Let\’s start with a few things anyone who reads this blog already knows:
-I believe in completely equal rights for gay people, very much including the right to marry,
-I am 100% certain that the sexual orientation of gay people is not learned, it is within them, no more or less than the sexual orientation of straight people,
-And even if it were learned, what of it? No matter how sexual orientation comes to be, it is nobody\’s business but each individual person and his/her consensual partners.
Ok, that said, we have these data, just released by Gallup.
First, the percentage of Democrats and Republicans, over the last 15 years, who find same-sex relations “morally acceptable”:
If what you just read is correct, about 3/4 of Democrats, and – for the first time – about half of Republicans say it is.
One other chart: the percentage of people (not broken by party), over the last 15 years, who think homosexuality is something people are born with or is an acquired orientation:
The first chart is bothersome to me because “moral acceptability” of sexual orientation should be entirely personal in nature. The second is just flat-out astonishing.
How many of you sat down with a pencil and paper, wrote out the good and bad points of being heterosexual versus homosexual, considered them, and concluded that you would be one or the other? Raise your hands.
I don\’t see any hands.
And the reason I don\’t is because no one does that. You are either attracted to the opposite sex or to the same sex. There is no formula for it and no procedure to go through. It is entirely within you.
Yet, even with a major movement toward that conclusion, 36% of the sample still thinks this an upbringing/environmental issue….
…despite the many, many households where both gay and straight children grew up – same upbringing, same environment, different sexual orientations…
…,which shows the idea that this is some kind of learning process to be ridiculous.
(Incidentally, do you find it as interesting as I do that Gallup never asks its “born with” vs. “upbringing/environment” question about heterosexuality? Now that\’s a chart I\’d love to see.)
Let me end with a reminder that, as presently constructed, the Republican national platform rejects and condemns homosexuality….even though a majority of the country disagree…even half the members of its own party disagree.
After the 2012 election, and as recently as last month, I put this suggested wording up for the Republican Party\’s stand on gay marriage – one which just might attract some gay votes (which, if the Gallup data are accurate, about half the party is just fine with). It is based on the assumption that, at least this time around, there is still no way the party\’s platform will support gay marriage. However, I have revised it based on the significant shift seen in Republican sentiment on this issue.
Here it is:
“Although the Republican Party platform joins a large percentage of Democrats in opposing gay marriage – including President Obama and the Clintons until they decided it was politically advantageous to claim otherwise – we recognize and respect the fact that people of good will are on both sides of this issue.
We understand and accept that gay Americans, and many straight Americans, feel differently. And we want to make it clear that they are fully welcome in our party – just as we understand and accept that there are differences of opinion for every other issue and welcome people of those differing beliefs as well.
You don\’t have to agree with everything we believe in to be welcome under our big tent. This country was founded on the premise of personal freedom, and we are fully committed to that premise.
We may disagree on this one issue, but please look at our entire platform. We think you\’ll see that we share a great deal of common ground on other issues, which means there are very good reasons for you to join with us.
Would the Republican Party be smart enough to incorporate the above statement, or something similar to it, into its 2016 platform?
Given that we\’re talking about Republicans, I doubt it. But no one can say I didn\’t give them a way.
