The Americans Opinion on the Gay Marriage Legalization

Abstract

This research is about same-sex/gay marriage and its relevance to America.  Gay marriage means marriage between partners of the same sex. On June 26th 2015, The Supreme Court of the U.S.A legalized gay marriage. Even after The Supreme Court verdict on gay marriage, still there is a difference in opinions among American people about accepting the gay couple in the society. As per the statistics, the political orientation and religion of people deeply affect their opinion on gay marriage.  Another important factor which affects overall opinion is that most of the people in one age group (millennial Americans, age 18-34) accept gay marriage compared to the older Americans. So due to this reason, as part of a class project, we decided to conduct a survey to understand the change in opinion among various students in Texas Tech University. The main purpose of the survey is to distinguish the opinion between male and female undergraduates, graduates and faculty, Americans and international students. Texas Tech University is a good place to collect the data as it contains a good mixture of people. Before conducting the survey, four hypotheses were introduced and a questionnaire was created in such a way that from the analysis of the results, all of the hypotheses could be proved. A total of 145 of surveys were conducted, out of which 70 were males and 75 were females. Over all opinion shows that most of the millennial Americans support the idea of gay marriage. (Sankar Manalilkada Sasidharan)

Introduction -I

            This research is about same-sex/gay marriage and its relevance to America.  Gay marriage means marriage between partners of the same sex. On June 26th 2015, the Supreme Court of the U.S.A, legalized gay marriage. Even after The Supreme Court verdict on gay marriage, still there is a difference in opinion among American people about accepting the gay couple in the society. As per the statistics, the political orientation and religion of each person deeply affects his or her opinion on gay marriage.  Three recent issues were also discussed in the class and they were, first, Kim Davis' refusal to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, second, the refusal of bakers to supply wedding cakes for a gay couple, and third, adoption rights of gay couples.  So as part of the class project, we decided to conduct a survey to understand Americans' opinion about the above mentioned three critical cases and gay marriage.  Based on various published newspaper articles and scientific studies, we concluded that the opinion of the millennial Americans (age group 18-34) affects the overall opinion of the population. Most of the millennial Americans accept gay marriage compared to the older Americans.  The main reason to conduct the survey at Texas Tech University is that it’s a good sampling area for millennial Americans.

Literature Review

            Before conducting the survey, as the part of the class project, we collected several published articles to understand the problem. From the literature study it was very clear that there had been a clear change in opinion among Americans based on age group, political orientation and religion. In order to study further, three critical issues which happened right after the Supreme Court verdict were considered, and they were first, Kim Davis' refusal to issue marriage license to gay couples, second, the refusal of bakers to supply wedding cakes for a gay couples, and third, adoption rights of gay couple.  First literature was collected to study the overall opinion of Americans on gay marriage and the studies showed that the opinions of Americans were evenly split on this issue (The Associated Press, 2015). Statistical analysis from the year1996 to 2015 showed a remarkable change in the percentage of opinion among Americans (Schulzke, 2015). The same study showed that in the year 1996 68% of Americans were opposing gay marriage, while only 27% were supporting it. In the year 2001, 59% were opposing it and 38% were supporting it. This is a remarkable change in percentage of opinion in a short span of 4 years. In 2008 the percentage of people who were opposing went down to 56% and the support went up to 40%. In the year 2015 the situation totally changed. The percentage of people who were opposing went down to 40% and the percentage of people supporting went up to 60%. So during the span of 20 years the opinion of American people on gay marriage has changed dramatically. According to the author the reason for such drastic change in opinion about same sex marriage is the generational change. Most of the young people agree to the concept of same sex marriage compared to the older generation of Americans. To support his argument, the author points out that 73% of the millennial Americans (age group 18-34) support same sex marriage compared to the 27% of older people who oppose it. The study also shows that a person’s religious background can also affect his or her opinion on gay marriage (Schulzke, 2015; Abbott, 2015). Political background of a person can also affect his or her opinion, and it is very clear from the recent political debates and articles, that most of the Republicans oppose gay marriage while the Democrats tend to support it (Republican views, 2015).  The scientific studies show that by legalizing same sex marriages, the gay couples will be less prone to depression and anxiety (Smart, 2015).

