[lbo-talk] Gays and Polls

[Kevin Robert Dean]

The Hamilton College Gay Issues Poll explored the opinions
of this year's high school graduating class. Over a
thousand seniors answered questions about gays and gay
public issues.2 As their comments above suggest, the
graduates are as varied (and sometimes confused) in their
thinking about homosexuality as the rest of the country. On
average, the class of 2001, holds liberal, pro-gay
opinions. They are much more liberal on gay matters than
adults. But many graduates still doubt that they would be
comfortable with gays in common social situations. And the
Hamilton researchers found a solidly anti-gay minority,
about 30 percent of the graduates, who have negative
attitudes toward gays and conservative opinions on most gay
issues. Their views are examined separately below.

Public Issues
The Hamilton researchers found that the high school class
of 2001 takes liberal positions on commonly debated public
issues concerning gays. Strong majorities of graduates say
that gay marriages deserve legal recognition, gay couples
should be permitted to adopt children, and gay men should
be allowed to serve as Boy Scout troop leaders. The
graduates overwhelmingly favor legislation protecting gays
from hate crimes and job discrimination.

Virtually all agree that homosexuals should be allowed to
serve in the military. But the graduates are split between
those who would permit gays to serve openly (40%) and those
who favor the current policy, which requires gay service
members to conceal their sexual orientation (52%).
Surprisingly, graduates who say that they have considered
military service differed little from their peers on this
issue. [For question wording and other details see the
appendix.]

Percent favoring
66 Legal Recognition for gay marriages
68 Permit gay couples to adopt children
71 Allow gay men to serve as Scout Leaders
88 Hate crime legislation protection gays
79 Laws protecting gays against job discrimination

Attitudes toward Gays
Members of the class of 2001 are similarly pro-gay in their
responses to a series of questions designed to measure
positive and negative attitudes toward gay men and lesbian
women. Seventy-seven percent of the graduates agree that
gay people "contribute to society in unique and positive
ways." More than eight out of 10 graduates think that gay
men and lesbians should be "accepted by society." More
modest majorities of graduates reject the idea that
homosexuality is morally wrong and the notion that gays
should remain "in the closet," as expressed in the
statement, "Gay people have a right to exist, but they
should keep their sexuality private and hidden." (The
minority of respondents who agreed with this statement were
highly likely to take anti-gay positions on the other
questions in the survey.)

Percent supporting
Pro-Gay Position
77 Gays contribute to society in unique and positive ways
86 Lesbians should be accepted into society
85 Gay men should be accepted into society
55 Gays have right to exist, but should hide their
sexuality (% disagree)
61 Gay lifestyles are morally wrong (% disagree)
78 Lesbians are digusting (% disagree)
69 Gay men are disgusting (% disagree)

It is common wisdom that popular opinion is more open to
lesbian women than gay men. Two pairs of questions included
in the Hamilton survey tested this proposition, with mixed
results. This year's graduates are equally likely to agree
that lesbians and gays should be "accepted by society." But
they are somewhat less likely to apply the raw label
"disgusting" to lesbians than to gay men. 
Full:
http://www.hamilton.edu/news/gayissuespoll/
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