LGBTQ acceptance drops in new GLAAD survey
One step forward, two steps backward for LGBTQ acceptance in the United States.
This seems to be the case in the fight for LGBTQ rights in the US, as noted by the latest survey by the gay rights organization GLAAD.
GLAAD survey on LGBTQ acceptance
Since 2014 when research firm Harris Poll began to conduct this survey, more non-LGBTQ respondents have come out to say they’re less comforable with LGBTQ people around.
Meanwhile, those from the LGBTQ community say they’ve experienced more discrimination with the survey reporting an increase by 11 points.
“My first reaction to this was that there’s an unseen casualty of a tumultuous year,” said John Gerzema, CEO of the Harris Poll.
Gerzema cited as the cause the current environment that allows more Americans to say what they feel about marginalized groups without fear of being thought as bigots.
He pointed out that a steady 79 percent of non-LGBTQ respondents gave “the PC response” of telling pollsters that they support equal rights for LGBTQ people.
However, the number of non-LGBTQ Americans who expressed being uncomfortable with having LBTQ members in their communities or having a family member who is LGBTQ, or even having an LGBTQ teacher in school has gone upward.
“When it comes to walking the walk of LGBTQ acceptance, it seems like Americans are pulling back,” Gerzema said.
Reversals against LGBTQ acceptance
The survey noted that 55 percent of LGBTQ people also reported experiencing anti-queer discrimination last year as compared to 44 percent in 2016.
Likewise, non-LGBTQ respondents who identify themselves as “allies” went down to 49 percent in 2017 as compared to 53 percent in 2016.
Dubbed the 2018 Accelerating Acceptance report, the survey talked to more than 2,100 respondents over the age of 18 and measures American attitudes toward LGBTQ people and issues.
“In the past year, there has been a swift and alarming erosion of acceptance which can only be fought by being visible and vocal,” said GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis.
Ellis said this decrease in acceptance and increase in discrimination can be largely attributed to President Donald Trump’s anti-LGBTQ platform and his lack of support for the community.
Because of this, Ellis said, “the acceptance pendulum abruptly stopped and swung in the opposite direction.”
Jennifer Finney Boylan, writing for the New York Times, noted that the the poll results show the LGBTQ “are right back where they were in 2014, as if all the progress made during the second Obama administration never happened.”