            While analyzing the three above said critical issues, Kim Davis’ refusal to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, the refusal of the bakers to supply wedding cakes for a gay couple and adoption rights of gay couple, people's opinions have changed based on the political orientation, religion and age. Regarding the issue of Kim Davis’ refusal to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, most of the religious and devoted Christians believe that she has done the right thing (Tashman, 2015; Amanda, 2015; Associated Press, 2015).  Other opinions were that she should obey the rules as she is a government employee and she should be allowed to work as per her religious views.  But not many statistical surveys were conducted to understand the opinion of the Americans on this issue.

            Several articles describe the story of the refusal of the bakers to supply wedding cakes for the gay couples; but not many details about the opinion of Americans have been analyzed. Most of the articles say that the religious freedom is being threatened, and it’s the government’s duty to protect the people (Hanna et al., 2015; Green, 2015). The articles that described the third issue of gay adoption rights also did not conduct much survey on the opinion of Americans on that issue.  Right now Mississippi is the only state which bans gay adoption, and the article points out that the former Mississippi governor who signed this rule on banning adoptions by same sex couples 15 years ago based on the religious beliefs now thinks that this rule is not right (Lewin, 2015). Another article states that gay adoption is child abuse (Dunkin, 2015).

             Hence, as part of the class, our main objective was to conduct a survey to understand the opinion of the young Americans in Texas Tech University, based on their political and religious background on the issues of gay marriage, Kim Davis' refusal to issue marriage license to gay couples, refusal of bakers to supply wedding cakes for a gay couples and adoption rights of gay couples. Before conducting the survey the following hypotheses were made.

Hypothesis

            The first hypothesis concerned the stability of the marriages of homosexual couples compared to those of heterosexual couples. A study by Blumstein and Schwartz, 1983, prove that that same-sex couples were less stable than heterosexual couples?. However a recent article by Smart, 2015 states that same sex couples divorce at a lower rate than their heterosexual counterparts.  The second hypothesis was that the people who support gay adoption rights would be more likely to believe that gay marriages are as stable as heterosexual marriages. The study by Smart, 2015 proved that same sex couples divorce at a lower rate and also they reportedly have better mental well-being, and are less prone to anxiety and depression. Hence they will be having a stable happy family. The third hypothesis was that the opinions of the young millennial Americans of Texas Teach University about gay marriage are similar to those of the millennials across America. Schulzke (2015) pointed out that 70% of the millennial Americans alone support gay marriage. The fourth hypothesis was that, the Texas Tech Republicans would be less likely to support gay marriage compared to the Texas Tech Democrats. Levy (2015) stated that most of the republicans do not agree with the idea of legalizing gay marriage. In order to verify the hypothesis, we decided to conduct a survey at Texas Tech University. To conduct the survey, a questionnaire with seventeen questions related to gay marriage and the three above mentioned critical issues was created. Each student in the class had to conduct the survey from six male and six female American students of Texas Tech University.

Methods-II

In order to test the hypotheses we devised a survey.  The main purpose of the survey was to gather the data to test the hypotheses. The reason to distribute the survey in Texas Tech University was the following. First, based on the literature survey it was quite evident that the demography of the U.S.A is composed more of millennial population (age group 18-34) compared to older people.  Since the millennial population is more compared to others, their opinion can affect the overall outcome of the response of the Americans.  While conducting the survey we as a class thought that Texas Tech was the best sampling area, which was composed of millennial and other populations. Hence we thought that it was better to gather the response among the students, faculty and internationals.

