Apr 9, 2012

PEW HISPANIC CENTER: Majority Of US Hispanics Support Gay Rights

¨A majority of U.S. Hispanics say gay men and lesbians should be accepted by society, a new study has found.

The poll by the Pew Hispanic Center HERE found acceptance for gay rights among Latinos to be similar to the general public.

“Virtually identical shares of Latinos (59%) and the general public (58%) say homosexuality should be accepted by society,” the report's authors wrote.

Thirty percent of Latinos and 33 percent of the general public say gay rights should be discouraged.

While a majority (53%) of immigrant Hispanics favor gay rights, acceptance among second-generation Hispanics rises to 68 percent.

Women more than men favor such rights – 62 percent versus 55 percent.

And support is greater among younger Hispanics, with nearly seven-in-ten (69%) of 18-to-29-year-old Hispanics saying homosexuality should be accepted by society; 60 percent of Hispanics ages 30 to 49 and 54 percent of Hispanics 50 to 64 agree. Hispanics ages 65 and older are more divided, with 41 percent saying homosexuality should be accepted by society and 44 percent disagreeing.


The survey also found that 80 percent of Latinos believe gay people face discrimination, 74 percent support marriage or similar legal recognitions for gay couples, and 68 percent of Latino Catholics do not believe being gay is immoral. ¨ * HERE

·  Thanks to On Top Magazine, sidebar
·  Thanks to Pew Hispanic Center, HERE
·  Thanks to by Paul Taylor, Mark Hugo Lopez, Jessica Hamar Martínez and Gabriel Velasco
·  * Color/print size emphasis added by Leonardo Ricardo

5 comments:

Muthah+ said...

As I suspected. Prejudice falls along age lines rather than ethnic lines. The problem is that misogyny is still so rampant in Latio areas. And as long as misogyny is rampant, the prejudice against gay men will be strong. The prejudice toward lesbians will not be as strong because it will be subsumed under misogyny.

One of the problems I have found is that I have noted more mysogyny among groups of gay men that among straight men these days. We HAVE to get past that so that we can address the real fear of emasculinization that comes from female equality.

Leonard said...

Wow. That´s interesting that you find that Gay men may have greater degrees of mysogyny than straights...care to share further?

My experience tells me that Gay Men have easily identified with discrimination/abuse/other of women and are generally supportive and encouraging as we plainly LIKE women and identify with some of the oppression...in the case of Lesbian/Gay Male ¨friendships¨ I have mostly noted, my whole adult life, that ¨we¨ (L and G) can often be together but our social worlds/customs can seem far apart...almost two different subcultures. Never the less we ¨hang¨ together for reasons that help secure our mutual advantage of public acceptance. I find Lesbians, in a general way, more guarded when encountering males than Gay males do encountering potentially ¨difficult¨ heterosexuals of either sex. I´ve had a full and varied life and never really lived outside of a ¨mixed¨ environment...I´m comfortable in that mixed ¨sexual orientation/gender¨ setting but have learned how to say no to nonsense from anyone.

Leonard said...

You made me think. Here in Guatemala there is a ongoing program countering female abuse. Guatemala has been a traditional leader in the number of cases of violence generated against women...a high number resulting in the murders of women (by apparent heterosexuals). The local T.V. often shows, very graphically, the violated for all to see. It´s absolutely horrific to see the outcomes of such abuse in color on T.V. There is also, and also not drug/gang related, quite a few acts of murder directed against transvestites (mostly in Zona 1, Guatemala City)...makes me wonder if there is a connection in these crimes of gender (or pretend gender or transitional gender)? Right this very minute in neighboring Honduras there is a large number of what appears to be serial/especially ugly murders directed against Transvestites/extra effeminate Gay men (also in Puerto Rico)...I think the machismo exhibiting reality must be threatened in a similar way to homophobes, of both sexes, despising gays...doing murder or great violence against heterosexual women or anyone is of course a sign of the grave emotional and spiritual illness (no matter who it is directed toward) of the perp.

Leonard said...

I was in my studio painting and thinking about this...in the case of Guatemala and Puerto Rico (the two Latin American places I know best because I´ve lived in both of them for many years) there is a large amount of female abuse done by drunk husbands (and some drugged husbands in the case of P.R.)...but, imagine, not making any excuses, many very low wage earning men (the women keep the households together and struggle to sell whatever they can for income) GET DRUNK many a pay day (usually once a month)...spend or lose the money (on other ladies too) and then take the whole miserable misery out on their WIVES/MOTHER OF THEIR CHILDREN...it´s often about alcoholism and dirt grinding poverty (not easily rationalized when one is the big man daddy of a loser).

Leonard said...

Interesting note. I was confused about Muthah+ above statement:

¨One of the problems I have found is that I have noted more mysogyny among groups of gay men that among straight men these days. We HAVE to get past that so that we can address the real fear of emasculinization that comes from female equality.¨

I could find absolutely no information on this offensive, to me, claim. The closet thing:

¨I read (on someone's blog) how his lesbian friend feels awkward because she feels like gay men are more accepted by their friends (who are mostly female) than lesbians.¨

I´ve found this to be true also.
Leonardo