Poll: Strong Catholic support for Gay rights

Friday, March 25th, 2011

Catholics are more supportive of gay and lesbian rights than the general population and other Christians according to a new poll by the Public Religion Research Institute.

The report also showed strong Catholic support for other gay rights issues with 73 percent supporting laws against workplace discrimination and 60 percent favoring adoption by gay and lesbian couples.

Key findings of the report include

Nearly three-quarters of Catholics favour either allowing gay and lesbian people to marry (43%) or allowing them to form civil unions (31%). Only 22% of Catholics say there should be no legal recognition of a gay couple’s relationship.
63% of Catholics favour allowing gay and lesbian people to serve openly in the military.
Less than 4-in-10 Catholics give their own church top marks (a grade of an A or a B) on its handing of the issue of homosexuality; majorities of members of most other religious groups give their churches high marks.
A majority of Catholics (56%) believe that sexual relations between two adults of the same gender is not a sin.

Commenting on the website Catholic Culture, Dr Jeff Mirus suggests taking caution with the numbers reported in an earlier Catholic Culture news story.

Mirus says, “this latest survey gives an odd impression, and one that appears to contradict the findings of many similar studies, including one done by the Pew Research Center late last year.”

Mirus suggests there is a problem in the way the results are explained.

Stephen Schneck, director of the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies at Catholic University supports Mirus’ view. “Don’t raise the rainbow flag in celebration too quickly,” he says, there is more than one way to interpret these numbers.

Religion Dispatches quotes Schneck parsing the numbers in a PRRI sponsored teleconference:

“If Catholics that support civil unions are counted among those favoring same-sex marriage, then a majority of Catholics support same-sex marriage,” he said. “If, on the other hand, civil union supporters are counted among those who oppose same-sex marriage, then the majority of Catholics oppose same-sex marriage by 55 to 43 percent. It’s the possible swing group for both sides on this issue.”

Reuters’ FaithWorld highlighted the impact of the generation gap on the views expressed, with Catholics under 35 more liberal than those 65 and older.

Sources
Reuters’ FaithWorld
Catholic Culture
Catholic Culture – Commentary
Religion Dispatches Magazine