A new, eye-opening study revealed that the majorities of Americans across different ethnic, religious, and political lines oppose religious-based discrimination against members of the LGBTQIA+ community, which came at a time when Christian conservatives have introduced over 400 anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation in different state legislatures nationwide.
Large majorities of U.S. adults oppose denying medical care, employment, and other services to LGBTQ+ people based on the provider or employer’s religious beliefs, according to a new report. https://t.co/ME0Xj86gXb
— The Advocate (@TheAdvocateMag) June 16, 2023
This data came from a September 2022 survey conducted by the Williams Institute, a public policy research institute based at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law. The report, “Public Attitudes Toward the Use of Religious Beliefs to Discriminate Against LGBTQ People,” was published this June 2023 and had a nationally representative sample of 1,003 American adults.
In the study, around 84% of the survey respondents said they opposed denying healthcare to LGBTQIA+ community members on religious grounds. 74% opposed religious-based, anti-LGBTQIA+ employment discrimination, while 71% were against business employees refusing to provide service to LGBTQIA+ customers or clients based on the employer or employee’s religious beliefs.
Our recent study with @NORCNews found an overwhelming majority of Democrats and over half of Republicans oppose the use of religious beliefs to discriminate against LGBTQ people. https://t.co/WwcMVmk0jD pic.twitter.com/0s127LYpXB
— Williams Institute (@WilliamsPolicy) June 20, 2023
Among non-white racial and ethnic groups in the United States, over 80% of respondents opposed using religious beliefs as a basis for denying LGBTQIA+ individuals or services, healthcare, or employment. Approximately 70% of the study’s white respondents also felt the same. College-educated, female, and younger respondents were also more likely to be against religious-based anti-LGBTQIA+ discrimination than their non-college-educated, male, or older counterparts.
While Democrat participants unsurprisingly voiced their opposition against all forms of religious-based, anti-LGBTQIA+ discrimination by about 90%, Republican majorities surprisingly opposed such discrimination as well. 52% of the study’s Republican respondents opposed refusing services to LGBTQIA+ individuals on a religious basis. 54% were against religious-based anti-LGBTQIA+ employment discrimination, while 71% opposed religious-based discrimination against LGBTQIA+ individuals in healthcare.
That's great news. Now I want a study to find out why they aren't willing to elect the people who will uphold that belief.
— Meghan (she/they) (@MeghanReadsMM) June 16, 2023
Majorities of Protestant, Catholic, and non-Christian religions opposed religious-based discrimination against LGBTQIA+ community members. Respondents who personally know LGBTQIA+ people were more likely to oppose such discrimination than those who don’t, but even those who do not know LGBTQIA+ people are against religious-based, anti-LGBTQIA+ discrimination by the margins of 65% to 80%.
Less than 30% of the respondents in almost every demographic surveyed supported allowing religious-based, anti-LGBTQIA+ discrimination when asked about their support for tolerating such practice.
“Recent efforts by some state legislatures to expand religious exemptions from LGBTQ-inclusive non-discrimination laws are largely out of alignment with the views of most Americans,” Christy Mallory, legal director at the Williams Institute and author of the study, wrote regarding its results. “More than three in four Americans now favor civil rights laws protecting LGBTQ people against religiously motivated discrimination.”
