Gallup Poll Reveals Vast Majority of Americans Are Idiots

Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted Dec. 10-12, 2010, 

with a random sample of 1,019 adults, aged 18 and older, living in the continental U.S., selected 

using random-digit-dial sampling.For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence

 that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points.

A new Gallup poll reveals again that the vast majority of Americans believe in God, and also believe that a "deity" had either full or partial responsibility for creating humans. A plurality of Americans (40%) believe "God created humans pretty much in their present form approximately 10,000 years ago" (strict Creationism) while a smaller percentage (38%) believe that "God guided a process by which humans developed over millions of years from less advanced life forms" (intelligent design-lite) while a mere 16% believe that "humans developed over millions of years, without God's involvement" (science). Happily, this last number is the largest it has ever been, but it is still a disappointing result, since it reflects undisputed scientific fact.

Unsurprisingly, there is a partisan differential between Democrats, Republicans and Independents over who believes what:

Clearly a majority of Republicans (52%) believe that humans are less than 10,000 years with a minuscule 8% believing in God-less evolution, while Democrats and Independents are virtually indistinguishable between 40% believing in God-guided evolution and approximately 20% aligning with the vast body of scientific knowledge on the topic.

And, that, ladies and gentlemen, is why we have the 112th Congress with a Republican House majority!

Artist's View of Gay Cities Around The World

The above picture was created by lesbian artist Wendy MacNaughton for GayCities.com. Apparently, there is a contest going on at http://www.gaycities.com/best-of-gaycities/ where people can vote in different categories and the prize is a trip to Berlin, Germany (a city I have never been to but would love to visit).

It's sort of fun. Click on the picture to go to the website to vote!

Gigantic Pew Poll Confirms Public Opinion Shift Towards Marriage Equality

More good news on the polling front for supporters of marriage equality. A new Pew Research poll of nearly 6,000(!) Americans again reveals the extent of the rapidity of the shift in public opinion towards marriage equality.

There are several points to highlight from these results, but the  main ones are:

For the first time in 15 years of Pew Research Center polling, fewer than half oppose same-sex marriage.

[..] 

There are substantial age and generational differences in opinions about same-sex marriage. Millennials, born after 1980, favor allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally by a 53%-to-39% margin. Support for gay marriage among Millennials has changed little in recent years, but is up from 2004 when opinion was more divided.

Among Gen Xers (born 1965 to 1980), 48% now favor allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally while 43% are opposed. Support is up from 2009 when 41% favored this and 50% were opposed, but is on par with levels in 2001.

There is less support for same-sex marriage among Baby Boomers -- those born 1946 to 1964 -- than among younger age groups. Currently, 38% favor allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally while 52% are opposed. Still, support among Baby Boomers has increased over the past year (from 32%).

The Silent Generation (born 1928 to 1945) continues to oppose same-sex marriage; just 29% favor allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally while 59% are opposed. Even among the Silent Generation, however, there is somewhat more support than in 2009 (23% favor) and substantially greater support than in 2003, when just 17% backed gay marriage.

[...]

Whites are now evenly divided over gay marriage; in polls conducted this year, 44% of non-Hispanic whites favor allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally and 46% are opposed. In three surveys between August 2008 and August 2009, 39% of non-Hispanic whites favored same-sex marriage compared with 52% who were opposed.

By contrast, blacks continue to oppose same-sex marriage by a wide margin. In 2010, just 30% of non-Hispanic blacks favor gay marriage while 59% are opposed. From 2008 to 2009, 28% of blacks favored same-sex marriage and 62% were opposed.

The sub group breakdowns are summarized in the following table.

Simpsons laugh: Ha-ha! The heterosexual supremacists must be shaking in their boots.

New Report Estimates LGB Population In U.S. At 9%

The Williams Institute at UCLA Law School, a think tank devoted to sexual orientation law and public policy, has released a report (pdf) which analyzes national demographic surveys to tease out interesting information about the national lesbian, gay and bisexual population.

