Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Investigating real opinion about gay marriage among the young students in Texas Tech University

Abstract
          This study shows how Texas Tech University students think about gay marriage. This research paper was written after a survey was done with 145 students. In the survey, 88% of the students were Americans; the others were international students. The survey form contained 17 questions about gender, age and nationality, and several questions about gay marriage and issues. We found that Texas Tech students supported the Supreme Court’s decision legalizing gay marriage and didn’t support Kim Davis's refusal. At the same time, the TTU students supported children’s adoption by gay couples and agreed that gay adoption would not affect children’s upbringing. Meanwhile, the TTU students thought that gay couples were as stable as the heterosexual couples. We believe that this study will lead the way to further studies about gay marriage.(Songhe Li)
       Keywords: gay marriage, TTU, American
Introduction
       The numbers of gay marriages are escalating at a rapid rate, have become important nowadays, and are impacting all aspects of our social life. Gay marriage looks like a small village under the big country, but it also brings some advantages and disadvantages in the daily life, along with the issue about the gay marriage itself.
       Since gay marriage became legal in 2015, gays have become able to get licenses from 50 states for same-sex marriage (Green, 2015). The government allows people to comment and watch in full freedom that the same-sex license can help show the human right. Many people disagree with giving the license to the same-sex couple. For example, Kim Davis, a clerk in Kentucky, refused to give licenses to the same-sex couple citing "God's authority" (Dunkin, 2014). Two gay couples and two straight couples sued her, and she was thrown into jail. And there was a debate about religious liberty versus the civil rights afforded to all U.S. citizens.
       There are several researchers who also discuss the relationship of gay marriage among students. Anna Twite (2015) says, “I don't understand why gay marriage and marriage equality is even an issue. People should just accept that not everyone feels the same way about love.”  In fact there are several differences between male students and female students and American students and international students; moreover, there are differences among graduate students and undergraduate students. The argument about gay marriage will continue between different kinds of people, and that is a natural issue.
    In the fall 2015 semester, the class of ESL 5301 conducted research about Texas Tech students’ opinions of gay marriage. Since this social phenomenon is enormously popular, we thought it would be useful and interesting to investigate how Texas Tech students thought about the same-sex marriage. In this research, each student took the same survey research about some topics, in order to get the real opinion among the students in Texas Tech University. I will provide information in the methods section about how this research was conducted.
Literature Review
      Gay marriage is an important part of our social life. After gay marriage became legalized in 2015 (Green, 2015), most Americans supported gay marriage legalization and felt that gays should share the same rights as others (Bagnall, 2015). And Americans thought the reason for gay marriage is because they love each other just like the heterosexual (Levy, 2015). Especially among students, they also thought that love should be free, and people should not be bullied over whom they love (Twite, 2015). On the other hand, a few Americans have negative opinions on gay marriage (Jones, 2011, July). One of Kentucky's Clerks, Ms. Davis, refused to issue marriage licenses to gay couples because of "God's authority” (Dunkin, 2014). This has become an issue in the United States (Clements, 2011). Two gay couples and two straight couples sued her and she was thrown into jail (Dunkin, 2014). And there was a debate about religious liberty versus the civil rights afforded to all U.S. citizens (McCarthy, 2015).
       Gay adoption has become another famous issue along with gay marriage. Most American states such as Kentucky, Georgia, Missouri, Louisiana, Ohio and South Dakota now have given permission for gay couples to adopt (Somashekhar, 2015); others such as Texas and Michigan have been “creating new roadblocks to gay adoption”, by allowing religious groups to intervene in gay adoption (Beitsch, 2015).
      Most Americans supported adoption by same-sex couples (Pew Research Center, 2013), and this number has been increasing, according to a survey (Jones, 2011); it also shows the highest support age-group was 18-29(it was 77%); and the lowest support age-group was 65 and older (it was 51%) (Swift, 2014).
