New Report Finds Growing Support For Gay And Lesbian Equality Among Religious Millennials

[LetTimmySmoke]

The Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) released a report earlier this week examining the views of religious millennials on gay and lesbian rights. The report, titled “Generations at Odds: The Millennial Generation and the Future of Gay and Lesbian Rights,” finds that religious millennials are much more supportive than older generations of gay and lesbian equality.

Here are some important highlights from the PRRI report:

- There Is Strong Millenial Support for Gay And Lesbian Equality: Sixty-two percent of Millennials favor allowing same-sex to marry, while 69 percent support allowing them to adopt children. 71 percent favor civil unions and a whopping 79 percent support employment discrimination protections for gay and lesbian people.

- Millennials Think Religious Groups Are Being Too Judgemental Of Gay And Lesbian Issues: Sixty-nine percent of Millennials think that “religious groups are alienating young people by being too judgemental about gay and lesbian issues.” Among seniors, only 37 percent agree.

- Growing Acceptance Of Gay And Lesbian Americans Overall: The report also finds that Americans overall are showing support for LGBT rights. It finds that 64 percent of Americans agree that gay and lesbian couples should be accepted by society and that a majority of all religious groups agree except white evangelicals.

More - http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2011/08/31/308608/report-lgbt-equality-millenials/

http://www.publicreligion.org/objects/uploads/71/PRRI_Report_on_Millennials_Religion__Gay_and_Lesbian_Issues_Survey.pdf

[xchrom]

1. Recommend

[Hosnon]

2. As one who qualifies for both groups, the contrast between 2011 and, say, 1996

is amazing.

Great thanks to those who came before me; I don't think I would have had the courage to come out earlier. Being gay is not much more scandalous than being left-handed.

I should note that I'm in the Deep South.

If there's one thing my generation is not, it's homophobic.

[QC]

3. These people grew up with gay friends and family.

We are not aliens to them. We are the people they hang out with, the people who taught them how to read and drove the schoolbus and lived next door when they were kids, and so on.

The change I have seen in my students over the past twenty years is phenomenal. For the most part they genuinely don't think that sexual orientation is a big deal. If anything, they tend to think it is very cool to find out that, say, Walt Whitman was gay. They love it that he was not only a hippie but a *gay* hippie 150 years ago.

[LeftyMom]

4. I could have told them that.

After giving a speech about Prop 8 I got a big hug from a kid I never met before who was tabling for a college Christian group while dressed up in a BibleMan costume. Turns out DIY BibleMan loves Jesus AND his moms.

Homophobia's really uncommon in young people. If you grew up with out lgbt people as a fact of life, why would you hate or fear people you knew and loved?

[Cirque du So-What]

5. Encouraging report

Still, we see reports of bullying and worse on an almost daily basis. Perhaps the media are just more willing to cover such incidents when they occur.

[readmoreoften]

6. I'm not impressed yet. Call me when its over 90%.

Homophobia is a bizarre fringe belief system. When it belongs to only a fringe, I'll be satisfied.

[StarsInHerHair]

7. this just in: water is wet