Study: Bias Against LGBT Individuals Decreasing Across All Demographic Groups

A new study out of the University of Virginia provides more bad news for Christofascists and their puppets within the GOP: anti-LGBT bias is falling across all demographic groups. Huge problems of anti-gay discrimination continue to exist but despite their efforts to fan anti-gay animus, the Christofascists are losing the larger was for equality and becoming more and more of marginalized demographic. In my view, the changes stem not only from the vastly increased visibility of gays, but also the larger decline in religion.  A decline I believe is driven by the reality that science is making it increasingly difficult to prop up the myths on which Christianity is based.  With educated people understanding that among other things (i) Adam and Eve never existed and (ii) the Bible is a much manipulated and revised work of fallible men, bias based on Bronze Age myths become increasingly unsustainable.  Here are highlights of the study findings:

The U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling legalizing marriage between same-sex couples in all 50 states follows on the heels of national polls showing rapid cultural changes in attitudes toward lesbian and gay people. A new University of Virginia study confirms this, showing that not only are Americans' conscious and unconscious biases against lesbian women and gay men decreasing across all demographic groups, but the trend also appears to be accelerating. 

Westgate and co-authors Rachel Riskind of Guilford College and U.Va. psychology professor Brian Nosek analyzed data collected from more than half a million people between 2006 through 2013 by Project Implicit.

Westgate's team found that implicit or "unconscious" bias against lesbian and gay people was 13 percent lower in 2013 than in 2006, suggesting that implicit bias has decreased substantially in recent years. They also found that explicit, or self-reported, bias decreased twice as much (26 percent) as implicit bias over the same seven-year period. This suggests that while many peoples' attitudes are changing at the deeper, unconscious level, some people may be less willing or able to acknowledge anti-gay bias than they were in years past. 

"Implicit biases can occur outside of conscious awareness or conscious control," Nosek said. "People may know that they have them and not be able to control them. This is the first evidence for long-term change in people's implicit attitudes on a cultural level." 

The authors also found that some people's attitudes were changing more quickly than others. Age, race and political orientation were the biggest predictors of attitude change. Unconscious bias decreased the most among women, as well as among white, Hispanic, liberal and younger people. Men - as well as black, Asian, conservative and older people - showed the smallest changes in bias. 

Most importantly, nearly all demographic groups showed decreases in unconscious and self-reported bias over the seven-year period, suggesting that across the board, people seem to be developing more positive attitudes toward lesbian and gay people in general.

"People today are genuinely more positive toward gay and lesbian people than they were just a decade ago," Westgate said. "The research shows that attitudes across the board are truly changing - it's not just a function of people feeling less comfortable admitting their bias in a culture that has become more open." 

Gallup Poll: 63% Support Gay Adoption; 55% Support Gay Marriage

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A new Gallup poll contains more bad news for the hate merchants at The Family Foundation here in Virginia and for its national allies such as the hate groups Family Research Council and the National Organization for Marriage. One has to wonder how much more lopsided support needs to come before Republicans will cease prostituting themselves to the Christofascists within the GOP base.  It is safe to assume that the opponents of LGBT equality will become even more hysterical as it becomes increasingly clear that they have lost the battle - and that professional Christians such as Victoria Cobb and Tony Perkins may soon have to get real jobs.  Here are highlights of the poll findings:

A clear majority of Americans (63%) say same-sex couples should have the legal right to adopt a child, the most to say so since Gallup began tracking opinions on the matter more than 20 years ago. This is higher than Americans' support for same-sex marriage (55%). 

These findings are from Gallup's May 8-11 Values and Beliefs survey. Gallup has been asking slight variations of this question since 1992. Overall, support has shifted from a clear majority in the 1990s saying same-sex or homosexual couples should not be legally permitted to adopt children to the opposite now.

A majority of Americans across all major demographics now say same-sex couples should have the legal right to adopt a child. This includes among all key political persuasions: 80% support among Democrats, 61% support among independents, and 51% support among Republicans. 

This majority support for legally permitting same-sex couples to adopt a child is also the case among different age groups. Young people between the ages of 18 and 29 are most likely to support the idea, with 77% saying same-sex couples should be allowed to adopt children.

As the question of whether same-sex parents should be allowed to adopt has been debated in the U.S. in the last decade, same-sex couples nationwide have been adopting children at a regular pace. According to the Williams Institute at UCLA, more than 16,000 same-sex couples are raising an estimated 22,000 adopted children in the U.S. While popular support for same-sex adoption is outpacing approval of gay marriage, Gates notes that even lesser forms of relationship recognition -- such as civil unions and domestic partnerships -- have included the right for same-sex couples to jointly adopt children.

Jared Leto Wins Oscar - Some Trans Activist Prove They Are Their Own Worse Enemy

I suspect that I will receive some personal attacks for this post, but I believe that its contents need to be said.  The boyfriend and I went and saw the Dallas Buyers Club several weeks ago and thought it very well done, particularly the acting by Jared Leto and Matthew McConaughey in a story line that covers a very ugly period of time and lives in extreme stress and facing death.   I thought Leto did a very good job personalizing the character of Rayon and making her human in a way that many viewers could connect with, especially those who may never have met someone transgender and/or have only been exposed to Christofascist depictions of transgender individuals.  The boyfriend and I were thrilled that Leto won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar and found his comments moving:

Said Leto:

“To all the dreamers out there all around the world watching this tonight, in places like the Ukraine and Venezuela, I want to say, we are here, and as you struggle to make your dreams happen, to live the impossible, we’re thinking of you tonight.”

