Lovin' the Gay in the USA

Gallup released the results of its 2015 Morals and Values Poll yesterday, including this remarkable finding on attitudes to marriage equality:

Sixty percent of Americans now support same-sex marriage, as the Supreme Court prepares to rule on its constitutionality next month. This is up from 55% last year and is the highest Gallup has found on the question since it was first asked in 1996.

Though same-sex marriage continues to be politically divisive, support for its legal status has reached new highs among Americans of all political stripes -- with Democrats at 76% support, independents at 64% and Republicans at 37%.

Last month, Gallup estimated that about 780,000 Americans are in same-sex marriages.

Today, Gallup also released poll results on the morality of gayness:

In addition to their changing views on the origins of being gay or lesbian, Americans' views on the morality of same-sex relations have also shifted in recent years. Currently, a record-high 63% of Americans describe gay or lesbian relations as "morally acceptable." That became the majority view in 2010. Only a decade ago, a majority thought same-sex relations were morally wrong.

Since 2001, increasing percentages of both Republicans and Democrats say gay or lesbian relations are morally acceptable, though Democrats continue to be much more likely to express that view. Notably, for the first time, a majority of Republicans believe that same-sex relations are morally acceptable. Democrats crossed the majority threshold more than a decade ago.

Marriages Begin in Minnesota and Rhode Island

This brings the total of marriage-equality states to 13, plus the District of Columbia and five Indian tribes; thirty percent of Americans now have the freedom to the freedom to marry a same-sex partner. Seven other states have full civil unions or limited domestic partnerships.

Also this week, Gullup released its latest polling results, which show that 52% of Americans would vote for a federal law legalizing same-sex marriages across the country, while 43% would vote against it. The landmark Supreme Court rulings in June had no discernible effect on public attitudes as measured by this poll. Here's the breakdown by various groups:

Click to enlarge.

And here's a trendline showing the increase of support over time for same-sex marriage:

Click to enlarge.

What a Billion Muslims Really Think

Today I stumbled across this very enlightening film, the result of a six-year project by the Gallup Poll:

Gallup researchers began by asking the questions on every American’s mind. Why is there so much anti-Americanism in the Muslim world? Who are the extremists and how do Muslims feel about them? What do Muslims like and dislike about the West? What do Muslim women really want?

Crucial policy decisions hang on these questions. They continue to generate passionate disagreements in the public square. Yet for all the heat and controversy, the actual views of the world’s Muslims have been conspicuously missing from this debate.

Now, we have the missing answers and statistics, gathered, parsed, and analyzed not by pundits but by professional researchers.

As part of this groundbreaking six-year project, Gallup conducted tens of thousands of interviews with residents in 35 predominantly Muslim nations, as well as smaller populations in Europe and the USA. The broad extent of the polling has delivered findings for the world’s 1.4 billion Muslims with a plus or minus accuracy of 3%

Focused on the issues of Gender Justice, Terrorism, and Democracy –the film presents this remarkable data deftly, showing how it challenges the popular notion that Muslims and the West are on a collision course. Like the research, the film highlights a shared relationship that is based on facts – not fear.

I've been wanting to find something like this ever since 9/11.  It was produced in 2010, before the "Arab Spring" uprisings this year.  You can watch the whole 58-minute film at Snag Films.

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A personal note:  I had a date one time years ago with a Muslim IT professional from North Africa; he was a sweet guy, very likeable.  I knew some Muslim foreign students in college, and have occasionally met or worked with some other Muslims through the years since.  Of course, none of them were monsters or terrorists.

But try telling that to all the proud ChristiansandAmericans here in small-town Texas.  The analogy of the Ku Klux Klan versus ordinary peaceable Christians they don't even get; washes right over their heads.

Which of course is the same reaction as with any other group that is Not Our Kind.  The old, old human story.