From the Executive Summary:

Data from the 2008 General Social Survey (GSS) indicate that nearly 9% of adults either identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual or report having had same‐sex sexual experiences as an adult. Although 90% of LGB people are out about their identity to other people, only 25% report being out to all of their coworkers in the workplace. The data show that bisexuals differ in several ways from those who identify as gay or lesbian, including being much less likely to be out or have a high school diploma and being much more likely to be women and/or racial or ethnic minorities.

Surveys that ask questions about sexual orientation and behavior are rare. Among the few surveys that ask these questions, few are representative of the US population. Even rarer is information about the coming out process from such surveys. As a result, little is known about how and if thinking of oneself as gay, lesbian, or bisexual, or experiencing same‐sex sexual behaviors and telling others about one’s sexual orientation or behavior varies by sex, age, race/ethnicity, and educational attainment.

The General Social Survey (GSS), conducted by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, has monitored social and demographic changes in the United States since 1972. The 2008 GSS marks the first time that survey participants were asked about their sexual orientation (prior surveys had only asked about same‐sex sexual behavior). The 2008 survey also includes a module of questions (added with the financial support of the Williams Institute) directed at sexual minorities that ask about the experience of coming out, relationship status and family structure, workplace and housing discrimination, and health insurance coverage.

Other results that are included in the report are:

·        1.7% of adults self-identified as gay or lesbian and 1.1% self-identified as bisexual

·        More than 3 in 4 lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) adults say that they were first attracted to someone of the same-sex before they were 18 years old.

·        Women are more likely than men to be LGB (4.6% vs. 2.9%).    They are twice as likely to be bisexual than men (1.9% v. 0.7%, respectively).

·        Younger people are more likely to  be LGB.  7.2% of those aged 18-30 are LGB compared with 3.8% of those aged 30-54 and 1.4% of those aged 55 and older.

·         Gay men and lesbians are more likely than bisexuals to be out to at least some people (96% vs. 75%, respectively).

·         Older people are much more likely to be in the closet .   Adults over the age of 55 are 83 times more likely than those under 30 to have never come out to another person.

·         Bisexuals are more likely to be a racial/ethnic minority than heterosexuals, gay men, or lesbians.   More than half of bisexuals are non-white compared to approximately 30% of heterosexuals, gay men and lesbian.  The racial and ethnic characteristics of gay men, lesbians, and heterosexuals are similar to each other.

The author of the report is Williams Distinguished Scholar Dr. Gary Gates who says:

"These provocative findings demonstrate the challenge in understanding the
complex relationship between sexual orientation identity and behavior.
Given that nearly half of Americans still believe that homosexual
relationships are morally wrong, it is not surprising to find ambiguity
between how people behave sexually and how they identify their sexual
orientation."

Videos Encouraging LGBT Census Participation

Mathematical Visualization Of U.S. Public Opinion and Policy

The above graphic is getting a lot of buzz in the blogosphere after it appeared in the New York Times Economix blog and many LGBT blogs, like Professor Nan Hunter's Hunter of Justice.

Recently on DailyKos, Steven Singiser posted this corrolary picture, showing the age democraphic split on explicit support for same-sex marriage by cohort (65+, 45-64, 30-44 and 18-29). The results are quite striking:
The point here is that by the time the 18-29 cohort is fully into the 30-44 cohort, the kulturkampf over marriage equality will probably be over. The only question is how closely public policy will follow public opinion at that time (10-15 years from now).

U.S. Catholic Bishops Issue Incredibly Homophobic Statement

The U.S. Catholic Bishops are planning on issuing a new statement on marriage soon which claims that the existence of same-sex marriage is an assault on every human being in the world.

Here is an excerpt from the section in "Marriage: Love and Live in the Divine Plan" (pdf) which is devoted to same-sex unions:

One of the most troubling developments is the proposition that persons of the same sex can "marry." This proposal redefines the nature of marriage and the family, and, as a result, harms the intrinsic dignity of every person and the common good of society.

