A solid majority of Americans, and coalitions of many spiritual groups, also broadly support LGBTQ rights.
Kathryn Post’s media article appeared on Religion News Service.
While most Americans continue to widely support LGBTQ freedom, that help may be waning, including among spiritual Americans, according to a new poll from PRRI.
In contrast to the year before, Americans are somewhat less likely to reject allowing business users to refuse to serve LGBTQ individuals for religious reasons, according to the report, which was based on interviews with more than 22, 000 U.S. people in 2023.
According to Melissa Deckman, CEO of PRRI,” the great tale is that most American of beliefs are generally supportive of LGBTQ right.” We do, however, notice a slight decline in three of the issues we examined regarding American sentiments toward LGBTQ rights. …That surprised us a little bit.
A Coral in the Coal Mine,
This information, according to Deckman, is comparable to” a canaries in the fuel me” for organizations that support LGBTQ rights.
Seventy- six percent of American parents reported supporting LGBTQ equality laws in open accommodations, housing and employment, the study found, over from 80 % the year before. The majority of responders from the majority of faith communities also support non-discrimination laws for Gay, though many of them saw a slight decline in aid starting in 2022.
Among Muslims, for example, PRRI reports a drop from 70 % support in 2022 to 56 % in 2023, white evangelical Protestants saw a drop from 62 % to 56 %, and Hispanic Catholics from 86 % to 78 %.
Even though the majority of Americans ( 67 % ) still support same-sex unions, the percentage dropped 2 percentage points from the previous year. While majorities of all but a handful of spiritual groups favor constitutional recognition of similar- sex marriage ( most Jehovah’s Witnesses, light evangelical Protestants, Muslims, Hispanic Protestants and Latter- day Saints are in opposition ), many groups even saw dips in support.
The biggest drops in support were among Hispanic Catholics, with a decline of 7 percentage points from 2022, and Muslims, which dropped 13 percentage points.
Support Has Dropped in Nearly Every Religious Group
A majority of Americans have opposed allowing a small business owner to refuse services to LGBTQ people for religious reasons since PRRI began tracking the issue in 2015. As in the other categories, that majority still stands, but fell from last year— in 2023, 60 % of Americans said they were opposed, compared with 65 % in 2022. In nearly every religious sect, dips were also visible.
Across all three policy categories, Unitarian Universalists, the religiously unaffiliated, Jewish Americans and non- Hispanic Catholics of color consistently showed the highest support for LGBTQ rights, while Jehovah’s Witnesses, white evangelical Protestants and Hispanic Protestants showed the least support.
Dips in LGBTQ Support Partially Comes from Current Polarization
Deckman partially attributed the decline in support to political polarization, and more specifically to the divisions surrounding LGBTQ policies, including laws and bathroom policies that have an impact on gender affirming care.
” Republicans have very strategically, I think, used that as a wedge issue”, said Deckman. What might be happening is that continuing to discuss LGBTQ identity and focusing on the division between Americans regarding transgender issues is having a bigger impact on Americans ‘ attitudes about LGBT rights more broadly, though it’s hard to tell from this one cross section.
These observations are reflected in the findings, which reveal that Republicans ‘ support for LGBTQ rights has decreased while Democrats ‘ support for LGBTQ rights has remained constant across all three measures.
Political ideology appears to play a role as well. According to PRRI, support for Christian nationalism, which Deckman defines as the idea that all 50 states have higher rates of support for same-sex marriage, support for same-sex marriage, support for LGBTQ anti-discrimination laws, and support for opposing religious refusals to LGBTQ customers are all negatively correlated with support for LGBTQ rights across all 50 states.
” We often assume in public opinion, when it comes to LGBTQ issues, that Americans are destined to become far more embracing of the rights to LGBTQ Americans”, said Deckman. However, this data demonstrates that it’s not necessary to assume that LGBT Americans are more progressive and accepting.
