Ready? Okay. Go! - Catholics and Gay Rights

Catholics and Gay Rights

• Catholics are more supportive of legal?recognition?of same-sex relationships than members of any other Christian tradition and Americans overall.?Nearly three-quarters of Catholics favor either allowing gay and lesbian people to marry (43%) or allowing them to form civil unions (31%). Only 22% of Catholics say there should be no legal recognition of a gay couple?s relationship.

• When same-sex marriage is defined explicitly as a civil marriage, support is dramatically higher among Catholics.?If marriage for gay couples is defined as a civil marriage ?like you get at city hall,? Catholic support for allowing gay couples to marry increases by 28 points, from 43% to 71%. A similar pattern exists in the general population, but the Catholic increase is more pronounced.

• Beyond the issue of same-sex marriage, Catholic support for rights for gays and lesbian people is strong and slightly higher than the general public.?Nearly three-quarters (73%) of Catholics favor laws that would protect gay and lesbian people against discrimination in the workplace; 63% of Catholics favor allowing gay and lesbian people to serve openly in the military; and 6-in-10 (60%) Catholics favor allowing gay and lesbian couples to adopt children.

• Compared to the general church-going public, Catholics are significantly less likely to hear about the issue of homosexuality from their clergy, but those who do are much more likely to hear negative messages.?Only about 1-in-4 (27%) Catholics who attend church services regularly say their clergy speak about the issue of homosexuality, but nearly two-thirds (63%) of this group say the messages they hear are negative.

• Compared to other religious groups, Catholics are significantly more likely to give their church poor marks for how it is handling the issue of homosexuality.?Less than 4-in-10 (39%) Catholics give their own church top marks (a grade of either an A or a B) on its handling of the issue of homosexuality.

• Seven-in-ten Catholics say that messages from America?s places of worship contribute a lot (33%) or a little (37%) to higher rates of suicide among gay and lesbian youth.

• Catholics overwhelmingly reject the idea that sexual orientation can be changed.?Nearly 7-in-10 (69%) Catholics disagree that homosexual orientation can be changed; less than 1-in-4 (23%) believe that it can be changed.

• A majority of Catholics (56%) believe that sexual relations between two adults of the same gender is not a sin.?Among the general population, less than half (46%) believe it is not a sin (PRRI, Religion & Politics Tracking Survey, October 2010).

1. happyandcatholic reblogged this from this-is-radiant-joy

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