{"id":50771,"date":"2011-05-13T16:54:40","date_gmt":"2011-05-13T21:54:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/2011\/05\/13\/most-say-homosexuality-should-be-accepted-by-society-2\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T15:31:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T19:31:14","slug":"most-say-homosexuality-should-be-accepted-by-society-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/politics\/2011\/05\/13\/most-say-homosexuality-should-be-accepted-by-society-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Most Say Homosexuality Should Be Accepted By Society"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While the public is divided over same-sex marriage, a majority of Americans (58%) say that homosexuality should be accepted, rather than discouraged, by society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among younger people in particular, there is broad support for societal acceptance of homosexuality. More than six-in-ten (63%) of those younger than 50 \u2013 69% of those younger than 30 \u2013 say that homosexuality should be accepted. Far fewer of those 50 and older (52%) favor societal acceptance of homosexuality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are among the findings from the latest Pew Research Center political typology survey<\/a>, released May 4, 2011. The survey, conducted in February and March of this year, showed that opposition to gay marriage has continued to decline. Currently, 45% favor allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally while 46% are opposed. Two years ago, in April 2009, 35% supported same-sex marriage while 54% were opposed. Opposition to gay marriage has fallen by 19 points (from 65%) since 1996. (For more on changing public views of same-sex marriage, see Pew Research Center reports March 3, 2011 <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

and Oct. 6, 2010<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The political typology survey also found a decline in negative views of the increasing number of gays and lesbians raising children. Today, 35% say that more gay parents is bad for society, 14% view this trend positively, while 48% say it does not make much difference. Four years ago, 50% viewed this trend negatively, 11% said it was a good thing and 34% said it made no difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gay Issues Still Politically Divisive<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Majorities across most demographic groups say that homosexuality should be accepted by society. But there are wide political and religious differences in opinions on this measure. Two-thirds of Democrats (67%) and 63% of independents say that homosexuality should be accepted, compared with 40% of Republicans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among religious groups, substantial majorities of the religiously unaffiliated (79%), white Catholics (66%) and white mainline Protestants (65%) say that homosexuality should be accepted. However, just 29% of white evangelical Protestants agree, while more than twice as many (63%) say homosexuality should be discouraged by society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There also are gender and racial differences: More women than men favor societal acceptance of homosexuality (64% vs. 52%). Hispanics (64%) and whites (58%) are more supportive of this than are African Americans (49%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gay Parenting Viewed Less Negatively<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Since 2007, the percentage saying that the increasing number of gay couples raising children is a bad thing has fallen from 50% to 35%. The proportion viewing this trend positively has changed very little (11% then, 14% today). Rather, there has been a substantial increase in the percentage saying it does not make much difference (34% in 2007, 48% today).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While there continue to be sizable partisan differences in opinions about gay parenting, there has been an across-the-board decline in negative views. In February 2007, 70% of Republicans said that more gays and lesbians raising children was a bad thing for society. Today, 53% of Republicans express this view, while nearly as many say either it does not make much difference (42%) or is a good thing (4%). Just 30% of independents and 28% of Democrats view the trend toward more gay parents as a bad thing, down from 41% and 39%, respectively, four years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proportion of African Americans viewing this trend negatively has changed little since 2007; 45% now say more gay parents are a bad thing for society, which is little changed from four years ago (52%). Negative views among whites and Hispanics have fallen 17 points and 14 points, respectively, over this period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gay Issues and the Political Typology<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The political typology found that issues relating to homosexuality and gay rights are more divisive among core Democratic groups than among GOP groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among Democratic groups in the typology, an overwhelming percentage of Solid Liberals (92%) say that homosexuality should be accepted by society; nearly as many (85%) favor gay marriage. Solid Liberals are white, well-educated and less religious than most other typology groups. (For detailed descriptions of all nine typology groups, see \u201cTypology Group Profiles<\/a>\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By contrast, the two other Democratic groups \u2013 Hard-Pressed Democrats and New Coalition Democrats, who are much more religious and less well-educated than Solid Liberals \u2013 are divided over whether homosexuality should be accepted or discouraged. And only about a third in each group favors same-sex marriage (32% of Hard-Pressed Democrats, 34% of New Coalition Democrats).