24% of British citizens think gay sex should be made illegal according to a recent sex poll taken by The Observer newspaper in the UK, sister paper of The Guardian. According to their poll, the proportion of the population who hold this view has actually increased by 1% since 2002.

“This disturbing figure shows that, despite advances in legislative equality, the campaign to make Britain a truly equal country for lesbians and gay people must go on,” said Derek Munn, Stonewall’s Director of Public Affairs.

Another interesting finding from the survey was that 40% of respondents believe that the age of consent for homosexual sex should be higher than it is for heterosexual sex.

Over half of the respondents said that they oppose gay adoption. 56% believe that gays should not be allowed to adopt children.

Surprised by the statistic, Harvey Gallagher, a spokesperson for the British Association of Adopting and Fostering said, “Parenting capacity is not do with sexuality, it is the law that same sex couples can adopt and we believe that this is the right thing.”

Gallagher also said that the recent figures taken do not reflect the views of individuals working in social services.

On a positive note, the study found that 55% believed that same sex couples should be allowed to get married. Same sex marriage has been legal in the UK since 2005. Furthermore, the study pointed out that men are more inclined than women to oppose same sex marriage – 55% compared with 36%.

Of those polled, 13% revealed that they had experienced some form of sexual contact with a member of the same sex in their lifetime.