As the Senate prepares to vote on the Equality Act, a new poll released yesterday indicates that an overwhelming majority of Americans across religious and political affiliations support anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people. According to the 2020 American Values Atlas, a study by the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute, or PRRI, conducted one of the largest survey studies ever on the subject.
The results were surprising. Seventy-six percent of adults favor laws that would prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing and public accommodations, Less than 1 in 5 (only 19 percent) opposed such protections. Support was strongest 85% among Democrats, 79% of independents but it also included a 62% majority of Republicans.
Even more surprising is that the “Religious Freedom” argument being pushed by the most radical of the Republicans appears to have little agreement among those that identify as religious. Broad majorities in nearly every religious group favor protections for LGBTQ people, 77% of white Catholics, 78% of Mormons, 79% of Jews, 81% of Hispanic Catholics, and 81% of white mainline Protestants. Even White evangelical Protestants, the group least likely to favor Equality Act nondiscrimination laws, endorsed them by nearly 2 to 1 (62 percent to 32 percent).
The study found no statistical difference in LGBTQ Equality support whether you lived in urban, suburban or rural areas. Since 2015, the largest increase in support has come among Black people, which grew from 65 percent to 75 percent approval. The survey also found that about three-fifths (61 percent) of respondents opposed allowing small businesses to turn away gay and lesbian customers on religious grounds.
Since 2016, opposition to religious refusal laws declined 5 percent. According to the report The "slim minority" of people (just 7 percent) who consistently hold unfavorable views toward LGBTQ policies are older, more likely to be Republicans, feel more favorably toward former president Donald Trump, and are more likely to be white and white Christian than the American population and those who are in favor of these pro-LGBTQ policies.
Natalie Jackson the PRRI research director said "The data is clear: the vast majority of Americans support LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections no matter where they live, the party they belong to, or the church they belong to.” The stunning results suggest there is a dramatically loud but tiny minority yelling hate in Washington and at Fox News but it is not what the broad American public thinks about the LGBTQ community and the Equality Act.
