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| Date | Favor protection | Oppose protection | No opinion |
| 1999-FEB | 75 | 20 | 5 |
One interesting point with these data is that no hate crime legislation, in place or suggested, has ever protected gays or lesbians. Some have protected persons on the basis of their sexual orientation. But those laws protect heterosexuals, bisexuals and heterosexuals equally.
Should homosexual behavior be criminalized or de-criminalized:
Barna Research of Ventura CA found on 2001-MAY that 48% feel that homosexual activity between consenting adults should be legal; 42% said they should not be legal; 10% had no opinion. There is a noticeable gap between "born again" Christians and other Americans: Only 34% of born-again adults feel that this behavior should be legal. 57% of non-born-again feel that way. 1 More details.
General poll on homosexuality:
Barna Research, an Evangelical Christian polling company, conducted a survey of 1,003 American adults, asking their opinion about abortion and homosexuality. Results, released in early 2001-AUG were remarkable:
 | 45% agree that homosexuality is "an acceptable lifestyle." This, of course, is an extremely biased question for the pollsters to ask. Many people consider homosexuality to be a sexual orientation and not a lifestyle. Thus, some persons polled would answer that it is not an acceptable lifestyle because it is not a lifestyle. | ||||||
| 46% say it is an unacceptable lifestyle. | ||||||
| These results are a statistical dead-heat because the margin of error is about 3% | ||||||
| Among Born-again Christians:
| ||||||
| Among Fundamentalist and other Evangelical Christians:
|
Sponsored link:
Beliefs of high school seniors:
Zogby International and Hamilton College in New York conducted a nation-wide Hamilton College Gay Issues Poll. It involved a random sampling of 1,000 "class of 2001" high school seniors. 2 Margin of error is 3%. Results were released in 2001-AUG-27.
The data indicate that the students are far more accepting of homosexuality than their parents. The poll results include:
| 92% say that homosexuals should be able to serve in the military.
| ||||||
| 88% supported anti hate-crime legislation to protect gays and lesbians. | ||||||
| 88% said that the phrase, "That's so gay" is used to describe something that is not liked. | ||||||
| Allowing same-sex marriage is favored by:
| ||||||
| 86% say that lesbians should be "accepted by society." | ||||||
| 85% say that gay men should be "accepted by society." | ||||||
| 85% believe that gays and lesbians should be accepted by society. | ||||||
| 84% of students, who would expect their parents to be accepting of a gay friend, were in favor of same-sex marriage. | ||||||
| 80% of Roman Catholics support same-sex marriage; this is strongly opposed by their church. | ||||||
| 80% of Jews support same-sex marriage. | ||||||
| 79% support anti-discrimination laws to protect gays from job discrimination | ||||||
| 78% of students who has a close gay friend, 59% of those who know a gay person, and 55% of those who don't know a gay person favor same-sex marriage. | ||||||
| 78% disagree with the statement "Lesbians are disgusting." | ||||||
| 77% believe that "gays contribute to society in unique and positive ways." | ||||||
| 71% believe that adult homosexual behavior should be legal. This compares with only 54% of adults, according to a recent Gallup poll. | ||||||
| 71% would allow gay men to serve as Scout leaders. | ||||||
| 69% disagree with the statement "Gay men are disgusting." | ||||||
| 68% would allow gay couples to adopt children. | ||||||
| 66% feel that same-sex marriages should be legal. This compares to about 33% of adults, according to recent polls conducted by the Associated Press, Gallup and the LA Times. | ||||||
| 63% would be comfortable in a class with a gay math teacher. | ||||||
| 61% disagree with the statement "Gay lifestyles are morally wrong." | ||||||
| About 50% said that they had heard classmates insult gay students by calling them "faggot," "homo," "dyke" or similar names. | ||||||
| 43% would be comfortable with a gay lab partner. | ||||||
| 39% say that "gay lifestyles are morally wrong." | ||||||
| 31% would be comfortable at a party with both straight and gay couples. |
The survey found that 30% of the students, mainly "highly religious" evangelical Christians, could be characterized as "anti-homosexual." One professor who conducted the survey said: "Their views are firmly rooted, and unlikely to change real [sic] soon." However, even among the evangelical Christians, 80% supported hate crime legislation and half said homosexuals should be accepted by society. 3
Some comments volunteered by the students:
| "Who they are as a person is more important than who they sleep with or love. It shouldn't be a big deal." |
| "Flaming homosexuals are just weird and gross. But if they don't flash it there's nothing wrong with it." |
| "I don't like fags. I want to beat their queer asses." |
| "God made them that way. Let them be." |
| "I believe it is a choice, a moral decision. And I don't believe what they are doing is right." |
| "Gays are morally wrong, but should be accepted for who they are and not discriminated against." |
| "People say they are gay to get attention." |
| "I like gays. They are nice people." |
Beliefs of high school students are particularly important because today's students will be the adult decision makers in future decades.
