Signs of a turning tide for LGBT rights

Two pieces of good news today in the world of LGBT rights.

First, a number of black religious leaders outside Washington DC apologized formally to their LGBT congregants for “what the organizers described as the church’s judgmental attitude toward individuals who experience same-sex attraction and their loved ones.” Wow.

Second, a new poll out from Southern Illinois University indicates that more American’s now support same-sex marriage than oppose it for the first time ever. According to the data, this is a huge shift of public opinion in just the last twenty years.

This graph, via Religion Dispatches, shows the dramatic change in public opinion since 1988. In 1988, the graph shows that only 12.4% of American’s supported same-sex marriage. In 2010, that percentage was 46.4%.

This follows on the heels of Obama’s announcement that he won’t defend part of the Defense of Marriage Act, to which Speaker Boehner only responded that he should be focusing on the economy instead.

As Jill from Feministe pointed out to me last week, that’s a pretty tame response from such a widely Conservative politician and shows that he knows this issue is all but lost for them.

This kind of news gives me a little bit of hope that we’re moving in the right direction in terms of attitudes towards sexuality and rights for queer folks.