A new poll by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) finds that, on a wide range of issues, a majority of Americans oppose religiously-based discrimination against LGBTQ persons. Some findings from the new survey include:
- A majority (53%) of Americans oppose allowing businesses that provide wedding services, such as catering, flowers, and wedding cakes, to refuse services to same-sex couples. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of young people (age 18-29) and two-thirds of all nonreligious Americans (65%) say wedding-based businesses should not be allowed to refuse services to same-sex couples on religious grounds.
- When asked about the issue of religiously based service refusals more generally outside of the wedding context, attitudes are similar. A majority (56%) of Americans oppose allowing small business owners in their state to refuse services or goods to gay and lesbian people if doing so violates their religious beliefs.
- There is continued strong support gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people non-discrimination laws. More than seven in ten (72%) Americans favor laws that would protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people from discrimination in jobs, public accommodation, and housing.
- Support for same-sex marriage continues to rise among the general public. Nearly two-thirds (66%) of Americans favor allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry legally. Young people (18-29) and the nonreligious have reached a near consensus on same-sex marriage with eight-in-ten (81%) of both groups expressing support for it.
- Few Americans say religiously affiliated adoption agencies that receive federal funding should be allowed to refuse placing children with qualified gay and lesbian couples. More than two-thirds (68%) of the public oppose allowing agencies that receive federal funding to refuse placing children with gay or lesbian people.
- The public is more divided over the discretion that should be granted to religiously affiliated agencies that do not receive federal funding. More than four in ten (44%) Americans say such agencies should be permitted to exclude gay and lesbian couples, while more than half (51%) say they should not.
The data is clear. The American public overwhelmingly agrees that religious belief should not be a license to discriminate against others. This poll confirms what we’ve been saying all along: Secular values are American values!