       It was hypothesized that male students would support gay marriage more than female students, because male students, are more open than female students; moreover, the male students sometimes will express the real emotions more open mindedly than female students. On the other hand, we thought that Texas Tech students would believe that gay adoption would not affect children’s upbringing. This research showed how Texas Tech University students felt about the effects of gay marriage.
Hypotheses
-Texas Tech students would support the Supreme Court’s decision legalizing gay marriage.
- Texas Tech students would not support Kim Davis's refusal
- The TTU students would support children’s adoption by gay couples.
- The TTU students would agree that the gay adoption would not affect children’s upbringing.
- The TTU students would think that the gay couples were as stable as the heterosexual couples.
Methods
      Texas Tech University students were used in this research. Texas Tech University is a research university located in Lubbock, Texas, the southwest part of the USA. The university has 13 colleges and more than 150 courses(TTU, 2015). The current enrollment of students is about 35,893, including approximately 91% of Americans and 9% international students. Most of the students come from Texas (TTU, 2015). As we knew, TTU is a fairly typical public American university and its students are a fairly typical sample of American university students. Moreover, most Texas Tech University students are young people. Therefore, the opinion of TTU students could be showing the idea of the students in American universities, even in particular young people.
      We collected data about gay marriage and issues related to it. Thomas Leverett, who teaches ESL 5301-1 course in fall in 2015, created the questions for this survey; these questions were written by students who were in the 5301-1 course. The survey form contained 17 questions about gender, age and nationality, and several questions about gay marriage and issues. The survey form had 13 simple multiple-choice questions, 2 complex multiple-choice questions and 2 simple answer questions. In the survey form, there were two questions that were of most interest. The first one was to ask the participants whether they agreed with adoption for the same sex couple. And the second one was to ask whether they thought the gay couples were more stable than heterosexual couples. The first question was to find out people’s attitudes toward the adoption of children, while the second one was to find out people’s attitudes toward the real relationship of gay partners. These two questions helped us to explore people’s real ideas on the same sex couple.
    For conducting surveys, there were some rules and all of the students followed them. These rules were: Our classmates consisted of nine persons; each of us collected twelve or more sample surveys of Texas Tech University students, including at least six female and six male students from the U.S.A. It did not matter if they were undergraduate, graduate or Ph.D. students. Since this research showed the survey was used by the American young student population, we kept asking the questions to those who were born in the USA. Pollsters could take the survey with some international students. All the answers must depend on the participants themselves; the surveyors couldn’t give any suggestions or advice to fill them out; at the same time, the surveyors couldn’t give any pressure on the participants if they left some questions blank, unless they forgot to fill out the back of the survey. Most of the participants were very glad to take these questions and felt interested.
    Totally 146 surveys were taken in Texas Tech University. Finally 145 surveys were tabulated; one survey was incomplete. Thus, we obtained 145 surveys in total as original data for our gay marriage and issues survey research. 75 of them were females and the other 70 were males. Another point was that the survey included 127 American students and 18 international students.
    Each surveyor had to write a short story or process about how they conducted the surveys and what difficulties they encountered during investigation after they finished the survey.
We built an Excel file to collect the data. The Excel was made by one of our classmates, Elliot Geikowsky, who collected our survey and data together and then sent us the final data result. The Excel included all the information about gay marriage and the issues survey.
Results
    In total 145 surveys were filled out. The numbers of female students were slightly more than those of male students who filled out the survey; however, they were very close to the same number. 75 of them were females and the other 70 were males. It also means 51% were female and 49% were male in the survey. The people who filled out the survey were mostly Americans. Fewer of them were international students. 127 students in total were Americans; it was about 88%. On the other hand, 18 of the total students were internationals; it was about 12%. In the American students’ group, 90 Americans, almost 71%, came from Texas, and the others, about 29%, came from other parts of the U.S.