Marriage is a unique union, different from other relationships. It is the permanent bond between one man and one woman whose two-in-one-flesh communion of persons is an indispensable good at the heart of every family and every society. Same-sex unions are incapable of realizing this specific communion of persons. Therefore, redefining marriage to include such relationships empties the term of its meaning, for it excludes the essential complementarity between man and woman, treating sexual difference as it were irrelevant to what marriage is.

[...]

The legal recognition of same-sex unions poses a multifaceted threat to the very fabric of society, striking at the source of from which society and culture come and which they are designed to serve. Such recognition affects all people, married and non-married: not only at the fundamental levels of the good of the spouses, the good of the children, the intrinsic dignity of every human person, and the common good, but also at the levels of education, cultural imagination and influence, and religious freedom.

The statements expressed above are so antithetical to my own beliefs and the beliefs of so many people that I do not even know where to begin to refute the claims within the text.

First, notice the scare quotes over marry in the first sentence. Are the Catholic bishops denying that marriages in the predominantly Catholic jurisdictions of Spain, Massachusetts and Connecticut (all of which allow same-sex couples to marry) are any less valid?

Second, there is a claim of harm to the "intrinsic dignity of every person and the common good" (emphasis added). This is simply insanity. You don't get to define my intrinsic dignity and the claim that same-sex couples are harming other people's "intrinsic dignity" is simple balderdash. What, exactly, is the harm caused by a same-sex marriage to ANY person who is not a party to that marriage?

The second paragraph is obsessed with the union of man and woman, which are claimed to possess an "essential complementarity." I presume this means that men possess something that women lack, and vice-versa. I would love to hear what these characteristics are. I do notice that whenever the text uses a masculine phrase and feminine phrase, it (almost) always places the male phrase first, in the primary, superior position: for example, "man and woman" and "husband and wife." This paragraph can clearly be interpreted as an expression of (and full-throated defense of) patriarchy, explicitly.

As Michael A. Jones of Gay Rights@Change.org says about this document that "the U.S. bishops just might have made the Catholic Church the most anti-LGBT religious institution in the country."

Indeed.

Barack Obama Wins 2009 Nobel Peace Prize

Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. The text of the Peace Prize Committee's reasoning is here:

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama’s vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.

Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama’s initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.

Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future. His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world’s population.

For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world’s leading spokesman. The Committee endorses Obama’s appeal that “Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges.”

Wow! Congrats, Barack!

We're NOT #1: U.S. Ranks #28 In Internet Speed

One of the enduring myths promulgated by many conservatives is that "the United States is the best country in the world," usually condensed to a meaningless slogan "We're #1." For example, during the ongoing health care reform debate, Republicans keep on claiming that "The United States has the best health care in the world" when most independent assessments rank France as having the world's best health care system.

Recently, a report ranking the world's countries on average internet speeds came out and the United States (home of Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, etc) was listed at #28. South Korea was first with an average speed of 20.4 Mbps, ahead of Japan with an average of 15.8 MBps. The Los Angeles Times covered the report from Speed Matters, a publicationof the Communications Workers of America and said:

The study also pointed to the relatively slow rate at which the average U.S. broadband speed rose in recent years, gaining only about 1.6 Mpbs since May 2007. That was a much slower increase than was seen in the U.S. states with the fastest speeds.

California, perhaps the nation's most high-tech-friendly state, ranked only 11th among the 50 states, well behind the national leaders. Still, the state's 6.6 Mbps average put it ahead of where it was two years ago, when it ranked 22nd among states, with barely more than 3 Mbps.

Delaware residents now enjoy the nation's fastest broadband at 9.9 Mbs, nearly twice the national average -- and up more than 5 Mpbs since 2007. At the lower end of the speed range, sparsely inhabited states such as Idaho, Alaska and Montana were well below the national average, clocking in around 2.5 Mbps.

Hat/tip Harry Shearer of KCRW's Le Show.

Massachusetts Sues U.S. Over DOMA

On Tuesday Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of her state's estimated 16, 000 married same-sex couples who are denied any recognition of their legally married status by the federal government due to 1996's odious Defense of Marriage Act.

According to TowleRoad:

The suit states that DOMA, termed "overreaching and discriminatory," interferes with the state's "sovereign authority to define and regulate marriage."

