Pew Poll Finds Support for Allowing Gays to Serve Openly in Armed Forces

WASHINGTON, Aug. 31 /U.S. Newswire/ — Fifty-eight Percent of Americans support allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the U.S. military, up from 52 percent in 1994, according to a poll released by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life and the Pew Research Center for the People on August 30, 2005. The percentage of those who strongly opposed allowing open service fell from 26percent in 1994 to 15 percent in 2005. The poll was reported in today’s New York Times.

According to the study, "(s)olid majorities of seculars (72 percent), white Catholics (72 percent) and mainline Protestants (63 percent) believe gays and lesbians should be allowed to serve openly in the nation’s military."

The poll follows other recent polls showing growing support for allowing gays to serve openly. A March 2005 Boston Globe poll revealed 79 percent of Americans support allowing open service. Recent Gallup polls have reported between 65 percent and 79 percent support for lifting the military’s gay ban. The Annenberg Survey reported in October that half of junior enlisted personnel and their families support allowing gays to serve. And in 2003, FOX News reported 64 percent support for allowing gays to serve.

"The public recognizes that discrimination against lesbian, gay and bisexual service members cannot be more important than protecting national security," says Kathi S. Westcott, senior counsel for law and policy for SLDN. "Support for allowing gays to serve openly continues to grow among all Americans, regardless of political ideology. Congress should heed the views of their constituents and repeal ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’"

The Pew poll was a survey of 1,000 adults taken between July 7 and July 17. The margin of error is 3.5 percent. Complete poll results are available online at http://people-press.org.

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Servicemembers Legal Defense Network is a national, non-profit legal services, watchdog and policy organization dedicated to ending discrimination against and harassment of military personnel affected by ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ and related forms of intolerance. For more information, visit http://www.sldn.org .

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