To conduct the survey, each student in the class was assigned to collect responses from twelve or more students. We were supposed to collect from six American males, six American females and some internationals. To make the survey more reasonable and to avoid skewness of the data we tried to conduct the survey as randomly among the people of Texas Tech as possible. However we expected to receive errors, for example by distributing the survey among selected people who were believed to have a common opinion or mostly distributing the survey among a particular gender (male or female) or age group or conducting the survey among internationals. In order to avoid such bias, we tried to conduct as many surveys as possible.

            The questions were made in such a way that we could test all of the hypotheses that were discussed in the introduction. A total of seventeen questions were prepared (see Appendix-I). Among the seventeen questions, thirteen were very specifically related to gay marriage. Two questions were based on the Likert scale (1-5) to measure the level of degree of the feeling about gay marriage. The remaining two questions asked them to write individual responses in written form.

             We decided to use Microsoft Excel software to tabulate the data. The main reason to use Excel was that it is very easy and robust to make plots for inferring the data. The other reason was that all of the students in the class were very comfortable in using Microsoft Excel.  Once we tabulated the responses, we compared our results with data gathered from the literature and evaluated all of our hypotheses.

                                                           Results-III                                                            

The results were obtained by collecting the survey from 145 people. Out of 145 people surveyed, 70 were males and 75 were females. The results obtained from the opinion poll were utilized to evaluate the four hypotheses. The four hypotheses are firstly to verify the opinion on whether the stability of the marriage of homosexual couples was greater compared to the heterosexual couples.  Secondly we wanted to verify whether the people who supported gay adoption rights also believed that gay marriages are as stable as the heterosexual marriages.  Thirdly we wanted to verify whether the opinions of the young millennial Americans of Texas Teach University about gay marriage was similar to that of the opinion of the millennials across the U.S.A. Fourthly we wanted to verify and evaluate whether the Republicans of Texas Tech rejected the idea of gay marriage compared to the Texas Tech Democrats.

             Based on 145 results obtained from the survey, it was very clear that 52% of the total people surveyed were in the age group 20-29, 21% of the people belonged to the age group 30-39, 17% belonged to the age group less than 20 years old, 5% belonged to the age group 60-69.4 % belonged to the age group 50-59 and 1% belonged to the age group 40-49 years old. From this result it is very evident that most of the people who were surveyed were millennial Americans (age group 18-34).  So we should presume that the opinion of the millennial Americans would affect the overall survey. 

The results also showed that 63% of the people been surveyed were from Texas, 25% were Americans but not from Texas and 12% were Internationals. It is important to note that majority of the people participated in the survey were the Americans. So the outcome of the result would reflect their opinion. 

            Results regarding the political belief showed that 41% of the people considered themselves to be independent, 27% considered themselves to be Republicans, 24% were Democratic and 8% considered themselves "other". The people who considered themselves to be ‘other’ could include the internationals and/or the people with no political beliefs. The survey results also showed that, most of the people who were surveyed were religious. The intensity of religious belief of the people surveyed was represented in the Figure 1 in the Appendix 2. Out of the total people surveyed, 67% were religious in nature compared to the others.

The results also showed that 65% of the people surveyed had no gay family member and 35% of the people surveyed had gay family members. It is important to note that 50% of the people who took part in the survey agreed with the Supreme Court's decision legalizing gay marriage (Figure 2 Appendix 2).  It is also important to note that even though most of the people who are surveyed were religious, people accepted the Supreme Court decision of legalizing gay marriage.

