women, and 0.5 percent identify as “other.” Just under 4 percent of actual respondents said they didn’t know the answer to the question or refused to answer it or didn’t respond in any way.

Of the “other” category, ONS says: “The ‘Other’ option on the sexual identity question was included to address the fact that not all people will fall in the first three categories and that some people such as those that are asexual, may feel no sense of sexual identity at all. In addition, individuals who disagree with the simplistic male/female gender binary, or who were against categorisation based on the gender of people to whom they were attracted or with whom they had relations, could also prefer to identify as other.”

The data also show that compared to straight people, GLB people are better educated, have better jobs (except for bisexuals), are younger, are more likely to be smokers (33 percent), and are more likely to have no religion (34 percent).

London was found to have the highest percentage of gay residents, 2.2 percent, and Northern Ireland the lowest, 0.9 percent.

The Greens party introduced a bill to legalize same-sex marriage in Australia’s Parliament Sept. 29.

The group Australian Marriage Equality is calling for a “conscience” vote on the bill, meaning individual MPs would be free to break from their party’s official position.

“MPs should be free to represent the views of the 60 percent of Australians who support this reform,” said AME National Convener Alex Greenwich. “(The) bill is a simple and straightforward solution to those discriminatory sections of the Marriage Act which ban same-sex partners from officially declaring their love. Surely members of the federal Labor and Liberal parties have more important things to do than stop same-sex partners committing to each other.”

Prime Minister Julia Gillard opposes the bill and said she will not allow Labor MPs a conscience vote.

Meanwhile, the state of Tasmania on Sept. 29 extended recognition to same-sex marriages and civil unions from other countries, becoming the first Australian state or territory to do so.

But marriages will be recognized only as state civil unions because of a national law that explicitly bans recognition of foreign same-sex marriages.

Three Australian states and the Australian Capital Territory have same-sex civil-union laws — and those partnerships are recognized by the federal government for purposes of the spousal entitlements associated with marriage.

Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group spokesman Rodney Croome welcomed the development, saying, “Couples in interstate and overseas unions should not have to re-register their relationship in order to secure the legal rights and protections most other couples take for granted.”

The European Union’s commissioner for justice, fundamental rights and citizenship, Viviane Reding, has received kudos from the European Parliament’s Intergroup on LGBT Rights for including gender-identity equality in the EU’s 2010-2015 strategy for equality between men and women.

The plan commits the European Commission to promoting less-rigid gender roles, examining discrimination based on gender identity, and analyzing whether EU member nations adequately protect transgender people’s access to goods and services.

“This is a positive sign that the European Commission has started listening to both (the European) Parliament and civil society,” said Intergroup Co-President Ulrike Lunacek. “I am optimistic that this strategy will ultimately have a positive effect on the lives of many transgender people.”

Intergroup member Marije Cornelissen said she and other MEPs hope the commission “will not only monitor the situation carefully, but also that it will be firm with member states violating European equal-treatment legislation.”

Following a row in Poland over comments by the government’s minister for equality, members of the European Parliament have urged the European Commission to reconfirm that she has a responsibility to promote nondiscrimination against LGBT people.

During a televised debate Sept. 21, Elzbieta Radziszewska opined that faith-based schools should be allowed to discriminate against teachers based on sexual orientation and that European Union law would permit such treatment.

She also outed another participant in the TV debate, who later said he will sue for invasion of privacy.

Assistance: Bill Kelley