New data reveals support for LGBTQ+ rights at highest rates ever
Times are definitely changing! New data from PRRI’s American Values Atlas survey has some good news to share about how many people are in favor of laws that protect LGBTQ people!
PRRI’s American Values Atlas survey has revealed that 10% of Americans now identify as LGBTQ+, while eight in ten Americans now favor laws that would protect LGBTQ+ people against discrimination in jobs, public accommodations, and housing.
One of the most surprising aspects of these new findings is that 66% of Republicans favor nondiscrimination provisions for LGBTQ+ people, and eight in ten Americans support marriage equality, including nearly half of Republicans. Nearly two-thirds of Americans (65%) oppose religiously based refusals to serve LGBTQ+ people, and nearly every major religious group opposes allowing religiously based service refusals.
Eight in Ten Support Nondiscrimination Laws to Protect LGBTQ+ People
Included in the eight in ten Americans (80%) that favor laws that would protect LGBTQ people, 48% strongly support such laws. Only about one in five Americans (18%) oppose these laws, including 7% who strongly oppose them.
Support for these protections has increased over the past few years: around seven in ten Americans favored nondiscrimination provisions from 2015 to 2019 (between 71% and 72%), before rising to 76% in 2020 and 79% in 2021. Overwhelming shares of Democrats (90%) and independents (82%), as well as two-thirds of Republicans (66%), favor nondiscrimination provisions for LGBTQ+ people.
Vast majorities of most major religious groups support nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people. This includes:
- Unitarian Universalists (92%)
- Non-Christian religions (88%)
- Religiously Unaffiliated Americans (87%)
- Hispanic Catholics (86%)
- Jewish Americans (86%)
- White Mainline Protestants (83%)
- White Catholics (82%)
- Black Protestants (79%)
- Catholics of Color (79%)
- Latter-day Saints (78%)
- Buddhists (78%)
- Hindus (76%)
- Other Protestants of Color (75%)
- Orthodox Christians (70%)
- Muslims (70%)
A smaller majority of Hispanic Protestants (62%) and white evangelical Protestants (62%) also support nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people. Jehovah’s Witnesses are the religious group whose members are the least likely to support such protections, with support at 50%. Among almost all these groups, support has either increased or not seen a substantial change since 2015. Only Hispanic Protestants have decreased in support since 2015.
Majorities of almost every major racial and ethnic group support nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people, including AAPI (82%), white Americans (80%, up from 71% in 2015), Hispanic Americans (79%, up from 74% in 2015), Black Americans (75%, up from 65% in 2015) and multiracial Americans (79%, up from 72% in 2015).
More Than Two-Thirds Support Marriage Equality
Support for legal same-sex marriage has steadily increased in the United States for almost a decade. Nearly seven in ten Americans (69%) favor allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry legally. The majority of Americans were in support of allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry legally in 2014 and 2015 (54% and 53%, respectively).
Support increased to around six in ten Americans in subsequent years (58% in 2016, 61% in 2017, and 62% in 2018 and 2019), and then to around seven in ten in 2020, 2021, and 2022 (67%, 68%, and 69%, respectively). PRRI finds that support for same-sex marriage has consistently grown across virtually all demographics and affiliations, even within groups in which supporters are not the majority.
Two-Thirds Oppose Religiously Based Refusals to Serve LGBTQ+ People
Opposition to allowing religiously based service refusals has fluctuated since 2015, when 59% of Americans opposed this policy. A majority of Americans have consistently opposed permitting businesses to refuse service to LGBTQ+ people on religious grounds, and in 2022 nearly two-thirds of Americans (65%) oppose allowing such refusals. One-third of Americans (33%) support allowing religiously based service refusals, including 15% who strongly favor allowing them.
Nearly nine in ten Democrats (86%) and about two-thirds of independents (64%) oppose allowing religiously based refusals to serve gay and lesbian people. About four in ten Republicans (41%) oppose allowing such service refusals, while a majority of Republicans (57%) support allowing them.
Majorities of almost every major religious group oppose allowing religiously based service refusals. This includes:
- 88% of Unitarian Universalists
- 78% of Hispanic Catholics
- 77% of Hindus
- 77% of Members of other non-Christian religions
- 76% of Religiously Unaffiliated Americans
- 73% of Black Protestants
- 73% of other Catholics of Color
- 73% of Muslims
- 73% of Jewish Americans
- 73% of Buddhists
- 64% of White Catholics
- 63% of Hispanic Protestants
- 62% of White Mainline Protestants
- 54% of Other Protestants of Color.
Half of Orthodox Christians (51%) and Jehovah’s Witnesses (50%), less than half of Latter-Day Saints (46%), and only 37% of white evangelical Protestants also oppose allowing religiously based service refusals. The level of opposition has increased among every group except Orthodox Christians, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Latter-day Saints, and white evangelical Protestants.
We’d love to get to the point where 100% of the population support laws that protect LGBTQ people. However, this is a major turning point in the fight LGBTQ rights and equality. If this trend continues, it will be the beginning of a new day for LGBTQ people in America and beyond.
View the full report HERE.
