Back in March, the Guardian ran a column claiming that a rise in “Christian nationalism” – essentially, Christians engaging in politics but now with a new scary moniker – is responsible for a decline in support for the LGBT agenda. Their headline gave away more than they intended: “Poll shows US public support for LGBTQ+ protections falling for first time since 2015.” The “plus” sign is doing a lot of heavy lifting there – the reality is that many Americans have woken up to the fact that homosexual “marriage,” which was mandated by the Supreme Court in 2015, wasn’t the end goal – not even close.
The poll, by the far-left Public Religion Research Institute, reported that while pro-LGBT sentiment remained broadly strong, there were “warning signs” that this support is slipping, including:
Support for same-sex marriage [sic] slipped from 69% of Americans in 2022 to 67% in 2023.
Support for policies that protect LGBTQ+[-identified] Americans from discrimination in employment, housing and public discrimination fell from 80% in 2022 to 76% in 2023.
Opposition to allowing businesses to refuse services to LGBTQ+[-identified] Americans on religious grounds dropped from 65% of Americans in 2022 to 60% in 2023.
As it turns out, the PRRI poll may have underestimated things a bit. According to the “Ipsos LGBT+ Pride Report 2024,” released this month, support for homosexual “marriage” in the United States has actually plunged to 51% after peaking in 2021. When asked directly about their opinion on same-sex “couples” by Ipsos, 51% supported homosexual “marriage,” 14% supported some other form of legal recognition for same-sex relationships, and 18% supported no legal recognition whatsoever.
The numbers may not seem dramatic, but as Unherd noted: “In 2014, 46% of Ipsos respondents believed gay couples should be allowed to marry. That climbed to 59% by 2021, then dropped to 54% in 2023 and decreased a further three points this year. The post-2021 decline in support has been smaller than the pre-2021 rise, but it has occurred at a much faster rate.” It is not an accident that in 2021, parents began to become aware of the extent to which their children were being indoctrinated into LGBT ideology in schools and the transgender agenda – including “sex changes” for minors – became increasingly clear to people.
Indeed, some homosexual activists have admitted that accepting the “T” alongside “LGB” has likely begun to erode support for the LGBT agenda overall. But there is, of course, more to it than that. The LGBT movement has attempted, with staggering success, to occupy and dominate every aspect of Western culture, from the public schools to public crosswalks. It has become crystal clear to an increasing number of people that their “live and let live” slogan was merely for public consumption – once they gained the cultural power they sought, they had no intention leaving people alone. From churches to bakeries, from florists to classrooms, the rainbow flag is one of colonization.
Indeed, many “moderate” Republicans who initially supported the redefinition of marriage have had second thoughts, with GOP support dropping from 56% to 41% between 2022 and 2023. Nate Hochman posted a thread on X observing that this “makes sense, given that every single conservative fear about gay marriage [sic] came true almost immediately”:
These numbers are encouraging, although I don’t think they indicate a sustained cultural shift, because they are concurrent with skyrocketing identification with LGBT identities amongst Generation Z (a generation that, for some reason, is viewed with optimism by many in the conservative commentariat). These numbers do indicate that polarization is increasing, and that the “middle ground” continues to collapse entirely as people realize that there is no room for moderates on the progressive Left. You get with the sexual revolution and get over your squeamishness or you get out.
Plenty of people, it turns out, are opting for the latter.