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both core Republican groups \u2013 Staunch Conservatives and Main Street Republicans \u2013 are highly religious; 91% of Main Street Republicans and 90% of Staunch Conservatives say that religion is personally very important. In both groups, large majorities say that homosexuality should be discouraged and oppose gay marriage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The three independent groups differ widely in their views of whether homosexuality should be accepted and if same-sex marriage should be legal. Republican-leaning Libertarians have very conservative attitudes on economic issues, though much more liberal views on social issues. Fully 71% say homosexuality should be accepted, though far fewer (43%) favor gay marriage. Disaffecteds, another GOP-leaning group, are highly religious and express conservative views on social issues. Only about half (48%) say homosexuality should be accepted and just 34% favor same-sex marriage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Post-Moderns, who lean Democratic, are young, well-educated and not highly religious. Post-Moderns overwhelmingly think that homosexuality should be accepted by society (91% say this) and support same-sex marriage (80%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There are similar differences among typology groups in opinions about more gays and lesbians raising children. While 40% of Solid Liberals view this trend as good thing for society, just 9% of Hard-Pressed Democrats and 10% of New Coalition Democrats agree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Majorities in the two core Republican groups express negative views about more gays and lesbians raising children: 71% of Staunch Conservatives say this is bad for society, as do 56% of Main Street Republicans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But opinions are more mixed among the two GOP-leaning independent groups: Fewer than half of Disaffecteds (40%) and Libertarians (28%) view this trend negatively; 59% of Libertarians and 49% of Disaffecteds say it does not make much difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roughly two-thirds of Post-Moderns (66%) say the increasing number of gays and lesbians raising children does not make much difference; fewer (20%) say this is a positive trend for society while just 9% say it is bad thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While the public is divided over same-sex marriage, a majority of Americans (58%) say that homosexuality should be accepted, rather than discouraged, by society. Among younger people in particular, there is broad support for societal acceptance of homosexuality. More than six-in-ten (63%) of those younger than 50 \u2013 69% of those younger than 30 \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sub_headline":"","sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_api_pending":"","apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_auto_publish":"","relatedPosts":[],"reportMaterials":[],"multiSectionReport":[],"package_parts__enabled":false,"package_parts":[],"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[724],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0},"categories":[220,226],"tags":[],"bylines":[],"datasets":[],"level_of_effort":[],"primary_audience":[],"information_type":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[458],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[],"research-teams":[520],"workflow-status":[],"collection":[],"class_list":["post-50771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-same-sex-marriage-1","category-same-sex-marriage-2","formats-report","research-teams-politics"],"label":"Report","post_parent":0,"word_count":940,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/politics\/2011\/05\/13\/most-say-homosexuality-should-be-accepted-by-society-2\/","charts":[],"art_direction":false,"_embeds":[],"prc_checklist":{"prc-image-alt-text":{"status":"incomplete","message":"6 images are missing alt text.","data":{"count":6}},"prc-about-this-research":{"status":"incomplete","message":"Add an \"About this research\" details block.","data":null},"prc-paragraph-count":{"status":"complete","message":"Found 21 paragraphs.","data":{"count":21}},"prc-internal-link":{"status":"complete","message":"Found 10 internal links.","data":{"count":10}},"prc-environment-link":{"status":"complete","message":"No links to other Pew Research environments.","data":{"count":0,"hosts":[]}}},"watchChildPosts":false,"watchers":[{"id":724,"name":"msolorzano","email":"msolorzano-temp@pewresearch.org","slack_user_id":"","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f86893a13d28433dcc6c4512a48b171b84ea93b30b59a30560a70570b12b1dec?s=48&d=mm&r=g"}],"table_of_contents":[],"report_materials":[],"report_pagination":{"current_post":null,"next_post":null,"previous_post":null,"pagination_items":[]},"parent_info":{"parent_title":"Most Say Homosexuality Should Be Accepted By Society","parent_id":50771},"materialsOrdered":[],"chaptersOrdered":[],"partsOrdered":[],"partsEnabled":false,"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"Most Say Homosexuality Should Be Accepted By Society","description":"While the public is divided over same-sex marriage, a majority of Americans (58%) say that homosexuality should be accepted, rather than discouraged, by society. Among younger people in particular, there…","og_title":"Most Say Homosexuality Should Be Accepted By Society","og_description":"","schema_type":"Article","noindex":false,"canonical_url":"","primary_terms":[],"custom_schema":[],"og_image":0,"indexnow_submitted_at":1787859116,"gsc_index_status":{"verdict":"PASS","coverage_state":"Submitted and indexed","robotstxt_state":"ALLOWED","indexing_state":"INDEXING_ALLOWED","last_crawl_time":"2026-08-17T05:33:25Z","page_fetch_state":"SUCCESSFUL","crawled_as":"MOBILE","mobile_verdict":"VERDICT_UNSPECIFIED","mobile_issues":[],"rich_results_verdict":"PASS","rich_results_issues":[],"inspection_link":"https:\/\/search.google.com\/search-console\/inspect?resource_id=sc-domain:pewresearch.org&id=6Xl5t_UQUtAnakdAmeMFiA&utm_medium=link&utm_source=api","fetched_at":1787859123}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","relatedPostsOrdered":[],"bylinesOrdered":[],"acknowledgementsOrdered":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50771"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":374909,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50771\/revisions\/374909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50771"},{"taxonomy":"bylines","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bylines?post=50771"},{"taxonomy":"datasets","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/datasets?post=50771"},{"taxonomy":"level_of_effort","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/level_of_effort?post=50771"},{"taxonomy":"primary_audience","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/primary_audience?post=50771"},{"taxonomy":"information_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/information_type?post=50771"},{"taxonomy":"_post_visibility","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_post_visibility?post=50771"},{"taxonomy":"formats","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/formats?post=50771"},{"taxonomy":"_fund_pool","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_fund_pool?post=50771"},{"taxonomy":"languages","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/languages?post=50771"},{"taxonomy":"regions-countries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions-countries?post=50771"},{"taxonomy":"research-teams","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-teams?post=50771"},{"taxonomy":"workflow-status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/workflow-status?post=50771"},{"taxonomy":"collection","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collection?post=50771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}