"We view all married persons equally," Coakley said at a press conference [Tuesday].

The basis for the suit is the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Section 8 of the Constitution. Along with the United States itself, defendants include the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Veterans' Affairs.

Massachusetts' lawsuit is another legal attack on DOMA, following a similar lawsuit filed by Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders earlier this year. Both lawsuits just challenge Section 3 of DOMA, which prohibits the United States from allowing any federal benefit, right or responsibility to be bestowed on any married couple in which the parties do not consist of a man and a woman:

SEC. 3. DEFINITION OF MARRIAGE.
(a) IN GENERAL- Chapter 1 of title 1, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

`Sec. 7. Definition of `marriage' and `spouse'

`In determining the meaning of any Act of Congress, or of any ruling, regulation, or interpretation of the various administrative bureaus and agencies of the United States, the word `marriage' means only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife, and the word `spouse' refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife.'.

(b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT- The table of sections at the beginning of chapter 1 of title 1, United States Code, is amended by inserting after the item relating to section 6 the following new item:

`7. Definition of `marriage' and `spouse'.'.

This is not to be confused with the other recent federal lawsuit which challenges the constitutionality of Proposition 8 and the denial of marriage rights to same-sex couples as a matter of federal law.

New Map Of Marriage Rights Throughout The U.S.

The above graphic appeared in today's Los Angeles Times accompanying an article by Jessica Garrison and Maura Dolan about the increasing momentum for a Proposition 8 "re-do" on the 2010 statewide elections.

Here's an excerpt:

The recent run of states legalizing gay marriage -- punctuated Wednesday by Maine becoming the fifth state to do so -- has increased the likelihood that California voters will face another ballot measure on the issue as early as next year, according to strategists on both sides.

The California Supreme Court is expected to uphold Proposition 8, November's ballot measure banning same-sex marriage, with a decision coming in the next few weeks. Both sides are already gearing up for another political campaign likely to come in 2010.

As recently as a few months ago, some gay activists feared 2010 would be too soon. But the fact that same-sex marriage is now legal in five states, with New York, New Jersey and New Hampshire poised to follow, has changed the political climate, they say.

What's really going on here is maneuvering by Courage Campaign and Equality California for which organization will be "the lead" in the next ballot fight over marriage equality in California.

Courage Campaign launched the fight with much publicized statements by people involved with that organization that they would be leading the fight in 2010. EQCA has now responded with articles in the Los Angeles Times and New York Times as well as the announcement of a new grassroots campaign called Win Marriage Back: Make it Real!

Economic Conditions Are Worsening

Geography of the Freedom To Marry

Evan Wolfson over at the group Freedom To Marry has provided these great maps depicting the current state of governmental recognition nationwide.

Obama's Win Around The World

Joe.My.God has this great collage of front pages of newspapers around the world announcing Obama's electoral victory last night.

Pets Become "Family"

The New York Times published an article entitled "Who Invited The Dog?" in which these statistics about pet ownership are given:

More American households have pets than ever — 68.7 million of them in 2006, according to a new survey by the American Veterinary Medical Association, up 12.4 percent from 2001.

Among dog owners, 53.5 percent considered their pets to be members of the family, the survey found. For cats, the number was 49.2 percent.

Of course, the paper of record for all sorts of meaningless factoids is USA Today, which also reported on the results of a survey released by the American Veterinary Medical Association.

Apparently there are 10 million more cats than dogs (81.2 million to 72 million) in the United States there are more American households that have dogs than cats. 59.5% of all households have a pet compared to 35% of households that have children.

Although there more pet cats than dogs, more families actually have dogs. Counting by household, 37.2% are dog owners, compared with 32.4% with cats. But cat owners have more of them: 2.2 per house compared with 1.7 for dogs.

[...]

The survey involved 47,842 American households.

Hmmm, well Mad Professah just moved from 1 dog per household to 2 dogs per household.

According to Autumn Sandeen at Pam's House Blend, LGBT families have more pets per household than straight households. Interesting, eh?