Mother Jones | Smart, Fearless Journalism. Reader: Alternative coverage of politics, culture, and new ideas. Americans' Acceptance of Gay Relations Crosses 50% Threshold. PRINCETON, NJ - Americans' support for the moral acceptability of gay and lesbian relations crossed the symbolic 50% threshold in 2010. At the same time, the percentage calling these relations "morally wrong" dropped to 43%, the lowest in Gallup's decade-long trend. Gallup's annual Values and Beliefs survey, conducted each May, documents a gradual increase in public acceptance of gay relations since about 2006. However, the change is seen almost exclusively among men, and particularly men younger than 50. Additionally, Gallup finds greater movement toward acceptance among independents and Democrats than among Republicans, and a big jump in acceptance among moderates.
Notably, there has been a 16-point jump in acceptance among Catholics, nearly three times the increase seen among Protestants. The same May 3-6 Gallup poll finds the slight majority of Americans still against legalizing gay marriage; however, at 53%, the extent of that opposition is down slightly this year. Bottom Line. Inside the Information Loop - Conor Friedersdorf - Metablog - Tr. On the subject of the American right, and whether or not its rank-and-file receive accurate information from the opinion leaders they trust, the events I’m about to lay out are telling. On May 5, aka Cinco de Mayo , five students at a high school in Morgan Hill, California wore American flag attire to class. “The vice principal asked two of the boys to remove American flag bandannas that they wearing on their heads and for the others to turn their American flag T-shirts inside out,” the local NBC affiliate reported .
“When they refused, the boys were ordered to go to the principal’s office.” The story got picked up in the national media, bloggers debated whether the boys were being patriotic or deliberately insensitive, and almost everyone at least agreed that in this country they were well within their rights to wear the American flag. I am very interested in one aspect of the discussion that followed this story. Says the most trusted man in conservative radio, Rush Limbaugh : Dr. Read: Judge Asks Questions of Defense and Plaintiffs in Federal. Rick Jacobs of the Courage Campaign points out some of the questions issued today to plaintiffs and defense by Judge Vaughn Walker in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the federal challenge to Proposition 8: What empirical data, if any, supports a finding that legal recognition of same-sex marriage reduces discrimination against gays and lesbians?
What are the consequences of a permanent injunction against enforcement of Proposition 8? What remedies do plaintiffs propose? If the evidence of the involvement of the LDS and Roman Catholic churches and evangelical ministers supports a finding that Proposition 8 was an attempt to enforce private morality, what is the import of that finding? Writes Jacobs: "I am not a lawyer, but I can without doubt say that never before has homosexuality been on trial in America in this way. Closing arguments are scheduled for June 16. The full list of questions, AFTER THE JUMP...