It appears that the graduating class is much more liberal than adults. They may feel awkward in social situations with a gay or lesbian person. But they strongly support equal rights, including the right to marry. The support for same-sex marriage among Roman Catholics is surprisingly high, considering the very strong opposition that their church has towards equal rights for gays and lesbians. It seems that conservative Christian students have changed little from their parents, and are unlikely to change their beliefs in the near future.
Mike Haley is a gender and youth analyst at Focus on the Family, a fundamentalist Christian agency located in Colorado Springs CO. He complains that "The gays have used a 'tolerance' message to push this through, rather than a truthful message," "And the problem is, we have kids that are tolerant of everything, but yet are standing for nothing in the area of truth." Most religious liberals and gays would probably disagree, saying that the real truth of homosexuality can be obtained from research into human sexuality and statements from professional mental health associations like the American Psychological Association and American Psychiatric Association -- that a homosexual orientation is normal, natural, unchosen, and unchangeable for a small minority of people. The latter findings seem to be filtering down to, and accepted by, today's high school seniors.
Haley feels that the children of Evangelical Christians are firmly opposed to homosexual rights. But "it's our kids' friends that we need to begin to reach." Without it, Haley estimated that the culture shift towards full acceptance of homosexuality will be complete in just a few years. 4
The poll confirmed two beliefs that are widely held in the homosexual community: that dislike towards gays and support for anti-gay legislation diminishes as:
| a "straight" person develops a friendship with a gay person, and |
| a "straight" person agrees with scientific studies which indicate that a homosexual orientation is determined very early in life, is unchosen and is unchangeable. |
Beliefs of college freshmen:
The Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles conducts opinion surveys of incoming U.S. college and university freshmen. One question is whether the students support same-sex marriage. The year 2000 study was typical; it was based on 269,413 freshman students. Margin of error is less than 1%. It is obvious that the incoming student class is much more liberal than American adults, and becoming more liberal:
| Date | Allowed | Not allowed | No opinion | Reference |
| 1997-FALL |
51% |
- |
- |
Poll of college freshmen 5 |
| 2000-Fall |
56 |
- |
- |
Poll of college freshmen 6 |
| 2001-Fall |
58 |
- |
- |
Poll of college freshmen 5 |
The Bible and homosexuality:
Barna Research, an Evangelical Christian polling company, conducted a survey of 630 American adults. They were asked to agree or disagree that "the Bible does not specifically condemn homosexuality." This is an interesting question, because it was probably interpreted in at least three ways by the people who were asked:
- Does the Bible condemn individuals with a homosexual orientation.
- Does the Bible condemn some forms of homosexual behavior. For example, some religious liberals acknowledge that the Bible condemns:
 | Homosexual rape in Genesis 19. |
| Homosexual ritual sex in Pagan temples in two passages of Leviticus. |
| Homosexual prostitution throughout the Old Testament. |
| Men molesting boys in 1 Corinthians 6. |
| Heterosexuals engaged in homosexual behavior in Romans 1. |
| Men engaging in bestiality with male angels in Jude. |
But they may believe that the Bible is silent on loving, committed gay and lesbian relationships.
The results were:
| 53% disagreement |
| 27% agreement |
| 20% did not know. |
The margin of error is 4.1% 7
References:
- "Born-again adults remain firm in opposition to abortion and gay marriage," Barna Research, at: http://www.barna.org/cgi-bin/
- "Hamilton College Gay Issues Poll," Hamilton College, NY. See: http://www.hamilton.edu/news/gayissuespoll/
- Quoted in TVC Newsletter, Traditional Values Coalition, 2001-AUG-31.
- Stuart Shepard, "Students' Views Markedly Pro-Gay," Family News in Focus, at: http://www.family.org/cforum/fnif/news/A0017727.html
- Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles. Study similar to Ref. 7.
- Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles. Study was based on 269,413 freshman students at colleges and universities. Margin of error is less than 1%
- "Americans Draw Theological Beliefs From Diverse Points of View," Barna Research Online, 2002-OCT-8, at: http://www.barna.org/
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Site navigation: Home page > "Hot" religious topics > Homosexuality > Polls > here |
Copyright © 2001 & 2003 by Ontario Consultants on Religious
Tolerance
Originally written: 2001-JUL-30
Latest update: 2003-MAY-27
Author: B.A. Robinson
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