Public Support For LGBT+ Rights Continues To Increase In New Report
22 Mar 2022
A new report from the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) studying support of LGBT+ rights in the US has found that public support for LGBT+ has continued to increase.
Support is high for LGBT+ anti-discrimination laws which would protect LGBT+ people from discrimination in employment, housing and businesses at 79% of Americans. A further 41% strongly support these laws. This support is also across party lines with 89% of Democrats and 65% of Republicans supporting these laws.
Support among religious groups is also high with the majority of people in all religious groups surveyed supporting anti-LGBT+ discrimination laws. Unitarian Universalists were the most supportive while Jehovah’s Witnesses were the least supportive though they were still at 59%. Around 80% of Catholics support these laws too.
This support has increased over the years. Support among Americans has increased by 8% since 2015. Support among Democrats went up by 9% and support among Republicans went up by 4%. This increase has also been seen in all the surveyed religious groups.
Opposition to religious exemption laws which would allow religious-based refusal of LGBT+ customers is decent at 66% of Americans opposing them. This opposition is more partisan than support for general anti-discrimination laws with 85% of Democrats and only 44% of Republicans opposing religious exemption laws.
Opposition to religious exemption laws among religious groups is surprisingly high with the majority of people in all groups surveyed opposing such laws. Opposition to exemption laws has increased 9% since 2015 though it has fluctuated more than other issues.
Support for same-sex marriage is high at 68% of Americans. Same-sex marriage is a partisan issue with 81% of Democrats supporting it and only 48% of Republicans supporting it.
Even among religious groups support is high with the majority of people in religious groups surveyed supporting it though many religious groups still don't officially endorse it.
Support for same-sex marriage has greatly risen over time. Support increasing 14% since 2014. This increase has been seen in all groups.
Surprisingly another report by PRRI found that only 4% of Americans knew that no federal protections exist at a federal level. More education about this lack of protection would be helpful. There is also a big gap in the opinions of individuals and people in power, 65% of Republicans support nondiscrimination laws while almost no Republicans in power support these laws.
While support for general LGBT+ rights remains high and continues to increase, the situation for transgender rights remains more split. Support for general transgender rights is at 62% with only 47% of Republicans and 76% of Democrats supporting them. While this is promising other more nuanced yet still important rights don't have as much support. This data and data to come comes from another survey.
Opposition to bathroom bills that would effectively ban transgender people from public bathrooms while helping no one is only around 50%. support fell from 2017.
Support for transgender military service is around 63%. Surprisingly, from 2017 to 2019 Republican support increased while Democrat support decreased. Support for transgender athletes is split around half and half.
A separate poll found that objection to government intervention in life-saving gender-affirming care was only 63%. Objection among Republicans was low at 46%.
The stagnation and sometimes fall in support of these rights is explained by the increased polarization of Americans. For the past few years, Republicans have used LGBT+ and transgender people as political paws to rally support from conservative voters and to create a common enemy for the party.
Education is key to stopping these attacks, if more people knew the science of gender-affirming care or the damage of discrimination, more people would support LGBT+ rights.
https://www.prri.org/research/americans-support-for-key-lgbtq-rights-continues-to-tick-upward/
https://www.prri.org/research/americas-growing-support-for-transgender-rights/
https://www.prri.org/research/most-americans-support-pro-lgbtq-policies-but-are-more-divided-over-transgender-sports-and-bathroom-policies/
https://19thnews.org/2022/03/republicans-split-blocking-gender-affirming-care-trans-youth-poll/