Good news:
Despite some recently louder-than-usual bigots and the buffet-style religious zealots, it’s important to note that LGBTQ+ rights remain remarkably popular in the United States.
In every single state, a majority of people now back same-sex marriage.
Given what the world was like just two or three decades ago, that is astounding.
Of course, 100% of Americans should support same-sex marriage (and same-sex relationships), but until we can cure stupidity and blind adherence to cruel and ignorant authority figures, that is unlikely.
Still, the news is good.
Even states that once had seen high levels of opposition to same-sex marriage (a polite way of saying high levels of bigotry) now have a majority of residents outright supporting same-sex marriage, including Oklahoma (50 percent), West Virginia (51 percent), and Louisiana (52 percent).
Overall, 67 percent of Americans favor the right to same-sex marriage.
Only 29 percent oppose it.
Equally encouraging:
Despite recent decisions made by conservative judges and actions by the bigoted and ignorant Trump administration, 75 percent of Americans now favor nondiscrimination laws for LGBTQ people as of 2024.
Remarkably, that 75 percent ratio holds across almost every age, demographic, and gender.
This information comes from the Public Religion Research Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to conducting independent research at the intersection of religion, culture, and public policy.
Their latest report is filled with fascinating data that show that the country is more accepting of the LGBTQ community than ever before.
Happy days. Lots of work to still be done, but let’s take a victory lap. We need as many of those as we can get.
Here’s one more bit of data that caught my eye:
White evangelical protestants are now more tolerant of immoral behavior by elected officials than the average American.
The holier-than-thou, Bible-banging evangelicals have apparently turned their back on God and are now embracing the idea that the ends justify the means.
An immoral leader who gives them what they want is to be tolerated and supported.
Evil and villainy, when wrapped in their preferred social and economic policies, should be accepted.
A devil’s bargain is a good bargain.
More specifically:
An adulterous, convicted felon who has been held liable for sexual assault and admitted to repeatedly assaulting women and paid hush money after having sex with a porn star, who also separated immigrant children from their parents at the border and lies more often than any political figure in American history is a perfectly acceptable and preferred leader if he helps enact laws that favor our now-crumbling, compromised, and apparently meaningless belief system.
This means the average American — a group that includes atheists, Muslims, lesbians, Mormons, undocumented immigrants, transgender people, Democrats, bisexuals, and feminists (all groups of people who Evangelicals often oppose) — now possesses higher moral standards for their elected leaders than the group of people who made high moral standards their super brand for many years.
I guess we knew this based on recent voting patterns, but seeing this reality in the data is still a little astounding.
