More than half of young people in Northern Ireland believe sex between men is always or mostly wrong, according to a survey published today by the Family Planning Association and the University of Ulster.
But only around a third said sex between women was always or mostly wrong. One in 10 young people reported having been attracted to a person of the same sex at least once. More than 1,000 14-25 year olds took part in the survey on sexual attitudes and lifestyles of young people which is the fist of its kind ever undertaken in the North.
Eleven per cent of sexually active men and 4 per cent of sexually active women said they had sex with a same sex partner at least once. Nearly two-thirds of young people said there was nothing wrong with sex before marriage, although one in 10 thought it was always wrong.
Less than a third disapproved of one-night stands but two-thirds disapproved of sex outside steady relationships, having more than one sexual partner at a time, or sex with a prostitute. Nearly a third of those questioned said access to abortion should be made easier. Over a third of the young people had sex before 17, the legal age of consent. Over a quarter had sex before 16. A quarter of men and a third of women said they were drunk at first sex.
Nearly three-quarters used contraception at first sex, including two-thirds who used condoms. Over three-quarters of those who had sex at 16 or older used contraception, compared to just over a third who had sex before 16. Young people who could talk to their parents about sex were on average nearly twice as likely to use contraception at first sex.
Nearly half of those questioned who were sexually active had used emergency contraception. Speaking at the survey's launch, the director of the Family Planning Association of Northern Ireland, Ms Audrey Simpson, said: "It is often said the population of Northern Ireland is more conservative than the rest of the UK.
"This research clearly shows there are no significant differences between the sexual attitudes and behaviour of young people in Northern Ireland and their counterparts in England, Scotland and Wales. So there is no rationale for maintaining the difference in the age of heterosexual and homosexual consent that exists between them."