A Pew Research Poll taken last November showed that while fewer and fewer Americans are getting married, more are getting divorced or never getting married to begin with. With these statistics, there is a rise in the number of nontraditional families in the United States – families with just one parent, male or female and families with same-sex parents.
Now, a new Pew Research Poll released last week indicates there are changing views among Americans regarding acceptance of gay families.
In a national survey of 2,691 people, it shows that more Americans are more accepting of families with gay or lesbian parents than single mothers.
In the survey, Americans’ overall opinions on non-traditional families, which include gay and lesbian parents, single mothers and unmarried parents, are divided into three categories.
One-third of Americans are comfortable with a wide range of family situations (labeled as “acceptors”), one-third consider non-traditional families as damaging to the social fabric (labeled as “rejecters”), and another third are mixed, or approve of certain arrangements (labeled as “skeptics”).
As acceptance of families with samesex parents has grown, the poll found the opposite to be true for single mothers.
An executive with the Pew Research Center said that this is the area where acceptors and skeptics differed the most. If you took out the question about the single mothers, there would only be two groups, acceptors and rejecters.
The poll also indicated that while 98% of acceptors did not see anything wrong with women raising children by themselves, 99% of the skeptics and 98% of the rejecters consider it bad for society.
Through the years, however, public sentiment does not seem to have changed much regarding single mothers indicating that a single parent household, with just one mother, was the least desirable. According to a study conducted by the University of Miami, students raised by a single mother do not do as well as their peers who grew up with two parents. That survey only asked about single mothers, not single parents. Gay and lesbian parents, however, are still providing a two-parent family that is why they are perceived more positively.
A psychology professor at the University of Virginia, had similar thoughts saying that there’s no doubt there’s been a shift in attitudes towards gays and lesbians as there has been a shift in attitude toward gay marriage.
Fifteen years ago, a Gallup Poll found that 68% of Americans said same-sex marriage should not be legally recognized while 27% said it should be. A recent Gallop indicates the split is 50/50.
Last October, the PEW Research Center conducted a poll with 6,000 adults interviewed on the subject and the results were that 42% of adults favor same-sex marriage, whereas 48% of adults are opposed to this type of union. So while the majority of Americans are still against gay marriage, these numbers show an increase in acceptance. In 2009, polls showed that only 37% of Americans supported gay marriage and that 54% of Americans were opposed.
Even though it’s been decades since then Vice-President Dan Quayle famously lambasted the fictional TV character, and single mother, Murphy Brown, public sentiment may not have changed significantly. Just two weeks ago, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee called out pregnant Oscar winner Natalie Portman as glamorizing “the idea of out-of-wedlock children.”
One reason believed for the overall wider acceptance of gay and lesbian families are television shows like “Modern Family” and movies such as The Kids are Alright. Also regular stories on television news programs has helped bring gay families into the forefront.