            Results also showed that 105 people, who participated in the survey think that, now after the Supreme Court decision, the LGBT people do not have to hide their status. 92 participants think that gay people will be happier and healthier after the Supreme Court’s decision. 63 participants agreed that now the LGBT people would be able to participate in civic and religious activities. 80 participants think that now the LGBT people will be mentally and emotionally healthier after the decision. Because the LGBT do not need to undergo any kind of emotional traumas (Figure 3, Appendix 2)

            The results regarding gay adoption showed that 33% of the people strongly supported the gay adoption and only 7% strongly disagreed with the idea (Figure 4a, Appendix II). It is also important to note that most of the women participants disagreed with the gay adoption compared to the male participants. It is also important to note that most of the people agreed with the idea that parental love and couple's marriage stability were the most important thing while thinking of adoption (Figure 4c, Appendix II). Results also showed that 67% of people thought that there would be no difference between the kids raised by gay couples and kid raised by the heterosexual couples and 67% of the people participating in the survey also said that there would be no difference between the gay couple and straight couple. However many participants suggested that the kids raised by the gay couple would be a bit confused compared to the kids raised by the heterosexual couples (Figure 4 b, Appendix 2).

            Apart from questions created to test the four hypotheses, the questions were also created to understand people's opinions on the issues of Ms. Kim Davis’ refusal to issue marriage licenses to gay couples and the bakers' right to refuse to bake a cake for gay couples.  The results showed that 59% of the people did not support Kim Davis, 22% had no opinion on this issue and only 15% supported Kim Davis.  Results also showed that 52% of the people did not support the bakers' opinion, while42% supported the bakers' opinion. People even suggested that Ms. Kim Davis is a government employ; hence, she should follow the government orders regardless of her religious belief. However they also pointed out that the bakers are private parties and they have the right to accept or deny.

            The final question asked was to identify the people who had the right to refuse to serve gay people, and the results of the survey are represented in the Figure 5, Appendix 2. It is important to note that more people agreed that the pastors had the right to refuse, while most people also agreed that the doctors and emergency respondents did not have the right to refuse.

            Based on the interpretation of the above survey results, the four hypotheses can be easily evaluated. Apart from the four hypotheses, other facts like the difference in opinion of male and female participants, peoples opinion on Ms. Kim Davis’ refusal to issue marriage licenses to gay couples and the people's opinion on bakers' right to refuse to bake a cake for gay couples can also be evaluated.

Discussion and Interpretation-IV

            The study was conducted among 70 males and 75 females of Texas Tech University to identify their opinions about gay marriage and to validate the four hypotheses. The four hypotheses were firstly to verify their opinion on whether the stability of the marriages of homosexual couples was more compared to the those of heterosexual couples; secondly, to verify whether the people who support gay adoption rights also believe that gay marriages are as stable as the heterosexual marriages; thirdly, to verify whether the opinion of the young millennial Americans of Texas Tech University about gay marriage were similar to those of the opinions of the millennials across the U.S.A; fourthly, to verify and evaluate whether the Republicans of Texas Tech reject the idea of gay marriage compared to the Texas Tech Democrats.  It is important to note that 52% of the people surveyed were in the age group 20-29 and 21% of the people surveyed belonged to the age group 30-39. Then 17% belonged to the age group less than 20 years old. All of these age group comprised millennial Americans (age group 18-34).  Only 5% belonged to the age group 60-69 and 4 % belonged to the age group 50-59 and 1% belonged to the age group 40-49 years old. Thus it is important to note that 90% of the people participating in the opinion poll were millennial Americas. Hence their opinion affected the overall outcome of the poll.

            It is also important to note that 88% of the people who participated in the survey were Americans. Among them, 63% people were from Texas and 25% were not from Texas but both were Americans. The international participation was only 12%. Hence it can be interpreted that majority of the opinion of the poll was represented by the Americans. It can also be interpreted that most of them are Christians. Another important aspect is 41% of the people who participated in the survey considered themselves to be independent, 27% considered themselves to be Republicans, 24% were Democratic. The majority of the people surveyed were millennial Americans from Texas, still 41% considered themselves to be independent. So being independent means having independent beliefs.  It is also important to note that 67% of the people were religious. The questionnaire for the opinion polls was devised in such a way that, all of the four hypotheses could be evaluated based on age, political beliefs and religion. Interpretation of the result showed that 62% (based on the intensity of likeliness) of the people agrees with the Supreme Court's decision on gay marriage. At this point it is important to note that even though people were religious and mostly independent and partially political, most of them liked the idea of gay marriage. It is also important to note that 65% of the people who participated in the survey had no gay family members where as 35% of them had gay family members. Even though people were religious and politically Republicans, the presence of gay members in the family could have affected the opinion poll by making them agree with the Court's decision on gay marriage.

