Category: poll

Report—LGBT boomers expand definition of ‘family’

image A second major report focusing on aging LGBT people was released today. Yesterday, the LGBT advocacy group SAGE released a report that addresses the needs of older populations in general, including members of the WWII generation who now face issues with care facilities. The second report released today focuses on a subset of the population—boomers born between 1946 and 1964.

The study found that the LGBT boomers have a broader definition of “family” than do members of the general population and depend on their “chosen family” of friends and associates for a broad range of support.

The study [pdf] was conducted by insurance company MetLife’s Mature Market Institute and by the professional group, American Society on Aging (ASA) and its constituent group, the LGBT Aging Issues Network (LAIN). ASA is co-sponsoring a major conference on aging this week in Chicago.

The report, entitled “Still Out, Still Aging” is based on results of a survey done for MetLife by Harris Interactive which collected survey responses from 1,201 individuals aged 45–64 who self-identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and/or transgender (LGBT). The study compares responses from that group to those from another group of roughly equal size chosen to represent the “general population”.

The study’s authors offer this description of the group they surveyed:

Poised precisely at the center of two waves of social change — a demographic one in which US society is rapidly aging and a social one in which lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people are consistently winning civil rights and acknowledgement — are LGBT Baby Boomers. Born between 1946 and 1964, this is the cohort that advanced the US gay rights movement and within one generation succeeded in changing social attitudes from seeing homosexuality as a psychiatric condition to winning same-sex marriage and acknowledgement of their civil rights in an increasing number of states.

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Posted by NewsEditor -- 18 Mar 2010 1:24 PM (PT)

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Conservative military group drops its support for gay ban

US-Department-of-Defense_seal At its national convention in Washington this week, the 63,000-member association Reserve Officers Association (ROA) voted to drop its long-standing resolution supporting a ban on allowing gay men and lesbians to serve in the military, Military Times reports.

The vote from the conservative military group comes in the same week that four different national polls show widespread support for repealing the military’s current “don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT) policy,  which bans gay men and lesbians in the military from being open about their sexuality.

Even former Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday on ABC’s This Week that he’d be willing to listen to military officials like Adm. Mike Mullen, the Joint Chiefs chairman, who say the policy should be changed, San Diego Gay & Lesbian News reports.

“I think the society has moved on,” Cheney said when asked if he believed the policy should be repealed. “I think it’s partly a generational question.”

More significantly, however, a poll of active and retired military personnel that has often been cited by supporters of DADT now shows declining support for the policy.

The survey conducted by Military Times of about 3,000 active-duty troops shows that opposition to open service by gay and lesbian troops has fallen sharply from nearly two-thirds (65 percent) in 2004 to about half (51 percent) today, the Muncie Star Press reports. (The Military Times will not print its full story on the survey until Monday.)

At the ROA convention,  a two-thirds majority approved a measure to drop the group’s standing resolution that endorsed the pre-DADT military policy that flatly barred gays and lesbians from military service, a spokesman for the association told Military Times.

The association then rejected a substitute resolution that would have put the group on record as supporting the current law and policy, commonly known as “don’t ask, don’t tell.” This resolution failed to get the two-thirds’ majority required for adoption.

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Posted by NewsEditor -- 14 Feb 2010 5:02 PM (PT)

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Majority favors DADT repeal, poll finds

US-Department-of-Defense_seal    ::: A majority of US voters believe that the military’s ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy should be repealed, according to an independent poll conducted by Quinnipeac University. In general voters approve of repeal by a margin of 57 to 36 percent. 72 percent of Democrats and 56 percent of independents favor repeal. Republican voters favor keeping the policy by a margin of 53 to 40 percent. Voters in all age groups favored repeal and a solid majority—66 percent—said that the DADT policy is discriminatory. “Voters think 2-1 that keeping gays from serving is discrimination,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. “But they are much more mixed on exactly how the transformation of the military will occur and how the Pentagon should adjust to the needs of gay soldiers, sailors, and Marines.” For example, only half of voters believe that the Pentagon should “provide for” domestic partners of gay and lesbian personnel, compared to 43 percent who said they were opposed to equal benefits. By a 54 - 38 percent margin, American voters say gay men and lesbians in the military should face restrictions on exhibiting their sexual orientation on the job. The Quinnipiac University pollsters surveyed 2,617 registered voters nationwide between February 2 and 8. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.9 points.

Posted by NewsEditor -- 11 Feb 2010 10:19 AM (PT)

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Slim majority supports domestic partnership law in WA, poll finds

Posted by NewsEditor  at 10:48 AM (PT)
In: initiative, poll, nw_gaynews
Tuesday October 27, 2009
Source: Washington Poll results, SeattlePI.com

states-washinton-sealThe highly respected Washington Poll has released its eagerly anticipated survey of likely voters in the state, and brings relatively good news for supporters of the state’s domestic partnership law, which faces a referendum vote in next week’s election. A slim majority of likely voters say they are “certain” to approve an expanded version of the law.

