New report: Conservative America is a Myth; On gay issues: America is progressive

A new report from Media Matters is proclaiming “Conservative America is a Myth.”

According to Media Matters, their report (PDF) based on over 20 years of opinion and public polling data shows that America is no where near conservative and progressive on almost all issues.

Although other issues are certainly important, I’ll stick to the report’s section on LGBT issues, which they unfortunately label “Homosexuality” as if it were some medical text-book.

The first part of the section reads:

On matters of sexual orientation, conservatives are often thought to be closer to the American majority. But this is only because the nature of the questions being debated has changed so dramatically. Just a few years ago, almost no one imagined that Americans would be arguing same-sex marriage; instead, we were debating whether discrimination in housing and employment was acceptable. On those questions, a consensus has emerged in favor of equality.

Okay. I’ll give them that. The movement for marriage equality has almost completely taken over the modern LGBT movement for equality, so much so that when I start talking about general “gay rights” to people who oppose it, the first issue they jump to and associate with “gay rights” is marriage equality. Honestly, I think this phenomena has hurt us in the past few years. Maybe it won’t hurt as much in coming years but the huge wave of approved state Constitutional amendments banning marriage among same-sex couples is evidence enough that a backlash has occurred.

The report continues:

More recently, the question has shifted to specific rights—marriage, military service, adopting children. It’s fair to say that homosexuality is not fully accepted in every regard. But the trend is unmistakably in a progressive direction. When Howard Dean began his presidential campaign in 2004, his support of civil unions for gays as governor of Vermont was seen as alien to American values. Today support for civil unions is the median position of the American voter, and even R epublican presidential candidates claim to have no objection to a state passing a civil union law if its voters want one. Similarly, a majority of Americans (not to mention some prominent generals) now favors gays serving in the military.

Other issues show the same pattern. In 1987, 51 percent of Americans told Pew that “[s]chool boards ought to have the right to fire teachers who are known homosexuals.” Two decades later, the number had fallen to 28 percent. And there is little doubt about which direction public opinion will move in the future. Starting with the pre-boomer generation born before World War II, each successive generation is more progressive on the issue of gay rights than was the generation before it.

The evidence is clear. Although why on God’s green earth we don’t see it reflected in the polls beats me. Perhaps it is because the folks who are in favor of all this gay equality just do not vote. That may very well be true. Seeing as though the majority of those who support LGBT equality are younger (don’t vote) or folks in high-level, always busy careers (don’t vote) or folks who just like to complain but never do anything to change the world (don’t vote), all this doesn’t surprise me.

Nice report, I haven’t read all of it and I’ve only seen the basic run-down and summary of the findings. Specifically on the LGBT issues section, the report isn’t telling me anything that I don’t know or that other activists don’t already know.

And, as for the whole report, I can’t comment totally, but I can say that it is just more proof that the majority of Republicans are just Democrats who don’t know any better.

Technorati Tags: Media Matters, Conservative America, Myth, LGBT, gay rights, marriage, gay marriage

Posted in Anti-LGBT, Civil Rights, Dont Ask Dont Tell, Employment Discrimination, Hate Crimes, LGBT, LGBT Adoption, Marriage Equality, Politics, United States |