            Most of the people also agreed with the fact that now gay people do not have to hide their status and they could lead a very healthy happy life. It is also important to note that 67% of the people who participated in the survey had said that there would be no difference between the gay couple and heterosexual couples. So it gives an important conclusion about the first hypothesis, and the outcome is that people believe that the stability of gay couple is same as the stability of the heterosexual couples.

            Regarding gay people’s right to adoption results indicate that 33% of the people strongly agree to gay adoption and only 7% rejected the idea of gay adoption. The main reason for fewer people supporting gay adoption couples was their concern for the kids growing up in the gay families. Most of the people who participated in the survey expressed the concern that the kids growing up in the gay families would be confused and they would have to face a lot of societal pressure. But 67% of the people also pointed out that there would be no difference between the kids raised by gay couples and kids raised by heterosexual couples, and most of them thought that the parental love is the most important thing when thinking of adoption. So the results also validated the second hypothesis, that the people who support gay adoption rights also believe that gay marriages are as stable as the heterosexual marriages.  The data also show that most of the women participants disagree with the gay adoption compared to the male participants. But most of the Republicans reject the idea of gay marriage and gay adoption, which verified the fourth hypothesis.

            The survey also identified that being a government employee, Ms. Kim Davis’ refusal to issue marriage certificates to gay couples was totally unacceptable. Most of the people pointed out that she was working for the government and she should follow the government rules. However, 47% of the people supported the idea that the bakers had the right to refuse the gay couple, as bakers are private parties and they have the freedom of their choice.  It is also important to note that most of the people believe that the pastors do have the right to refuse the gay marriages. It is also important to note that most people suggest that the doctors and other emergency personal should attend the gay even though it was against their religion or political beliefs.  Over all analysis of the results shows that the opinion of Texas Tech millennials were similar to that of the overall opinion of millennial Americans and thus validated the third hypothesis. 

  Limitations of the Study.

            Firstly the survey showed that most of the participants were millennial Americans. So their opinion will affect the overall opinion. While conducting the survey, efforts should have been made to get opinion from the older Americans. Secondly the nature of questions that were asked was a limitation.  For example, the fifth question asked about intensity of religious beliefs. While making the survey, it was presumed that all of the Americans who were going to participate in the survey were Christians. But that cannot be totally true. Some participants did not answer certain questions. For example one of the question asked whether they had a gay family member or not. This was a very sensitive question and many people did not answer that.