An “approved” vote on Referendum 71 would uphold a law passed earlier this year that extends the rights and responsibilities recognized for registered domestic partners in the state. The act is often called the “everything but marriage” law because it grants domestic partners the same rights and responsibilities that a marriage license does, but denies them the name.

51 percent of surveyed voters say they are “certain” to approve the law when they vote. 34 percent say they’re certain to “reject” the law when they vote. Five percent of voters in the survey said they’re leaning toward voting in favor of the law. Another five percent said they’re leaning toward a “reject” vote.

But there is another crucial number that could become vital when votes are counted: Five percent of voters said they are still undecided, and declined to tell pollsters which way they’re leaning.

A summary of poll results is available from the pollsters in pdf format.

Pollsters interviewed 724 voters for their statewide sample. They set the margin of error for the count is plus or minus 3.6 percent.

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Census won’t include count of gay couples in initial ‘community’ report

An official tally of legally married lesbian and gay couple will not be included in the initial release of “community” data from the 2010 census, Associated Press is reporting. A consultant working with the bureau told the news service Thursday that statistical problems led US Census Bureau officials to determine the data from the 2010 census form would be likely to yield an inaccurate number. The bureau will, however, make the data available in a separate report after the main community survey is released, University of California –  Los Angeles demographer Gary Gates told AP. “The Bureau has decided to give us the information, but be a little cautious,” Gates said. An agency official told a meeting of gay community leaders Wednesday that the bureau is continuing to refine the way it counts same-sex couples and could have the ability to separate married from unmarried couples in time for future surveys. “We have a big opportunity to create a picture of America that includes us. We are not invisible anymore,” said Tim Olsen, assistant chief of the bureau's field division. But he added that members of the LGBT community must keep advocating if they want to be recognized. “In terms of 2010, we are set in stone. For 2020, now is the time to start doing what you do best,” he said, according to AP.

Source: The Associated Press: Census bureau says 2020 count could include gays

Posted by NewsEditor -- 22 Oct 2009 8:38 PM (PT)

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Poll – Iowans reluctant to amend constitution to deny marriage rights

   ::: The vast majority of people in Iowa – 92 percent – say that recognition of marriage equality there for gay and lesbian couples has brought no real change to their lives, but a slight plurality of residents polled for Des Moines Register Tribune – 43 percent – say say that they’re nonetheless opposed to marriage equality. Twenty-six percent of Iowans favor April's unanimous Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage, while 31 percent don't care much or are not sure. Despite opposition, most Iowans are wary about amending the state’s constitution to ban equality, the paper reports. Forty-one percent say they would vote for a ban, and 40 percent say they would vote to continue equal marriage rights. The rest either would not vote or say they are not sure. But opponents of equality are fiercely opposed. Thirty-five percent of respondents said they strongly oppose marriage rights for same-sex couples. That’s nearly double the percentage who say they strongly favor it (18 percent).

Source: News: Iowa Poll, film office, 2012 race « Des Moines Register Staff Blogs | The Des Moines Register

Posted by NewsEditor -- 21 Sep 2009 9:00 AM (PT)

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Q-college rating ‘unreliable’

   ::: If you’re looking for a queer-friendly college, don’t pay much attention to the “Gay Community Accepted” listing offered by Princeton Review’s popular annual college guide, The Best 371 Colleges, says a group that offers an alternative. Princeton Review’s list “is an erroneous, misleading indicator of acceptance for LGBT youth and their safety on campus,” said Shane Windmeyer, founder and executive director of Campus Pride, which is a non-profit group “for student leaders and campus organizations working to create a safer LGBT learning environment at colleges and universities.” Windmeyer says Princeton Review uses a “simplistic” method for its ranking – a single question asked of mostly non-gay students, and that it still uses the disreputable term “alternative lifestyle”. The post advises prospective students to use Campus Pride’s “LGBT-Friendly Campus Climate Index”.   

Source: Campus Pride Issues Warning regarding Princeton Review’s Top 20 “Gay Community Accepted” College Ranking
hattip: GLAADblog

Posted by NewsEditor -- 13 Aug 2009 1:42 PM (PT)

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Poll on religious habits offers odd, fascinating snapshot of LGBT people

Posted by Robin Evans  at 8:15 AM (PT)
In: religion, poll, Featured
Tuesday August 11, 2009

A fundamentalist Christian pollster set out to find out about LGBT folks and came up with some results that seem to have surprised the pollsters.

The money quote supplied by the survey’s chief pollster is: “People who portray gay adults as godless, hedonistic, Christian bashers are not working with the facts.”

That declaration is supplied in a press release about the poll and attributed to George Barna, whose company – Barna Group – conducted the research.

The survey offers an idiosyncratic snapshot of LGBT people. Its results surprised the chief pollster and will probably surprise others because the pollsters found that half of LGBT people in their snapshot are under age 40 and are more likely than the majority to be non-white.

But the snapshot comes at a moment when the discussion about gay folks and religion has become hotter than usual.

