Poll: Most Christians support LGBT equality

It’s hard to say if it’s due to basic human empathy, or if it’s mostly thanks to shifting social tides in favor of progress and equality for minorities who’ve traditionally been discriminated against. But the Human Rights Council has partnered with the Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research polling organization to find out just how many people favor ending homophobic discrimination, and the results are rather pleasantly surprising: Despite their faith’s anti-gay teachings, a vast majority of Christians are all for giving LGBT folks all the rights and protections that heterosexuals already enjoy.

For starters, they don’t think LGBTs should be discriminated against:

And contrary to the squawking of hate groups like the Family Research Council or the American Family Association, most Christians are in favor of protecting young gays and queers from persecution in schools:

A majority of Christians even agree that their preachers aren’t helping things much when they demonize LGBTs:

However, a staggering number of Christians seem to be in some amount of denial over just what their faith teaches:

I suppose I can stand a little religious cherry-picking and hypocrisy if it means they’re still voting or acting in favor of equality.

And finally, a somewhat slighter (but still clear) majority of God-fearing Christians even believe that DOMA should be repealed:

Of course, whether that means they’d then actually vote in favor of same-sex marriage (or, to a lesser extent, civil unions) is another story.

All in all, this comes to reinforce the notion that even though the equality movement seems to be plagued with setbacks these days, the overall narrative is still flowing clearly and unambiguously in the direction of equality and fairness for all. And that’s something to be cheery about.

(via Joe. My. God.)