Though there are such sentiments in the Republican Party, polling data show large, overlooked pockets of tolerance among its rank and file.
July 16,
2012
It's an axiom of modern American politics that
most Republicans
are reflexively — even stridently — anti-gay. The hiring, then forced
resignation in May, of openly gay foreign policy expert Richard Grenell by the
Romney
campaign enhanced the party's, and Mitt Romney's, anti-gay image.
To be sure, anti-gay sentiments still run deep in the GOP. Yet if one digs
deeper than the conventional wisdom, one finds large, overlooked pockets of gay
tolerance among rank-and-file Republicans. Polling data reveal four common myths
about right-of-center attitudes toward gay rights.
Myth No. 1: Most Republicans oppose gay rights in any form.
A review of polling data from GOP voters shows a starkly different reality. A
2011 poll by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research showed 66% of Republicans support
workplace policies banning discrimination against gays and lesbians.
But Republican support for gay rights doesn't stop
there. In a 2008 Washington Post/ABC News poll, 64% of conservatives supported
allowing openly gay service members into the armed forces; a recent National
Journal poll showed a majority of Republicans satisfied with the repeal
of the "don't ask, don't tell" law. Only 37% of Republicans expressed support
for a federal amendment to ban gay marriage nationwide.
Myth No. 2: Evangelicals are a gay rights wasteland. In
spite of the long record of opposition to gay rights on the religious right, the
new reality is not as absolute. A 2010 poll by the Public Religion Research
Institute found that 41% of Christian conservatives supported legal recognition
for gay couples (14% in favor of marriage equality and 27% in favor of civil
unions). A 2011 poll by the same organization found 44% of evangelical
millennials — those ages 18 to 29 — in favor of same-sex marriage.
Myth No. 3: There is little support overall among
Republicans for recognition of same-sex relationships. Even on this contentious
issue, there has been substantial growth on the right in support for marriage
equality and civil unions. An August 2010 CBS News poll found 59% of Republicans
support either same-sex marriage or civil unions (25% for marriage, 34% for
civil unions). A May 2011 poll by Public Policy Polling showed a majority of
Republicans — 51% — in favor of either same-sex marriage (12%) or civil unions
(39%). While the percentage of Republicans supporting same-sex marriage varies
from poll to poll, all of them show a majority of Republicans favor legal
recognition of gay couples.
Myth No. 4: The "tea party" and
the religious right hold the same views on gay and lesbian issues. Despite the
significant overlap between these two large groups of voters on fiscal issues, a
2010 Washington
Post survey of tea party members found the issue of same-sex marriage near
the bottom of their long list of priorities. Only two issues ranked lower: abortion rights and gun
rights. Religious right organizations, on the other hand, put their battle
against both abortion and gay rights at the very top of their agenda.
The Public Religion Research Institute's 2010 American Values Survey, the
largest study of tea party attitudes ever done, found that 53% of tea party
members support legal recognition for same-sex couples — 18% for same-sex
marriage and 35% for civil unions. This is an astonishing finding in light of
the widespread perception that these two movements are virtually one and the
same. A 2010 CBS News/New York Times survey of tea party supporters found
similar results: 16% in favor of marriage and 41% favoring civil unions.
Leading religious organizations and their spokesmen argue that gay rights are
simply incompatible with conservative principles and policies. Yet an
examination of polling data shows that most rank-and-file Republicans view gay
rights issues — including the repeal of state sodomy laws, equal access to the
same legal rights and privileges as heterosexuals, and the right to serve in the
armed forces — as compatible with core Republican principles of individual
liberty, limited government and free enterprise.
Now that the campaigns have moved to general election calculus — keeping the
party base intact while wooing independent and moderate voters — the Romney
campaign, and Republican candidates nationwide, would do well to take heed.
David Lampo of the
Cato
Institute is the author of "A Fundamental Freedom: Why Republicans,
Conservatives and Libertarians
Should Support Gay Rights."
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