U.S. Polls on Homosexuality

WASHINGTON, July 29, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A new survey from the Pew Research Center finds that while a majority of Americans continue to oppose homosexual marriage, “support has been gradually building over the past few years and the intensity of the opposition has been declining.”  53% say they oppose allowing persons of the same sex to legally marry, a full 38% favour the idea, up from 27% in 1996. Opposition to homosexual marriage is strongest among white evangelical Protestants (83%), blacks (64%) and Hispanics (54%).  However, “seculars” (the term Pew Research uses for atheists, agnostics and others professing no religion), white Catholics, white mainline Protestants, and Hispanics are increasingly open to it. White Catholic opposition has dropped 19 points (from 60% to 41%) in the past seven years. Among seculars, 46% opposed gay marriage in 1996, compared with only 30% today.  Meanwhile, a USA Today/CNN /GALLUP poll released today indicates Americans have become significantly less accepting of homosexuality since the recent Supreme Court decision striking down the Texas sodomy law. USA Today says “the survey shows a return to a level of more traditional attitudes last seen in the mid-1990s”  In this survey, of those asked whether same-sex relations between consenting adults should be legal, 48% said yes; 46% said no. Support is reported to not have been that low since 1996.  The biggest shift was among African-Americans. On whether homosexual relations should be legal, their support fell from 58% in May to 36% in July. Among people who attend church almost every week, support fell from 61% to 49%.  For more details and other topics covered in the PEW survey:  https://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?PageID=725   See report on the USA Today/CNN /GALLUP survey:  https://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-07-28-poll_x.htm