Tag: LGBTQ acceptance

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Elizabeth Warren’s Emotional Moment With LGBTQ Teen

Sen. Elizabeth Warren has an emotional moment with LGBTQ teen about acceptance Sen. Elizabeth Warren had a touching exchange about acceptance with a young LGBTQ voter during a campaign stop in Marion, Iowa. The Democratic White House hopeful was taking questions from the audience when a 17-year-old named Raelyn asked a question about acceptance. “I was wondering if there was ever a time in your life where somebody you really looked up to maybe didn’t accept you as much, and how you dealt with that?” asked the teen. Warren paused before answering, “Yeah – my mother and I had very different views of how to build a future.” “She wanted me to marry well, and I really tried, and it just didn’t work out,” continued the senator quietly as her voice broke. “And there came a day when I had to call her and say, this is over. I can’t make it work. And I heard the disappointment in her voice. I knew how she felt about it. But I also knew it was the right thing to do.” “And sometimes you just gotta do what’s right inside and hope that maybe the rest of the world will come around to it,” explained Warren. “And maybe they will and maybe they won’t. But the truth is, you’ve gotta take care of yourself first and do this.” Warren then walked over to the teen and the two hugged.

Raelyn (she asked to not share her last name) told ABC News after the event that Warren’s “care for the LGBTQ Community” is what captured her attention in the first place because “it’s been a struggle with that, with people close to me.” “She gives me hope, which is not something that I’ve really had with other politicians, and I’ve followed politics for a while,” she added. Raelyn says she’s also following the campaigns of openly gay Mayor Pete Buttigieg and progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders, it’s Warren’s ‘authenticity’ that draws the teen in. “I just think she actually cares about the people that she talks about,” explained Raelyn while waiting in Warren’s selfie line. “I know everybody always says, oh, they’re just politicians. They’re just saying things to get your vote, but I don’t think it’s like that with her. I think she actually genuinely cares about what she’s saying.” Raelyn shared with the Massachusetts senator she plans to be a precinct captain for her campaign during the upcoming Iowa caucuses. (source: ABC News)

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LGBTQ Acceptance Declines Among Young People

The percentage of non-LGBTQ adults reporting being ‘very’ or ‘somewhat’ comfortable with LGBTQ people across seven scenarios remained stable (49%) after a significant decline last year (49% ‘very’ or ‘somewhat’ comfortable in the 2018 report versus 53% in the 2017 report).
GLAAD, the world’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) media advocacy organization, today announced the findings of its fifth annual Accelerating Acceptance Index, a national survey among U.S. adults conducted on GLAAD’s behalf by The Harris Poll. 

The Index measures American attitudes toward LGBTQ people.

The percentage of non-LGBTQ adults reporting being ‘very’ or ‘somewhat’ comfortable with LGBTQ people across seven scenarios remained stable (49%) after a significant decline last year (49% ‘very’ or ‘somewhat’ comfortable in the 2018 report versus 53% in the 2017 report).

However, this year’s Index found the number of young Americans ages 18-34 who are comfortable across all seven scenarios dropped from 53% to 45%, the second consecutive year that this age group has shown a drop.

This reflects a continued erosion in comfort among this age group over the past two years. This year, the significant erosion is being driven by females ages 18-34, where comfort levels fell from 64% last year to 52% this year.

The seven scenarios were: learning a family member is LGBT, learning my doctor is LGBT, having LGBT members at my place of worship, seeing a LGBT co-worker’s wedding picture, having my child placed in a class with a LGBT teacher, seeing a same-sex couple holding hands, and learning my child has a lesson on LGBT history in school.

Also from the report:

• Reported hate crimes in America rose 17 percent last year, the third consecutive year that such crimes increased, according to data released by the FBI in 2018.

• The majority of non-LGBTQ Americans (80%) support equal rights for the LGBTQ community. This particular statistic has been consistent since 2016.

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Poll: Millennials Support LGBTQs But There’s One Surprise In The Results

New polling shows millennials support LGBTQ equality by solid majorities except one surprising result
(Photo by Helena Lopes from Pexels)

A recent nationwide survey of 1,750 millennials (ages 18 to 34) found solid support for LGBTQ rights and protections, with one eyebrow raising piece of data.

Political science professor Cathy Cohen facilitates the bimonthly GenForward poll and focused the June survey on LGBT issues, titled Millennial Views on LGBT Issues: Race, Identity, and Morality.

Cohen shared her thoughts on the results in an essay with The Advocate.

To a great degree, the results were encouraging.

Of those polled, 14% identified as “something other than heterosexual.”

While a majority of respondents say they know someone who is gay, lesbian or bisexual, only 22% of millennials of color and 37% of white millennials say they know someone who is transgender.

As we’ve seen throughout the past few decades, its visibility that helps move LGBTQ rights and respect forward.

When it comes to LGBTQ equality, a majority of millennials either “strongly” or “somewhat” favor adoption by LGBTQ folks, legal protections to prevent discrimination in the workplace, allowing transgender people to serve openly in the military, increasing government spending on HIV/AIDS and accepting more LGBTQ immigrants from countries with hostile policies towards our community.

There was widespread support for reducing violent hate crime and LGBTQ bullying. However, according to the survey, 53% of African-American millennials and 50% of Latinx millennials feel the issues LGBTQ people face today are different than those promoted by mainstream LGBTQ organizations.

Contrast that to white (58%) and Asian-American (50%) millennials who say everyone benefits when mainstream LGBTQ organizations strive for human rights.

The one eyebrow raising piece of data emerged from the question, “Has homosexuality led to a deterioration of morality in this country?”

A majority disagreed with the statement, but a surprising 41% agreed.

Wait, what?

And – 21% of the LGBTQ respondents agreed as well.

So, one-in-five LGBTQ millennials believe their own sexuality is a negative when it comes to morality in the United States?

Is this self-loathing in action?

Cohen noted that that question was the only occurrence of the word “homosexuality” in the survey. She hypothesizes that the word itself is still a trigger in American culture as “something bad and deviant.”

She also wondered if “homosexuality” might hold a different meaning for millennials than LGBTQ which is used more and more in social media.

Cohen concludes by writing, “It should remind us of all the work that remains to be done and how little we should take for granted when it comes to educating young people about the reality of LGBTQ lives, especially the lives of young queers of color.”

Check out the full essay at The Advocate.