Prince William said today that he wouldn’t care if his children were gay, but he’d be worried about the pressures they would face from society.
“I fully support whatever decision they make, but it does worry me from a parent point of view, you know, how many barriers, hateful words, persecution, all that, and discrimination that might come,” he said.
The comments came while the Duke of Cambridge was visiting akt, a charity focused on preventing homelessness among LGBT youth. He was there visiting the group’s new service center in London, and the group says it is the first visit to a LGBT youth charity by a member of the royal family.
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William admits that he’s only started thinking about the issue since he’s become a father, and that he wishes we lived in a world where it wouldn’t matter.
“But particularly for my family, in the position that we are in, that’s the bit I’m worried about,” he said.
“But that’s for all of us to try and help correct and make sure we can put that [discrimination and persecution] to the past,” he continued.
According to Stonewall UK, a charity that campaigns for LGBT equality, one in five people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender in Britain have experienced a hate crime or incident because of their sexual or gender identity in the last 12 months of the report, which was released in 2017. The same survey also revealed that 36% of those in the UK who identify as LGBT don’t feel comfortable holding their partner’s hand while walking down the street — a number that increases to 58% among gay men.
William hasthree children with wife Kate Middleton: Louis, who is one years old, Charlotte, who is 4, and George, who is 5.