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Anti-gay terror in Iraq; Catholic LGBT rights; Mystic kisses; Headlinks

   ::: USA Today’s Baghdad correspondents Paul Wiseman and Nadeem Majeed tell an all-too-familiar story in today’s paper of gay men being killed in Iraq for the “crime” of being gay. A secular, liberal Sunni legislator blames the killings on armed militant groups such as al-Qaeda and the Mahdi Army militia. “By targeting one of the most vulnerable groups in a conservative Muslim society — people whose sexual orientation is banned by Iraqi law — the militias essentially are serving notice that they remain powerful despite the U.S. and Iraqi militaries' efforts to curtail them,” the legislator tells USA Today. “I am worried about my life,” says a middle-age gay man in Baghdad who asked the paper to identified him only with a pseudonym. He declined to be identified by his real name because the recent violence has made him fear for his life. “I don't know what to do,” he says.

   ::: Counter-intuitive data points: A study of data from two separate surveys finds that states with a higher proportion of Catholics are more likely to favor a broad range of civil rights protections for LGBT people, USA Today reports. The surprising data was uncovered by Mark Silk, who heads the Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College, when his research team mashed a Columbia study of attitudes toward public policy issues with the latest statistics from a religious identification study published at Trinity. “Six of the eight states where 50 percent or more of the public supports gay marriage are the states with the highest proportion of Catholics,” the researchers discovered. USAT’s Faith & Reason blog points out “the Catholic Church also offers a pervasive message of social justice” which liberal Catholics interpret to call for support of marriage equality or life issues such as abortion, contraception, and end-of-life decisions.

   ::: The DC WNBA team, Washington Mystics, doesn’t have a “kiss-cam” active for their home games at Verizon Center. They don’t have camera operators who focus on unsuspecting couples in the stands for display on the big screens during time outs. Why? They’re afraid they’d catch a lesbian couple sharing a smootch. “We got a lot of kids here,” Sheila Johnson, the Mystics’ managing partner, told Washington Post when asked about the lack of the common crowd-pleasing video trick. “We just don't find it appropriate.” One of the team’s players compared a random kiss shared by a gay couple to abortion. “It’s a similar, sensitive subject,” said point guard Lindsey Harding. “We don’t want to put anything out there to turn down certain fans.” OutSports points out that fans can contact the Washington Mystics or email Community Relations Director Nicole Boden directly at nboden@washmystics.com.

headlinks:

[law] Odds are federal marriage lawsuits could deliver surprise win [Bay Area Reporter/Lisa Keen]
[parenting] The Battle Over a Baby (article on same-sex adoption) [New York Times Magazine]
[referendum 71] Oregonian Gary Randall Attacks Washington's Elections Law [Pam’s House Blend]
[referendum 71] Kitsap County couples wait and worry about Ref. 71 [Bremerton Sun]
[bigotry] Terrorist threat to Sacha Baron Cohen over Bruno ridicule [Times of London]
[activism] Columnist: Combining being gay and green [Seattle Times]
[gayborhood] Love of Gay Bars Will Tear Us Apart, Again – Nightlife [Gawker]
Posted by NewsEditor -- 29 Jul 2009 10:44 AM (PT)

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Survey finds generation gap; Stonewall retrospectives reveal LGBT generation chasm

Posted by Robin Evans  at 5:13 PM (PT)
In: aging, Featured, poll
Monday June 29, 2009

Source: Pew Research, Seattle Times, St. Petersburg Times, Times (London) 
A big majority of Americans think there is a “generation gap” – a higher percentage now than at any time since the tumultuous late 60s when Hair was a shocking first-run Broadway show rather than a quaint revival, and the nation’s campuses and streets were being shaken with clashes over Vietnam, civil rights, and women’s liberation, and – oh yes – when a rag-tag group at a New York gay bar faced off with the cops and pushed back after a police raid on their turf.

The flood of Stonewall retrospectives printed in the past week hint that if a question about “generation gap” were asked of LGBT people, the results would be even more lopsided than they were in Pew’s random sample, reflecting a deep difference in shared history.

In what the the pollsters call “perhaps the single most intriguing finding” in a major survey of generational differences released today by Pew Research, 79% of the survey respondents think there is a “generation gap”.

Pew’s researchers didn’t try to define the term for their survey but point out that in a 1969 Gallup Poll, 74% of respondents said there was a generation gap, with the phrase defined in the survey question as “a major difference in the point of view of younger people and older people today.” When the same question was asked a decade later, in 1979, by CBS and the New York Times, just 60% perceived a generation gap.

Pew’s researchers don’t say anything about LGBT issues in their new survey. But the generation gap that respondents to the Pew survey perceive appears to be is even more striking to the LGBT folks who have reflected on the significance of the Stonewall anniversary in the last week.

Several of the Stonewall retrospectives printed last week (all written before Pew released its results) highlighted a gap among LGBT generations so deep that it would be more accurate to call it a chasm.

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