Agreed.
5/20/2013 – Results of the annual Gallup Values and Beliefs Poll were released. Gallup has asked Americans about their views on many of these issues each May since 2001. This poll was based upon telephone interviews conducted over 5/02-07/2013, with a random sample of 1,535 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.
Implications
Americans have generally become more tolerant of a series of moral behaviors over the past 10-12 years. This trend is particularly evident in views of gay and lesbian relations and having a baby outside of wedlock.
Gay and lesbian relations in particular continue to be at the forefront of the news in the U.S. An increasing number of states have legalized same-sex marriage, and the Supreme Court has several pending decisions on same-sex marriage cases. This resulting increase in awareness of and attention being paid to the gay and lesbian community may be affecting Americans' views.
The change in attitudes toward having a baby outside of marriage may be an instance of attitudes following behavior, given recent Census Bureau data showing the increasing prevalence in American society of children born to mothers who are not married.
More broadly, Americans continue to evince a wide divergence of opinions about the moral acceptability of a number of behaviors. Americans are generally accepting of such things as birth control, divorce, embryonic stem cell research, gambling, sex between unmarried men and women, the death penalty, and having a baby outside of marriage. But they still disapprove of married men and women having an affair, cloning humans, polygamy, suicide, pornography, and teenagers having sex.
I think you have to be careful with opinion polls on this issue. If anyone wants to really know if the outlook on this is positive or negative they should just look at a list of all the states that have addressed the issue by popular voting, how liberal they are, what states have passed amendments around them, when they passed them and by how much. You know, actual votes as opposed to what one stranger says to another over the phone about what they think about ‘gay marriage.’ But when you do that, it still isn’t very rosy at all, in my opinion.
CA’s Prop. 22 passed by 61% in 2000 and Prop. 8 only passed by 52% in 2008, that’s losing 9% in 8 years. NC voted in theirs by 61% last year, basically tying the CA of 12 years before, something that would have made folks call you nuts if you would have told them that in 2000. All the states around NC passed their amendments by 75%+ except VA (57% in 2006) at least 6 years ago.
61% for the BSA isn’t a good sign, although they did reject adult gays to my understanding. Was that voted on?
Freegards