If all you read was the liberal media, you’d come away with the impression that Republicans, broadly, oppose gay and transgender rights. A new poll reveals this is simply not the case.
A Public Religion Research Institute survey released Tuesday shows that people in the United States aren’t actually very polarized on the policy issues related to gay and transgender rights, the Advocate reports. It shows that support for gay and transgender rights has increased dramatically over the last decade and remained steady in recent years. But in particular, the results it reports among Republicans and conservative-leaning respondents are of interest, because they seemingly run against the liberal media narrative of anti-gay Republicans as the norm.
For instance, 61% of Republicans support anti-discrimination protections for gay and transgender people in housing, employment, and public accommodations. Even more, almost two-thirds of those who view President Trump favorably support these protections as well. Even 57% of conservative-leaning Republicans support these anti-discrimination legal protections, with the numbers soaring to above 70% among moderate Republicans.
These raw data don’t exactly comport to the narrative that most Republicans disdain or harbor animus toward gay and transgender people, do they?
So, too, the issue of gay marriage increasingly looking like an area of bipartisan consensus. Just under half, 47%, of Republicans say they support same-sex marriage. This rises to 6 in 10 among moderate Republicans.
However, I really do think these numbers on same-sex marriage are an underestimate of actual GOP support for the legal recognition of gay marriage.
Generally, these types of surveys ask something along the lines of “Do you support same-sex marriage?” However, there are many conservatives and Republicans who do not personally support the idea of gay marriage due to their religion, but would nonetheless agree that the government should recognize same-sex marriage. So, these types of questions may actually be failing to capture the full breadth of support among Republicans for equal marriage rights under the law.
Either way, though, these poll results don’t exactly support the narrative that, in 2020, this is still a deeply oppressive country for gay and transgender people. Just don’t expect that to stop left-wing activists from claiming otherwise.
