Recent public opinion polls show that attitudes about LGBT Americans are rapidly changing. Consider the results of a May 13 survey by the Pew Research Center:
A majority of Americans (58%) say that homosexuality should be accepted, rather than discouraged, by society. More than six-in-ten (63%) of those younger than age 50 -- 69% of those younger than age 30 -- say that homosexuality should be accepted. Currently, 45% favor allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally while 46% are opposed. Two years ago, in April 2009, 35% supported same-sex marriage while 54% were opposed.
A significant shift on this issue can even be seen in traditionally conservative terrain such as Virginia. According to a May 10 Washington Post poll:
By a 20-percentage point margin -- 55 to 35 percent -- Virginia adults think it should be legal for gay and lesbian couples to adopt a child in the state. But they are much more closely divided on the question of gay marriage, splitting 47 to 43 percent.
While the Pew Research poll shows that age plays a large factor in acceptance, the Washington Post survey reveals that religion-based bigotry is primarily behind opposition to LGBT equality:
Only 20 percent of white Protestants in the state think gay marriage should be legal, but 34 percent think gay adoption should be legal. There's a similar sized gap among white Catholics: 51 percent say gay marriage should be legal while 65 percent support gay adoption. There's no difference for secular Virginians, with about eight in 10 saying each should be legal.
Taken together, these two polls offer a lucid snapshot of where the LGBT community is and what obstacles it faces. To boil it down, there are two distinct reasons why LGBT people do not have full equality:
1) Our greatest source of new support are younger Americans who came of age in a Will & Grace world. However, younger voters are the least likely to head to the polls, which extends the fading power of the aging homophobic demographic.2) The concentration of anti-gay sentiment among white fundamentalists - who are well-organized and more likely to vote - has created a situation that allows the political climate to lag behind a broader cultural shift.
Examples of such retrograde politics can be seen in the anti-gay views expressed by virtually every GOP presidential candidate. At the federal level, the Republican Party is enthusiastically defending the (un)constitutionally of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). In the states, the Minnesota Senate approved a 2012 ballot measure asking voters whether the Constitution should be amended to "provide that only a union of one man and one woman" be recognized as marriage. However, even before social conservatives could celebrate, a Star Tribune Minnesota poll found that 55 percent of respondents said they oppose adding an amendment while 39 percent favor it. The newspaper said that this is "a sharp reversal of poll results seven years ago."
The surge in acceptance has caused anti-gay activists to become more strident and extreme. In a direct mailer opposing marriage equality in New York state, the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) resorted to disgraceful scare tactics, writing: "Classroom consequences of 'gay marriage' will forever change the innocence of our kids. It's wrong, but it can be stopped."
Whose kids are they talking about? Could it be Erica Diaz, the openly lesbian granddaughter of state Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr., who heroically confronted her grandfather onstage as he spoke at an anti-gay NOM marriage rally in the Bronx?
Speaking of NOM, the group's former strategist, Louis Marinelli, released a new video this week expressing his support for marriage equality in New York. Equally frustrating for NOM was the recent influx of more than $1 million into the pro-marriage equality campaign by major New York GOP financiers, such as Paul Singer and mayor Michael Bloomberg.
If this was not troubling enough for the anti-gay industry -- LGBT people are now challenging traditional bastions of homophobia. For example, in the middle of the National Basketball Association playoffs, Phoenix Suns president Rick Welts came out of the closet. Welts' announcement coincided with a public service announcement by two Suns players, Grant Hill and Jared Dudley, who spoke out against homophobia in sports. This came on the heels of New York Rangers hockey player Sean Avery expressing his support for marriage equality.
Anti-gay efforts to target African Americans will also be hampered by this week's coming out of CNN anchor Don Lemon. And, most disconcerting for extremists are efforts from within the church, highlighted by a recent New York Times article titled "Even on Religious Campuses, Students Fight for Gay Identity" and the Presbyterian Church USA becoming the fourth mainline Protestant church to approve ordination of gay people.
If it seems like opponents of equality are increasingly taking the low road, it is because they have clearly lost the high ground of public opinion.
