LATEST POLL ON ATTITUDES TOWARD GAYS….Here’s a Harris poll about attitudes toward sodomy laws, gay relationships, etc. It was done before the latest flap over Rick Santorum’s comments.
The bottom line is that large majorities oppose sodomy laws, oppose regulation of private sexual conduct, believe the Supreme Court should overturn state sodomy laws, and oppose virtually all discrimination against gays and gay couples. The basic opposition to regulation of private sexual conduct is over 80%, and remains very large across all regions, age groups, genders, races, political affiliations, educational levels, and income levels. Everyone’s opposed.
In a way, the news is actually even better than this, because the poll indicates that 13% of Americans are still such stone prudes that they think the government ought to regulate private heterosexual relationships. These folks are obviously hopeless, and aside from them there are only an additional 5% in favor of regulating homosexual relationships. That’s pretty good progress on this issue, and indicates that people like Santorum are addressing a rapidly dwindling audience.
NOTE: this is an online poll, so its results should be treated even more carefully than most polls. However, Harris has a pretty decent reputation for conducting online polls reasonably accurately, so the numbers are definitely worth looking at.
