Study shows opposition across religions despite calls from Trump and Pence for religious exemption laws  

GLAAD CEO and President: PRRI study reveals that using religion as a weapon does not line up with American values

NEW YORK – GLAAD, the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization, hailed a study released yesterday by the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) which found that over a majority of Americans oppose anti-LGBTQ discriminatory laws, also known as so-called “religious exemption” laws. This is in complete contradiction to the White House’s attempt to erase LGBTQ Americans from the fabric of this nation and the anti-LGBTQ “religious exemption” laws that the country is witnessing in statehouses across the nation. President Trump was also previously rumored to pass an Executive Order that would have brought across-the-board discrimination against LGBTQ Americans.

According to the PRRI study, close to sixty-one percent of Americans oppose allowing small business owners to refuse to provide products or services to LGBTQ people on regions grounds with only 50% of evangelical Protestants, 42% of Hispanic Protestants, and 25% of Black Protestants voicing support of these anti-LGBTQ measures.

Screenshot of the PRRI research study on American views on anti-LGBTQ religious refusal laws

“The PRRI study proves what Americans already know – using religion as a weapon to harm the LGBTQ community is wrong and completely out-of-touch with American values,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, President and CEO of GLAAD. “Instead of pushing their dangerous agenda, President Trump and other anti-LGBTQ elected officials should listen to the people of this nation who know that promoting discrimination is the wrong side of history.”

Since the landmark marriage equality cases by the United States Supreme Court, anti-LGBTQ activists have been using religion as a weapon to harm LGBTQ Americans across the nation. From Vice President Mike Pence’s “Religious Freedom Restoration Act” in Indiana, which gave businesses the right to deny LGBTQ Hoosiers housing, employment, and public accommodations, to Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s an anti-LGBTQ adoption law which allowed adoption agencies to deny LGBTQ families the right to adopt a child, anti-LGBTQ lawmakers are taking their discrimination agenda in overdrive. This week’s PRRI study is a blow to the credibility of anti-LGBTQ activists’ arguments.

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