I was on cnn.com when I came across an article that caught my eye. Apparently fewer than half of Americans oppose gay marriage according to a poll. The poll was released by Pew Research Center, so it does have some credibility. The poll did reveal more than Americans views on gay marriage. It showed that white mainline Protestants and white Catholics favored gay marriage more than they opposed it, which is a first for the poll. Furthermore, independents who were against gay marriage last year are now divided over the issue. Last year,"In polls conducted in 2009, 37 percent favored gay marriage while 54 percent were opposed." What a stark contrast! 60% of Americans supported letting gays and lesbians serve in the military. I think repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell is necessary now because there is so much support for gays and lesbians to serve. Why so do you think people are opposed to gays and lesbians serving?
Not surprisingly, 53% of Democrats support gay marriage and only 24% of Republicans support it. Americans born after the 80s support it by 53%, and Americans born between 1928 and 1945 opposed it by 59%! None of these findings are surprising to me, but they are interesting.
Why do you think this change is happening? And, why do you think white mainline Protestants favor gay marriage rather than oppose it like they used? Also, what errors do you think the poll could have made?
I really like this change, and I hope that America legalizes gay marriage!
Thursday, October 7, 2010
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2 comments:
Hmm, this is very interesting. I have no idea what social factors may account for this change in attitude. Maybe it stems from a slow shift toward moderation in attitude in the Christian church. While I haven't seen any direct scientific evidence of such a shift, I have noticed it, but maybe that's just because my own horizons have broadened. My own views have certainly shifted toward moderation quite a bit.
While I'm still ambivalent about gay marriage, perhaps the shift in thinking is indicative of the removal of some real prejudices in the population. I hope that the trend will continue, if only so to resolve the issue so we can focus on more important, less divisive matters.
I think part of the shift is the openness now. People born 1928-1945 were taught that being gay meant something was wrong with the person or it was possible to stop being gay. People used to have to hide being gay because they feared public discrimination. Look at Aragon, we have the GSA, something that definitely would have been looked down upon 15 years ago. Now that people are more open about it, children are exposed to it sooner in life, so it seems normal instead of something out of the ordinary.
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