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April 13, 2004

Great News on Gay Rights

Amidst all the discussion of gay marriage, it's worth remembering how much support for general gay rights has increased in the last decade. Look at this poll discussed (somewhat sadly) by the Baptist Press. Among the highlights:

  • 70 percent polled say that the military should not be able to discharge soldiers because they are gay.
  • Seventy-two percent favor laws protecting gays against job discrimination and 74 percent favor laws protecting against housing discrimination.
  • Sixty-eight percent say it wouldn’t bother them if their elementary school child had a teacher who is homosexual.

    Even gay marriage is no vote winner for the GOP. Only 35% say Bush would handle the issue better than Kerry, essentially the same number who say Kerry would handle it better than Bush.

    And many of those who oppose gay marriage know they are fighting a battle they will inevitably lose-- 59 percent say its gay marriage legalization is inevitable.

    Update: Notably, even the Bush administration is afraid to go to far in attacking gay rights. His head of the Office of Special Counsel was quietly rolling back Clinton administration policy that had made discrimination against gays in government a violation of civil service rules. But after an outcry, the Bush administration reinstated the ban on discrimination against gay public employees.

    Posted by Nathan at April 13, 2004 07:16 AM