Poll: People support gays more than homosexuals

[E.J.]

A new CBS News/New York Times poll released this afternoon shows 57% of Americans approve of "homosexuals" serving in the military. Change the word "homosexual" to "gay men and lesbians" and the support jumps to 70%. The change in support holds when respondents were asked whether they think "homosexuals" vs. "gay men and lesbians" should be allowed to serve openly in the U.S. armed forces.

On the "serve openly" question, 44% were in favor when the word "homosexual" is used, and 42% were opposed. When that word was swapped for the alternate "gay men and lesbians" wording, support for serving openly jumped to 58%. Just 28% were opposed.

Read the rest HERE

[JamesSavik]

Homosexual sounds so... Latin and clinical like a diagnosis.

On the other hand Gay sounds like a Disney movie.

Scrat Comes Out!

In theaters this summer!

[Trab]

I think it speaks more to the state of literacy in America.

[DesDownunder]

The longer we can maintain the freedom to exercise our sexuality as a human right, the more we will find future generations rejecting the inhibitions, the (unfounded and unnecessary) fears of homosexuals, and thus gain the acceptance of people's sexual diversity without codemnation.

Younger people today are far more accepting of gays and lesbians than previous generations were, but there still exists a conditioned response of rejection, in not only current older people but also in various youthful cliques.

Polls such as this indicate the rejections are diminishing as we should hope and expect. The wording is not the issue here, other than seeing the need to be careful how a poll is phrased.

Most interesting!