        Our first hypothesis was that the TTU students would support the Supreme Court’s decision about legalizing gay marriage. The results of the survey indicated that most of the students strongly supported the Supreme Court’s decision legalizing gay marriage. 73 students reported they had a strongly agreeing attitude about this decision, which meant it got 50% in the survey. 50 students stood for neutrality, or at least they would not choose against this policy. This meant 35% in the survey. This supported our hypothesis. However, 20 students reported they had a strongly disagreeing attitude about this decision, which meant it got 14% in the survey. Only 2 students who filled out the survey said they did not know if the Supreme Court’s decision was right or not, which means it got 1% in the survey (Chart 1).
     The second hypothesis was that “Texas Tech students will not support Kim Davis's refusal”. We wanted to know what Texas Tech students thought about that. The survey indicated that Texas Tech students would not support Kim Davis's refusal. 86 students reported that they thought Kim Davis should do her job; this means 59% of students didn’t support Kim Davis’ refusal to issue the license to the same sex couple. 22 of the students thought Kim Davis should follow her conscience. This also means 15% of students supported Kim Davis’ refusal to issue the license to the same sex couple. Our study also indicated that the number of students who had no opinion about this event was 32; this meant 22% in the survey. 5 students who filled out the survey reported that they did not care about this event; it got 4% in the survey (Chart 2).
Our third hypothesis was that the TTU students would support children’s adoption by gay couples. For this information, it was asked whether students believed gay couples should be able to adopt children. The result that we received from our survey was more than a half of the students agreed the gay couple should be able to adopt children. 48 students strongly agreed with gay adoption; it almost got 33%. 19 students agreed slightly with the gay adoption; it got 13% in the survey; that attitude is less common than strongly agree. This supports our hypothesis. 29 students were neutral; it meant 20% students neither support nor disagree with gay adoption. But 10 students were strongly disagreeing and 39 students disagreed with this action. The percentages were 7% and 27% respectively (Chart 3).
      We also had another hypothesis about children’s adoption. The hypothesis was that people would agree that gay adoption would not affect children’s upbringing. Another result we got from our surveys was that most of the students believed that gay adoption would not affect children’s upbringing. This supports our hypothesis. The result indicated that 97 students believed that there would no difference between the children in the gay couples’ family and in the heterosexual couples’ family; it meant that 67% of students in the survey thought that there would not be any effects between these two different families. 26 students thought there would be some slight difference between these two kinds of couples’ families, it almost got 18%. Only 13 students indicated that the same sex family would affect children’s upbringing; it was 9% in the survey (Chart 4).
Lastly, our hypothesis was the TTU students would think that the gay couples are as stable as the heterosexual couples. In the survey, we asked the students what they thought about whether the gay couples were more stable or less stable than heterosexual couples. According to our survey, more than a half of the students believed that both the gay couple and heterosexual couples have the same stability in general. 93 students indicated that these two kinds of couple would be equally stable in social life; it means 64% of students thought the relationship between these two kinds of couples would be the same. This supports our hypothesis. But 17 students, about 12% in the survey, said the gay couple would be less stable than the heterosexual couple. Only 7 students thought that the gay couple would be more stable than the heterosexual couple; this means 5% of students would prefer the heterosexual family to the same sex family (Chart 5).
Discussion
      We created some hypotheses before we started our survey. In total 145 surveys were filled out, so we could follow these statements and come up with the results. The survey showed that this sample was from students in TTU; 88% of students in total were Americans; 12% of the total students were internationals. In the American students’ group, almost 71% students came from Texas, and the others, about 29%, came from other parts of the U.S. That result came like that because most TTU students were from the United States, which meant they had American nationality. Also, the survey showed that 51% were female students and 49% were male students in the survey. This also showed that the number of males was very close to the number of females.
     According to the survey, 73 students, 50% in the survey, reported they had a strongly agreeing attitude about this decision. 50 students, 35% in the survey, stood for neutrality or at least they would not choose against this policy. This meant that means it is easier for students to accept the new policy or new things. Normally, younger people study in school and they obtain the advanced knowledge and ideas from school or society, so it is easier for the younger people to accept the policy about supporting the Supreme Court’s decision legalizing gay marriage. At the same time, I think there is a relationship with younger psychology, because it is common that younger people are more social. The behavioral psychology of younger people makes it easier for them to obtain new ideas. This is just trying to explain the younger people’s support for the Supreme Court’s decision legalizing gay marriage. We cannot make a good comparison between younger people and old people, since we didn’t take enough old people in the survey. So we can only conclude that younger people tend to agree with the Supreme Court’s decision legalizing gay marriage.