Follow Wayne Besen on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Truthwinsout
James Peron: Gay Marriage Poll Touted by Mormons Seems Dubious
The American Gay Rights Movement: A Timeline — Infoplease.com
LGBT social movements - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gay Rights on Change.org – Online Petitions for Social Change on ...
A Visual History of the Gay-Rights Movement - Photo Essays - TIME
Tolerance for Gay Rights at High-Water Mark
CNN Poll: Most Americans Oppose Gay Marriage, but Those Under 35 ...
Poll: Support For Same Sex Marriage Grows - Political Hotsheet ...
As to what they think of my marriage or my family, who the heck cares????
1. Paragraphs are a good thing.
2. Comparing the loving relationship between two committed partners which is shown to be beneficial to society to smoking which is shown to be detrimental to society is reprehensible.
We are a country ruled by the Constitution, not the Bible. What your book says about gay people is about as valid as what your book says about dietary restrictions.
Preamble Note
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
and our Posterity. That is natural, we are to protect this for the good of the country. That is our Constitutional duty. To do otherwise is unconstitutional.
You mention loving relations between two...yes, but that is not loving to all. There is good for you, good for another, and there is good for all. Our Constitution protects the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.
In disbelief, you may ignore the shed blood of Christ which liberates everyman from the bonds of death unto judgment BUT I by His grace, use that freedom to protect and preserve the rights of all, in light of what is good for all.
I agree with you, there is not, nor should there be, a state religion and neither should we be ruled by religion. But Christ is no religion and where you are building a wall to separate individuals from their Creator, Christ Jesus built a bridge to restore individuals to their Creator. So all, having the Spirit of Christ, stand to protect your personal choice in light of what is good for the Nation.
dietary restrictioÂns?
It's a loving environment, not the gender of the parents, that matters most. After all, there are enough role models in society (teachers, pastors, volunteers, relatives) that most children still have women and men to model themselves after.
And I'm curious about your opinion on single parenting? If a child's mother dies, should that child be taken away from her father?
Secondly, to the supporters of LGBT rights (myself included) we need to start understanding what good news is. An increase of 10% in public opinion in support of gay marriage over two years is a GOOD thing; not a glass is half empty situation.
We are making progress, it would be nice if we were making progress faster - but we need to concentrate on pushing for equality out of a sense of justice and not out anger.
http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2011/02/judge-upholds-maine-campaign-finance-challenge-brought-by-anti-gay-nom/
Have patience.
I wish I could say that changing hearts-and-minds is a big part of social progress. However the largest part of it is simply waiting for those opposed to equality to die off.
People like the idea of "change"...but the reality of it is frightening and painful. Consistency and sameness gives predictability. Thus the illusion of safety and of control.
So--even when change benefits themselves---many people will only embrace change when the pain of staying the same becomes so great that the pain of change becomes a relief.
It is a REALLY hard-sell to get people to step into that pain and that fear when the benefits will (in their minds) largely be seen by others. They'd rather have everyone change around them, so that they can comfortably remain the same.
But the fact is that they are in a differnt cultural environment than their parents grew up in. One that is not as accepting of homophobic prejudices.
Just as there are still racists, but we are a society that is less tolerant of racial prejudices.
Those who believe in individual liberties, rights and freedom should abhor all attempts to use the government to impose anyone's religion-based views on anyone.
So much of the evil-doing in the world is done in the same of religion. The decline of religion in developed countries is a result of young people observing what's done in it's name.
You can have your religion and practice privately pretty much whatever you want to, but leave everyone else alone and keep those views out of the government.
Your statement is not exactly correct. :-)
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/05/16/inside-mind-chaz-bono/?test=faces
Orwell wrote in Animal Farm that "all animals are equal... but some are more equal than others".
But, "gay marriage" - no such a thing. And, it isn't "homophobic" not to accept such a thing that isn't.
Remember, our side has benefitted from that protection too, and at times when what NOM pronounces now was pretty well universally accepted as true.
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Certainly worth keeping however there should be consequences IMO for groups like NOM and AFA for the blatant lies they push.
Remember, our side has benefitted from that protection too, and at times when what NOM pronounces now was pretty well universallÂy accepted as true.
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Agreed but our side doesn't lie about marriage(as far as I know)like NOM does.
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David in Houston-I SO agree!