***DISCLAIMER: THE DATA TO BE PRESENTED IN THIS POST IS FROM GALLUP, WHICH, AS EVERYONE KNOWS, IS THE MOST DISHONEST POLLING AGENCY OUT THERE. HENCE, THE CONCLUSIONS HAVE TO BE TAKEN WITH A GRAIN OF SALT. ON THE OTHER HAND-GALLUP’S DISHONESTY TENDS TO FAVOR THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT, AND HENCE, MAYBE “THE GRAIN OF SALT’ SHOULD MEAN, THE NUMBERS ARE ACTUALLY WORSE (AS FOR AS THE UBER-CONSERVATIVE ARE CONCERNED) THAN GALLUP IS CLAIMING THEY ARE.***
Does anyone remember Dan Savage (the 2013 Humanist of the Year) getting chewed up by conservative Christians for saying that bible was bad for gay people (in addition to plenty of other bad things that it says)? You may wonder why those people thought what he said was so outrageous. Well, here we have some data suggesting (albeit by no means for the first time) that, maybe, Savage wasn’t so wrong after all.
In the wake of the US supreme court rulings that nullified California’s Proposition 8 and DOMA, we have a new poll on how the public views the question of equal rights for gay people. The results show that 52% are in favor of equality. That is not in itself surprising as it is corroborated by many polls that have seen over the last few years. But it is the details that make it interesting.
So the liberals and religiously unaffiliated are the ones most likely to be pro-fairness to gay people, followed closely by Democrats, young people and those who seldom/never go to church. (Obviously there is a lot of overlap among the named groups.) This is not a surprise, as we already know that the religiously unaffiliated, and among them the atheists and agnostics, are those most likely to be pro-equality.
But who comes dead last, when it comes to supporting fairness for gays? Those who attend church most frequently. Unbelievable (not!). How can the most ardent followers of “love thy neighbor” be those most in favor of denying their fellow citizens equal rights?
The sarcasm not withstanding, this is totally to be expected. We have already seen that among those against equality, the number one offered reason for their stance is bible/religion.
A few more interesting data points from the poll:
-60% of the catholic population in the US support equality for gays. So much for the bishops speaking for their congregations.
-Roughly half of minorities also support equality-percentagewise, not all that different from whites. Note to the religious right: saying time and again that you will try to attract the minority vote through homophobic appeals only shows how out of touch and desperate you are.
-A word of advice (again) to my liberal friends who suggest the religious left will dominate over the religious right because the former has more support among the youngest segment of population than the latter: while the premise is true, the conclusion doesn’t necessarily follow. Because while young people maybe more left-leaning in their ideologies, they are also less religious. As the numbers above show, the most devout of the believers are the conservative ones. (Is this so surprising, really?) So, the overall influence of religion is going to be on the conservative side for quite some time to come.
And lastly, if the data (for the umpteenth time) prove Savage right, on what basis did his detractors bash him? Surprise, surprise. It was all about “being offended”, in other words, talking about their own tender feelings. Had nothing to do with the substance of what he said whatsoever. Here are a few of the “arguments” against him:
-“I felt like in my heart I couldn’t just stay there at all. It was a really weird feeling I just had to get out”.
-“As Christians we get the other side of that. When our faith is attacked like that — we are ridiculed for taking a stand against it.”
-“For me, my faith is what I want to be defined by. For someone to say it was B.S. is really hurtful. I felt put down and bullied because of my faith.”
Here is a suggestion, ladies and gentlemen: move to Pakistan. Out there, blasphemy laws are going to “protect” you from speech you don’t want to hear.
http://youtu.be/ao0k9qDsOvs
