Surprise, surprise!
A survey shows that overall acceptance of LGBTQ people among young adults – at least in the US – dipped for the second year in a row.
In “2019 Accelerating Acceptance Report”, conducted by The Harris Poll for LGBT advocacy group GLAAD, 1,970 Americans over the age of 18 were asked a series of questions with regard to their reactions to several different situations involving LGBTQ people. Participants were – specifically – asked, among others: 1) how they felt about seeing a same-sex couple hold hands; and 2) learning that a family member or a doctor identifies as LGBTQ and learning that their child has been placed in a class taught by an LGBTQ teacher.
The survey found that non-LGBTQ adults who said they felt “very” or “somewhat” comfortable in all of those scenarios was 49%, reflecting no change from 2018. For the 18 to 34 demographic, however, that percentage fell from 53% to 45%.
According to GLAAD, 2019 marks the second year in a row that LGBTQ acceptance for those aged 18 to 34 has dropped. In 2017, that figure was at 63%. The most striking drop in acceptance appeared among young women, whose comfort level dropped from 64% last year to 52% in the newly published report.
According to GLAAD president/CEO Sarah Kate Ellis, the two-year decline may be linked to the “divisive rhetoric both in politics and in culture.”
