The Fresh Air interview I taped in August with Terry Gross aired yesterday nationwide. The Exodus office received numerous calls, emails and new hits to the website as a result. The majority of the feedback was extremely positive, but there was negative feedback, as well. I listened to the interview yesterday afternoon and, prior to getting any feedback at all, realized that I said one thing that I wished I could have clarified. Thus, I want to do so here.
Without listening to the entire interview again I won't be able to give the exact quote, but I said something like, "One of the greatest myths operating in our culture today is that the majority of the gay community is interested in anti discrimination laws."
I have to say that my experience is anecdotal. The majority of everyday gay and lesbian folks I meet or hear from (a significant number) do tell me that they aren't interested in the gay rights battles for anti-discrimination laws, benefits for same-sex couples or marriage. I have several activists friends who regularly tell me that they are angered by the majority of their gay friends because of their ambivalence to the gay rights issues and politics in general.
An activist friend (on the other side) emailed me some stats from a 2003 Gallup Poll that stated 9 in 10 Americans (88%) support "equal opportunities for gays and lesbians in the workplace." I would like to see the questions that were asked, how many people were sampled and who those people were. Depending on the questions asked that poll might have included me as one of those making up the 88%---but I am far from a proponent of anti-discrimimnation laws.
According to another poll conducted by the LA Times, 72% of Americans favor "laws to protect gays against job discrimination." Again, what was the question that was asked? Who were the people polled? What area of the country were they from? I know that a lot of Christian and conservative people might fall into the 72% depending on how the questions were phrased---like I said above, even I might fall into the category.
I also received an email with some survey results from a survey that was conducted by the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force this year. The results were that the two top policy priorities for LGBT people were 1) Marriage equality and 2)Non-discrimination laws. In this survey conducted at 7 gay pride events, 1440 or so people were polled.
Unless there is more to the study than I saw, this information is much the same as mine: anecdotal. Those who attend gay pride events are ones who, for the most part, are politically and socially active. They are a good representation of the activist community, but not of everyone who is gay or lesbian. What cities were these events in? Who was polled? The results aren't surprising given the events and the typical attendees.
Nonetheless, I wish I had stated clearly that the information I was giving was based upon my own experience and was in fact my opinion.
Thanks to those of you who weighed in on both sides of the debate.
