A new poll shows that Americans have embraced broad support for LGBTQ rights, including marriage equality.
The poll, released Oct. 30 by Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), found that 70% of Americans support marriage equality, while only 28% oppose it. White evangelical Protestants are the only major religious group in which a majority opposes marriage equality.
PRRI found the highest support for marriage equality, at 90%, among religiously unaffiliated Americans. Other figures of support were 79% of white mainline Protestants, 78% of Hispanic Catholics, 72% of members of non-Christian religious groups, 68% of Hispanic Protestants, 67% of white Catholics, 57% of Black Protestants and 56% of members of other Christian religious groups.
In addition, the poll found that 83% of Americans favor laws that would protect LGBTQ people from discrimination in jobs, public accommodations and housing.
Other findings from the poll include:
• Most Americans (70%) oppose allowing religiously affiliated agencies that receive taxpayer funding to refuse to accept qualified gay and lesbian couples as foster parents.
• 65% of Americans oppose allowing a small business owner to refuse to provide products or services to gay or lesbian people if doing so violates the business owner’s religious beliefs, while 32% favor allowing discrimination.
Noted PRRI, “With the exception of white evangelical Protestants, majorities of all religious groups oppose religiously based refusals to serve gay or lesbian people.”
• 68% of Americans favor allowing transgender people to serve in the U.S. military, while 29% oppose this. White evangelical Protestants are the only religious group to support the ban on transgender troops.
The full survey can be read at PRRI’s website: www.prri.org.