We focused on whether Texas Tech students would not support Kim Davis's refusal. We noted that Texas Tech students would not support Kim Davis's refusal. The survey reported that 86 students reported that they thought Kim Davis should do her job; this means most of students had thought Kim Davis should do her job; this means these students didn’t support Kim Davis’ refusal to issue licenses to the gay couples. The reason for this percentage was the idea from students who had thought that everyone should have their own right in the U.S. Both the gay couples and heterosexual couples should have the same right by law. From this point we can learn how important the rights are in the U.S.! However, we know that American students have more open ideas than other countries’, so we still need do some surveys to international students. On the other hand, we also noted from the survey that 15% of students supported Kim Davis’ refusal to issue licenses to gay couples. We can learn that there are some students who preferred heterosexual couples. 
  On the other hand, we tried to find out whether TTU students would support the children’s adoption by gay couples. For this information, the survey indicated that more than a half of the students agreed that gay couples should be able to adopt children. Only 10 students were strongly disagreeing with this action. In the United States, everyone should have the equal rights and obligations in society. So the students thought that gay couples should be able to enjoy having children. At the same time, they have an obligation to look after children and bring them up. 
    One of the hypotheses stated that people would agree that gay adoption would not affect children’s upbringing. What we found after the survey was that most of the students believed that gay adoption would not affect children’s upbringing. The result indicated that 97 students indicated that there would be no difference between the children in the gay couples’ family and in the heterosexual couples’ family; it meant that these students in the survey thought that there would not be any effects between these two different families. Our study showed that we were right at the beginning. The reason people agreed that gay adoption would not affect children’s upbringing was that education for children’s upbringing includes several factors, such as school education, society education and so on. Family education is only a small part of children’s lives.
  Also, we believed that TTU students would think that the gay couples are as stable as heterosexual couples. According to our survey, 64% of students indicated that these two kinds of couples would be equally stable in social life; it means these students thought the relationship between these two kinds of couples would be the same. The relationship should be built based on the common efforts of each one in the couples, friends and other social relationships, so the gay couples are as stable as heterosexual couples if each one in the couple tried their best to build their relationships.
 Finally, we could say that we have gotten any information we needed by collecting the surveys. All of the data were useful to reach the results. However, we still have some limitations in our survey, such as the attitude of the international student or the elder people. Sometimes, international students and elder people are maintaining less open opinions than American young students, so we may get different results if we take the international students and elder people into account. I think we still need to do some more surveys to show more results or information about gay marriage.
Conclusion
Gay marriage has become very important in our social life. To discover this information, we take 145 students of Texas Tech University into our survey; 88% of students in total were Americans; 12% of the total students were internationals. The study showed that Texas Tech students supported the Supreme Court’s decision legalizing gay marriage, and they didn’t support Kim Davis's refusal. It also indicated that The TTU students supported children’s adoption by gay couples and they agreed that gay adoption would not affect children’s upbringing. Meanwhile, we can know from the survey that the TTU students thought that the gay couples were as stable as the heterosexual couples. However, we still have some limitations in our survey; for example, this gay marriage study of TTU students was a small sample, which included only 145 TTU students. The sample of TTU students should include at least 3000 TTU students to get ideal results. On the other hand, we only concentrated on the opinion of American young students; we also need to pay attention to the international students or the older people. I think we still need to do some more surveys to show more results or information about gay marriage.
Reference
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 family over the same sex family (Chart 5).
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Appendix A
 
文本框: 1 strongly disagree
2 disagree
3 neither support nor disagree
4 agree slightly
5 strongly agree
     


 
文本框: 1 strongly disagree
2 disagree
3 neither support nor disagree
4 agree slightly
5 strongly agree




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