Conclusion-V

The results of the survey concluded that majority of the participants approved The Supreme Court decision of legalizing gay marriages. The reason behind accepting the gay marriage could be of several reasons. The two main things could be firstly 35% of the people who participated in the survey was having gay family members. This could have forced them to agree The Supreme Court decision even though they dislike the idea. Another reason could be because of the participant's direct involvement of the popular culture, their attitude towards religion, and friendship with gay people. Majority of the people participated in the survey were millennial Americans (72%).  The result of the onion poll also suggest that the overall opinion of millennials of Texas Tech about gay marriage is similar to that of the overall opinion of t Millennial Americans. Most of the participants thought that now the LGBT people do not have to hide their status and will be happier and healthier after The Supreme Court’s decision. The participants also agreed that now the LGBT people would be able to participate in civic and religious activities. Participants think that now the LGBT people will be mentally and emotionally healthier after the decision, as because now onward the LGBT people would not undergo any kind of emotional traumas. All of the hypotheses were proved from the analysis of the results. The hypotheses were; firstly about the stability of the marriages of homosexual couples compared to those of heterosexual couples. Secondly the people who support gay adoption rights would be more likely to believe that gay marriages are as stable as heterosexual marriages. Thirdly the opinions of the young millennial Americans of Texas Teach University about gay marriage ware similar to those of the millennials across America and fourthly the Texas Tech Republicans would be less likely to support gay marriage compared to the Texas Tech Democrats.  From the analysis of the results it was clear that, the people believed that the stability of gay couple was same as the stability of the heterosexual couples. Regarding the adoption rights of gay people, most people (33%) believed that gay had the right to adopt. But most people expressed concern that the kid grew up in the gay families would be bit confused compared to the kids raised by the heterosexual couples. However most of them said that family stability and parental love were the mains things when one think about adoption. The millennials across America think gay marriage was right, similarly the survey results also showed that most of the participants were millennials and they also thought that gay marriage is right. The Republicans of Texas Tech opposed the idea of gay marriage compared to the Texas Tech Democrats. The other outcomes of the survey were the following. Most of the participants believed that being a government employee, Ms. Kim Davis’ refusal to issue marriage certificates to gay couples was totally unacceptable. People also pointed out that being a government employee she should follow the government rules. However people also thought that the bakers being the private parties they had the right to refusal to gay couple. Most of the participants also expressed that doctors and health providers should not deny service to the gay people. It is also interesting to note that the view point of males and females participants on gay adoption was different. Female participants were more concerned about the adoption rights of gay couples. Another important thing to mention was the religion has a big influence on people choice on gay marriages. Most of the religious participants believe that The Supreme Court’s decision was not right. However most of the participants (religious and non-religious) agreed the fact that Kim Davis’ denial of marriage license to gay couple was not right. All of them pointed out that since she is a government employ she should obey government rules. This shows that the Americans people believe in keeping religion out of government agencies. Another important aspect was most of the participants (41%) were considering themselves to be independent. That means most of the people do not want to identify themselves to be either the Republicans or the Democrats. It is also worth pointing out that, the present study has some limitations.  The main concern was that there were not enough older participants (>40 years old). Hence the older generations view point on gay marriage was not well documented in this survey. Another important drawback of the survey was that, before conducting the survey it was presumed that that all Americans participants would be Christians. Another drawback was that, one of the question was really personal and the question was if they had any gay family member. Many people won’t just answer that question. It would have been better if these limitations were avoided during the creation of the survey questions. However the survey was very successful not only in proving all of the hypothesis right but also gave much information regarding the Americans belief on gay marriage.

Bibliography

Abbott, M.C. (2015, September 7). Catholic bishop troubled by gay marriage survey results; Priests (and pope?) support Kim Davis. Renew America. Retrieved on September 24, 2015 from http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/abbott/150907

Associated Press. (2015, September 6). ‘Thank you, Kim': Rally supports jailed Kentucky clerk over marriage licenses. Fox News. Retrieved September 24, 2015, from http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/09/06/thank-kim-rally-supports-jailed-kentucky-clerk-over-marriage-licenses/

The Associated press (2015, July 18th). Polls shows slight dip in gay marriage support since Supreme Court ruling. USA Today. Retrieved on September 24, 2015 from http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/07/18/ap-poll-sharp-divisions-after-high-court-backs-gay-marriage/30341661/.

Blumstein, P and Schwartz, P. 1983. American Couples: Money, Work, Sex. William Morrow & Co; 1st edition. p 656.

