For the last 5 years, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, or GLADD, has conducted a survey of US adults measuring what they call "accelerating acceptance" of LGBTQ people.
Until now they have used the results to drive home the message that support of the lifestyle is the "right side of history."
However, the 2019 report is in. GLADD is sad about the results.
Be informed.
The annual survey asks people to describe how they feel about being around LGBT people, from "very comfortable" to "very uncomfortable."
They use 7 hypothetical situations, such as having gay people at their place of worship, or learning that a family member is "transgender", etc.
The results of the self-sponsored survey came as a shock to the high flying homosexual community. Particularly because the erosion is among Millennials and Generation Z---ages 18 to 34---a group GLADD expected to show more acceptance---not less.
While the overall results "remained stable," the survey showed that people between the ages of 18 and 34 are becoming "increasingly uncomfortable" with at least some of the situations.
GLADD has put out a press release trying to explain and fix things in the minds of their supporters.
They said, "It's not what you expected... The younger generation has traditionally been thought of as a beacon of progressive values."
Adding, "The idea of 'equal rights' is largely supported by Americans...'legal equality' is not the same as acceptance...Acceptance cannot be legislated."
John Stonestreet with the Chuck Colson Ministries asks the obvious question.
"Why?"
The so-called "progressive" answer.
Why would younger Americans be increasingly uncomfortable with this movement that is supposed to be historically inevitable?
USA Today says, "Driving to dilution of acceptance are young women whose overall comfort levels plunged from 64% in 2017 to 52% in 2018...it was 63% in 2016."
They note that John Gerzema, CEO of the Harris Poll who conducted the survey, told them,
"We count on the narrative that young people are more progressive and tolerant. These numbers are very alarming and signal a looming social crises in discrimination"
Notice that USA Today is predisposed to the message of the homosexual message---so is Gerzema, that anyone who disagrees or questions the movement is "intolerant", "discriminating" and "bigoted."
USA Today identifies these 3 findings as particularly alarming:
- 36% of young people said they were uncomfortable learning a family member was LGBTQ, compared with 29% in 2017.
- 34% were uncomfortable learning their doctor was LGBTQ vs. 27% a year earlier.
- 39% were uncomfortable learning their child had a school lesson on LGBTQ history vs. 30% in 2017.
Kate Ellis, President and CEO of the highly funded GLADD, told USA Today she too is surprised by these numbers. She says, "This newness they are experiencing could be leading to this erosion. It's a newness that takes time for people to understand. Our job is to educate about non-conformity."
Translated: We must ramp up our already intense indoctrination of young children in the public classroom.
GLADD has as much or more access to kids in the classroom than Planned Parenthood. Apparently, they plan to accelerate the indoctrination.
The Left, who are obsessed with "fundamentally remaking America" and our traditional Judeo-Christian values, are also concerned about Trump's recent actions.
Gerzema and Ellis both say that this is a "dark" hour "politically and culturally for the LGBTQ community amid the rise in inflammatory rhetoric and dozens of policy setbacks, such as a ban on transgenders in the military and religious exemption laws that can lead to discrimination."
Both conclude that these are "forces behind the young's push back on tolerance."
What they either refuse or choose not to accept is that the push back by the young is not a push back on "tolerance." It's a push back on being bullied by those who demand "tolerance."
The conservative answer.
Stonestreet says,
"The political, legal and cultural victories of the past decade have been led by many LGBT activists and allies to believe that the kind of complete "acceptance" GLADD is after was not only inevitable, but imminent. So much so, they became impatient not only with people who overtly disagreed with them, but even with those who were a little ambivalent or expressed a 'live and let live' attitude. Their attitude could be summed up in the words of the German poet Goeth: 'To tolerate means to insult'."
He says several reasons come to his mind.
"One is the consistent bullying by LGBTQ advocates of perceived foes", he says. "Young people dislike bullies. And Jack Phillips has been bullied. Barronell Stutzman has been bullied. Any student who dares open their mouth s in support of traditional sexual morality or gender norms, or even questions any extreme of the movement on any 'woke' campus knows what it means to be bullied."
He also believes that adding the "T"s and the "Q"s have changed the whole movement and those additional acronyms have taken over the movement. This, Stonestreet believes, is why "young women are the most uncomfortable group in the survey."
The unfairness of men claiming to be women is taking its toll on women's sports competition. We'll be hearing more, not less of that in the future.
He also says,
"Back when it was just the LGB movement, we were told that what happens in the privacy of one's bedroom is no one else's business. Those days are long gone. Today, 'tolerance' means supporting 'drag queen story hours at public libraries for children'."
A news story yesterday reported that a drag queen had all the children climb on him/her in a big "happy pile."
Stonestreet concludes,
"We often say that 'politics is downstream from culture'. In this case, the water flows both ways. Popular culture played a huge roll in transforming the way Americans think about LGBT issues, which led to political changes. But now, LGBT politics could be leading some people to rethink how they think about these issues in the first place."
And that makes GLADD, sad...and mad.
A takeaway.
First, in recent years the public has been misled to believe that our population represents a much higher number of homosexuals than actually exist.
Gallup surveys have revealed that Americans have been misled to believe that nearly 1 in 4 Americans (23.6%) are either homosexual or lesbian.
However, Gallup has found that the actual number is about 4.5%.
This lie impacts people's perception.
Secondly, and most importantly to me personally, I believe that God, sometimes, uses evil for good. We all know the story of Joseph and his proclamation---you meant it for evil but God meant it for good.
That is not an isolated Truth.
In 2nd Kings (14: 26-27) we read:
"For the Lord saw the affliction of Israel, which was very bitter; for there was neither bond nor free, nor was there any helper for Israel. The Lord did not say He would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash."
In Kings 1 and 2, the name of Jeroboam son of Nebat appears repeatedly. For example in 2 Kings 13:11, Scripture firmly associates the name of Jeroboam with evil: "He did evil in the sight of the Lord; he did not turn away from all the sins..." in the book of the Kings, a wicked king is not just simply evil---he is "evil like Jeroboam, the son of Nebat."
Yet when you read the account, you discover that God used crooked Jeroboam II to straighten out His people's problems.
God did not create evil, but often uses the evil intent of individuals for His righteous purposes, including in the crucifixion of His Son, Jesus Christ.
Due to the silence on this subject from too many pulpits, could it be that God has chosen a different path to a moral awakening regarding human sexuality and biblical marriage?
Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Informed. Be Prayerful.