He added:

"And this is for the 36 million people who have lost the battle to AIDS and to those of you out there who have ever felt injustice because of who you are or who you love. I stand here in front of the world with you and for you."

Sadly, some of the usual suspects in the transgender community have trashed Leto and, in my view, demonstrated once again that some in that community are their own worse enemies.  Being angry and always negative is NOT the way to win friends and allies or to change hearts and minds.   Fortunately,  Mara Keisling, executive director at the National Center for Transgender Equality, whom I have had the pleasure of meeting, took the high road.  Here are excerpts from Huffington Post on Keisling's reaction:

“Leto’s portrayal was of a particular fictional transgender person at a particular time," Mara Keisling, executive director at the National Center for Transgender Equality, told The Huffington Post in an emailed statement Monday. "But we can’t forget that transgender people like Rayon did exist and do exist. To the film's credit, I think it accurately showed what the life of this brave person must have been and how she was treated. Our job is to make life better for transgender people like Rayon in the real world, and it really helps to have these lives told by Hollywood.”
However, Keisling did give Leto credit for at least alluding to the trans community.  “My interpretation of his acceptance speech is that he was talking about trans people when he called out to people who are disrespected for who they are.”

Mara Keisling is as always a class act.  As noted, however, others are not.   Here is a sampling of the negativity that in my mind drive would be allies away from the transgender community:

Jos Truitt of the blog Feministing wrote: "I have no interest in watching a cis man in drag play a trans woman ever again. No matter what Dallas Buyers Club does as a film, the narrative around this movie, the fact that a man in drag is playing a trans woman, perpetuates the stereotype that we are men in drag."

Putting such stereotypes in context, Time's Steve Friess compared Leto's portrayal of a transgender woman to the offensive "mammy" role popular in early 20th century cinema.

See the full HuffPo article for more of the negativity.   To these critics, I would again remind them of how the Christofascists depict the transgender community.  Perhaps Leto's portrayal wasn't perfect, but he made Rayon someone real, someone strong and brave, and someone that the average viewer could relate to and just perhaps cause them to find themselves rethinking past prejudices. 

 

Has Seeing Gay Marriages Change the Minds of Utah Residents?

HRC and other organizations have long argued that coming out can be the most powerful act of advocacy that one can undertake.  Once gays are no longer some faceless quantity but instead friends, family members, neighbors, etc., it becomes much more difficult to hold on to one's hate and bigotry.   New surveys in Utah suggest that perhaps the same phenomenon holds true with gay marriage.  People find it easy to oppose same sex marriage until they see living, breathing, normal looking same sex couples actually marrying and exhibiting joy and happiness - just like other couples getting married.   The Salt Lake Tribune looks at what's happening in Utah in the wake of the December 20, 2013, court ruling striking down Utah's gay marriage bans.  Here are story highlights:

A new poll for The Salt Lake Tribune shows that Utahns’ views on same-sex couples’ relationships have dramatically shifted in the decade since voters amended the state’s constitution to prohibit them from receiving any legal recognition.

Residents are now evenly split on whether same-sex couples in Utah should be allowed to get state-issued marriage licences — 48 percent for and 48 percent against — and nearly three-fourths (72 percent) said same-sex couples should be allowed to form civil unions or domestic partnerships in lieu of marriage.

On one side: Paul, who lives at Sundance in Utah County and participated in the survey.

"I just don’t have any religious basis for why marriage should be between a man and a woman, and, personally, I don’t see that there is a meaningful difference between the rights of heterosexual couples as opposed to homosexual couples," the 24-year-old said in an interview. "I’ve never really understood the idea that two people should not be able to be married if they want to be."

And on the other: LaNae, 50, of Orem, who also took the survey.   "I believe that marriage is between a man and a woman," LaNae said. "That is what marriage means — a man, a woman and God.

 

The latest poll follows landmark decisions this year on marriage rights of same-sex couples by a federal judge in Utah as well as the U.S. Supreme Court.

Support for same-sex marriage was strongest among non-Mormons, people between ages 18 and 34 and those who described themselves as Democrats. Slightly more than a third of respondents (36 percent) said their views on same-sex marriage have shifted over time, something that was equally true of Mormons and non-Mormons. Overwhelmingly, people in both of those demographic categories said their views had become more accepting.

But perhaps in one surprise, the broad support for civil unions or domestic partnerships included 65 percent of respondents who said they were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Sixty-nine-year-old Mike, of American Fork, said he opposes marriage rights for same-sex couples but over time has come to believe civil unions should be an option. . . . .  "Years ago, I would have thought that homosexuality was an individual choice," said Mike, who is Mormon and came to his views during discussions through the years with friends who are gay. "I’ve come to conclude more and more that it’s not a choice, but something that is inborn and a lifelong attraction rather than something someone chooses. If people choose to live in a same-sex relationship, they should enjoy all the legal benefits that occur with a marriage, without calling it a marriage and still using that term for man-woman relationships."

Very interesting findings.  Moreover, I believe that something similar is happening in Virginia where now a slight majority of Virginians support gay marriage.  The message again is to live out and authentically.  It's the way to change hearts and minds.