Dunkin, T. (2014, Aug, 2). Gay adoption is child abuse. Renew America. Retrieved on September 24, 2015 from: http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/dunkin/140802

Green, E. (2015, August 13). Christian bakers gotta bake, even for gays. The Atlantic. Retrieved on September 24, 2015 from: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/08/in-colorado-christian-bakers-have-bake-even-for-gays/401249/

Hanna, J., Cadigan, W. J., Weisfeldt, S. (2015, August 13). Court rules against Colorado cake shop in same-sex marriage case. CNN. Retrieved on September 24, 2015 from http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/13/us/colorado-same-sex-wedding-cake/index.html

Holpuch, A. (2015, September 1). Defiant Kentucky clerk summoned to federal court over gay marriage refusal. The Guardian. Retrieved on September 24, 2015 from
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/sep/01/kentucky-clerk-kim-davis-same-sex-marriage-supreme-court

Lewin, T. (2015, August 12). Mississippi Ban on Adoptions by Same-Sex Couples Is Challenged. The New York Times. Retrieved on September 1, 2015 from:
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Schulzke, E. (2015, June 30). Behind the rapid shift in public opinion on same-sex marriage. National Direct News. Retrieved on September 10, 2015 from http://national.deseretnews.com/article/5013/behind-the-rapid-shift-in-public-opinion-on-same-sex-marriage.html

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Appendix-I

SL 5301-001                     

Gay Marriage & Issues Survey – answer them as you wish.

Thank you for filling out our survey!

1. ___ Male             ___ Female

2. Age:    ___ <20    ___ 20-29     ___ 30-39    ___ 40-49    ___ 50-59    ___ 60-69    ___70 & older

3. Where are you from?
___ Texas                ___ USA, not Texas             ___ international

4. How do you identify yourself politically?
___ Republican      ___ Democrat     ___ other (specify)     ___ independent

5. Do you consider yourself religious?

___ Yes, very           ___ Yes, slightly                 ___ No       ___ dislike religion           ___ other: explain

6. Do you have family members who are gay?
___ Yes                     ___ No

7. Do you agree with the Supreme Court’s decision legalizing gay marriage? 5 = strongly agree, 1 = strongly disagree

1               2               3               4               5

8. Did you change your mind on the issue of gay marriage over the past few years? If so, what changed your mind?

9. How do you think the decision will affect the lives of LGBT people? Check the ones you feel are true.

___ they will be healthier and have less stress

___ they will be happier

___ they will be less likely to hide their status

___ they will be more likely to participate in civic and religious activities

10. Do you agree that gay couples should be able to adopt children? 5 = strongly agree,

1 = strongly disagree

1               2               3               4               5

11. What matters most when finding an adoptive home for a child or children? Put 1 as most important, 2, 3, & 4, least important

___ income, financial security                                          ___ having two parents that love each other

___ parental love for children                                          ___ having appropriate gender role models

12. Do you think children raised in a gay family are more likely to be gay than other children?

___ Yes    ___ Yes slightly     ___ No difference     ___ Less likely

13. Do you think gay couples are more stable or less stable than heterosexual couples?

___ More stable                    ___ No difference     ___ Less stable      ____ don’t know

14. How will it affect children to be raised by gay parents? What difference is there, if any?

15. Do you support Kim Davis’ refusal to issue marriage licenses to gay couples?
___ Yes (she should follow her conscience)                             

___ No (she should do her job)

___ No opinion/other opinion

16. Do you feel that the bakers had a right to refuse to bake a cake for gay couples?

___ Yes, they have religious freedom to refuse to do that

___ No, they should not be allowed to discriminate in who they serve

___ other (specify)

17. Which of the following, if any, do you feel have the right to refuse to serve gays? (check as many as you wish, or none)

___ pastors who don’t want to officiate a wedding

___ doctors/emergency responders

___ bakers who feel that their cakes are expression of their art

___ artists who don’t want to create a picture for a gay wedding

___ religious adoption agency which doesn’t want to place children in gay families

Appendix-II

Figure 1: Intensity of religious belief

Figure 2: Intensity of  likeliness of legalizing gay marriage

The number 1 represent strongly disagree and number 5 represent strongly agree

Figure 3: Supreme court's decision and the life of LGBT people

Figure 4: Adoption rights of gay couple
5 = strongly agree, 1 = strongly disagree (a)	(b)	(c)

Figure 5: People who might have the right to refuse to serve gays