Some people have the idea that Hispanics are anti-gay, because of their Christian backgrounds or whatnot. But a new study released today by National Council of La Raza (NCLR) and Social Science Research Solutions (SSRS), Latinos are actually as or more tolerant of LGBT people than the general population.
Summarizes Philly magazine:
The report, funded by the Arcus Foundation, tells us that Hispanics are actually more inclined to support legal same-sex marriage and to be more accepting of gays and lesbians in society than most non-Hispanic Americans. Also, Latinos are just as likely as any other group in the U.S. today to identify as LGBT.
“There is a clear misperception among the general population about where Latinos stand on LGBT issues, partly because the media pushes this narrative that the culture and values of Latinos and LGBT progress are simply incompatible,” says David Dutwin, vice president of SSRS and author of the report. “Such misperceptions manifest in story after story about a particular Hispanic group opposing a gay rights bill, even though this anti-gay sentiment is not reflective of all Latinos. In reality, as society is evolving on LGBT issues and becoming more accepting of this community, so too are Hispanics.”
Some great stats from the report, which you can examine in full here (PDF):
“64 percent of Latinos support civil unions and more than 80 percent are in favor of legal protections for hate crimes, job discrimination, housing discrimination and support for healthcare and pension benefits for LGBT Americans. And three out of four say they support openly serving in the military.”
Basically we should just merge two of NYC’s rowdiest daytime celebrations: the Puerto Rican Day Parade and gay Pride. Less mess, easier to clean up. Puerto Rican Gay Parade, here we come!
J
And what are Latinos?
Latinos can be of any race!
JayKay
@J:
You know what they mean.
Flick
I am not surprised this. When looking at the data for who voted for Prop 8 in 2008, the Hispanic vote for it was barely over 50%.
Clockwork
I am Hispanic and agree with the overall statement of Hispanics in America are not anti-gay when it comes to family members. Hispanic moms will love their children no matter what. While I have no stats, gay Hispanic youth do seem to feel less alienated
when they come out to families.
You may get different opinions when it comes to marriage (can be difficult for
a few Hispanic moms to accept). There may also be a tendency for Hispanic dudes to
have an attitude of indifference to what their homo cousin does, but not be open about
legal gay marriage or queers in general. Young Hispanic males, like any, can also get homophobic violent.
But overall I would say Hispanics and Hispanic legislators are not adverse to
GLBT freedom and equality. Hispanic legislators Democrat or Republican are good
political allies for us.
I think there are some misstatements in the way this article presents itself:
One problem of course is the study comes from La Raza.
shannon
YEAH……………….RIGHT…………..LOLOL
Lumi Bast (@nugoyxi)
Cool! Latinas = mmmmm ;P
Tomas
Some Latinos can be pro LGBT or accepting of LGBT people, and some are not accepting of LGBT people at all especially if they are Roman Catholic and from a Roman Catholic country and have it set in their head through the Roman Catholic church that being anything but heterosexual is wrong and that LGBT people are going to hell.
kouros
Im hispanic but lets be honest here. 1), the study comes from the National Council of La Raza, a latin organization to begin with, that immediately calls for bias. 2), the study comes out, as far as i can tell because of all the media coverage being in the past 3 days, right after we have a hateful memo from NOM on how it plans to use minorities such as latins to oppose pro gay legislation. so a little study today goes a long way for latin PR. 3) unlike whites or blacks (i don’t say african american for a reason) in American that have been detached from their last culture for many years, with the exception of immigrants from the Caribbean and Africa, you cannot group “latin” people as a 1 whole culture because we are essentially many different cultures and have not been separated from them for that. and the problem is not all latin american cultures see LGBTQ issues the same way so a general study on latin people can be awfully skewed. For example if the study went by voters than what you have to understand is it went by citizens of the u.s. that are latin so that likely excludes older latin american people that are more connected to the latin culture and are not U.S. citizens and are the more likely to be anti lgbtq
David Aventura
@No.8 Kouros: You explained that extremely well and you make excellent points. Good job. I also fully agree that the study is biased.
Lifer
I would just like to point out that the La Raza (The Race!) group on my campus was against any race not of their own latino origin and not afraid to tell you just that to your face.
BlogShag
LOL! Oh Please, they throw their legs up in the air faster than the doors on a Lamborghini
the other Greg
Even if it’s by La Raza it’s interesting because I’d have assumed their take on it would be “we need to out-breed those gringos” and homosexuality interferes with that. Racist and racial-ist groups since the beginning of time have have always looked at it that way. Maybe Latinos are confident enough about their breeding abilities that they have generally decided to give gay-ness a pass?
Also it’s weird that “everyone” assumes that more Catholic areas are somehow automatically more anti-gay. The most Catholic state in the U.S. is Massachusetts – ha ha. The only states where Catholics are a majority are Mass., Rhode Island and New Mexico. Going down the list are most of the northeast states plus Illinois. These places have almost never been the focus of anti-gay rage. As a non-Catholic I found over time that Catholic boyfriends including Latinos are the best because they never took any of that crap seriously! It’s not like they’re Mormons or Baptists or something.
Eric
@Flick: That doesn’t make it sound like Latinos are more supportive of gay rights than non-Latinos – that makes it sound like, on average, Latinos are about the same as non-Latinos when it comes to gay rights.
Flick
@Eric: Yes, but this vote was in 2008, and even in the 4 years since that vote, attitudes have changed for the better on most fronts. NOM actually had a campaign to pit Latinos and Blacks against the LGBT community. When NOM fails we all win.
BlackRockRitual
@J: Why can’t Latino be a race?
Are white people really “white”? No, it’s just a bad term for “European American” or just “European” outside of the United States.
Are “Africans” a race any more than Latino? And what about “black”? Most “black” people are brown. And Africans can be of any race, too!
And Asian? Asian people sure don’t look “yellow” in my book. And Asian people can be “of any race”, too. What about the native black people from the Philippines. What about the “white looking” people from India? From North Asia? From the Middle East and Central Asia? What about the native “black people” from the Philippines?
Latino is a proper term for this, because discussing what people believe based upon their skin colour is pointless. Latino is a culture. As should be described when talking about statistics like this. Not something meaningless like the tone of your skin.
But yet every time someone even mentions the term “Hispanic”, someone has to jump in and shout “but Hispanic isn’t a race!”. Like they have some amazing, esoteric, politically incorrect knowledge. Who cares, so what, and what even makes that even correct? Hispanic isn’t a valid racial term, and white, black, and Asian, somehow are? Please.