Within the last few months, multiple U.S. polling groups have reported that, for the first time, a majority of Republicans now support same-sex "marriage."  As Reason magazine reported in late March:

For the first time, a majority of Republicans support marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples, according to a new poll from the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI). The PRRI poll — conducted throughout 2020 — finds U.S. support for same-sex marriage now stands at 67 percent, up from 61 percent in 2017 and 36 percent in 2007. Much of the recent rise can be attributed to growing support by conservatives and independents.

In 2020, 51 percent of the Republicans polled by PRRI said they support granting legal marriage rights to same-sex couples. This is up from 47 percent in 2019 and 31 percent in 2011.

A Gallup poll from about a month ago reports similar conclusions.  Gallup's June 8 headline reads, "Record-High 70% in U.S. Support Same-Sex Marriage."  Gallup also reports, "Republicans, who have consistently been the party group least in favor of same-sex marriage, show majority support in 2021 for the first time (55%).  The latest increase in support among all Americans is driven largely by changes in Republicans' views."

Worse still, support for same-sex "marriage" has grown among those calling themselves Christians.  Reporting on the same PRRI as Reason, Baptist News Global notes,

Most people of faith also support same-sex marriage, the research shows, including 81% of religiously unaffiliated Americans, 76% of non-Christian religious Americans, 75% of white Catholics and 72% of white mainline Protestants.

"Majorities of Black Protestants (57%), other Protestants of color (56%), and Hispanic Protestants (51%) support same-sex marriage, but support drops below half among white evangelical Protestants (43%)."

Baptist News Global also notes that the PRRI poll reveals that many Christians are also unwilling to allow their fellow Christians to practice religious liberty while operating their businesses:

"White evangelical Protestants (46%) are the only religious group in which less than a majority opposes allowing small business to refuse service to gay and lesbian people on religious grounds," PRRI found. "Majorities of white Catholics (60%) and white mainline Protestants (59%) oppose such refusals, as do 54% of Hispanic Protestants, 56% of Protestants who are multiracial or another race, and 70% of Black Protestants."

Given these trends, few should be surprised that we are now debating who is a male and who is a female throughout much of the U.S.  Sadly, many who seem quite disturbed by the "T" ("transgender") aspect of the LGBT agenda have had little issue with the "L," the "G, " or the "B" portions.  This is nothing but yet another tragic example of moral relativism.

As most who pay attention to these things well know, and as the above surveys again reveal, moral relativism is rampant in the U.S. and has been for decades now.  This is especially true of matters in the sexual realm.  Decades ago, as Americans debated the acceptance of homosexuality, many Christians warned of the "slippery slope" that lay ahead if acceptance of such immorality became widespread.

Sure enough, "tolerance" of homosexuality quickly turned into a legal redefinition of the oldest institution in the history of humanity.  In other words, in spite of millennia of precedence, a narrow 5-4 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court (note Justice Roberts: liberals aren't afraid of narrow decisions that radically reshape our culture!) turned marriage law in the U.S. on its head.

Even before the infamous marriage decision, Christians across the country — e.g. Jack Phillips, who is still the target of the LGBT bullies! — were being targeted by agents of the LGBT agenda.  SCOTUS's marriage decision only emboldened the militant LGBT mob.  Such attacks continue to rage across the U.S., and now "transgender" absurdities abound throughout America.  This has even some liberals — or at least those who regularly vote for Democrats — upset.

It has been widely reported recently that multiple women who visited a Los Angeles spa were shocked to find a fully naked man (who was claiming to be a woman) in the females only section of the spa.  What has not been widely reported is that this has happened multiple times over the past 18 months.  According to the Daily Mail, a woman they refer to as "Anita" (not her real name) had a similar experience (that involved her six year-old daughter!) at the same spa in early 2020.

The Daily Mail also reports:

Anita, a registered Democrat, said she's an LGBTQ supporter but still wants to protect her six-year-old daughter's innocence.

Anita, a millennial daughter of Latin immigrants, says she is a Democrat voter and a supporter of the queer community, but felt compelled to speak out about the thorny issue in an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com.

Like far too many Americans, it seems that Anita likes playing along with the left; she just doesn't like it when those decisions negatively impact her or her daughter.  As a comment at the Christian Post on this matter rightly put it, "[u]nfortunately they also affect other people's daughters too.  She needs to realize that you either stand against evil or you stand with it, there is no middle ground."

It's understandable that an otherwise devoted liberal (which Anita seems to be) could be foolish enough to think there is some happy middle ground — between the sexual moral absolutes given to us by our Creator and absolute sexual depravity — that Americans can settle into.  However, no sound-thinking conservative — certainly no Christian conservative — should be duped into such thinking.

At Substack recently, conservative writer Abigail Shrier — author of IRREVERSIBLE DAMAGE: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters — rightly bemoaned what she describes as "Aw Shucks Conservatism."  An example that she gives is the Senate GOP's response to the Biden administration's Department of Health and Human Services replacing the word "mother" with "birthing person" in budgetary documents.

Ms. Shrier writes:

The HHS deletes the word "mother" and the Republican response is to muse aloud about this—as if the HHS has done nothing more than referred to "cookies" as "biscuits." It's a clip worth watching because it exemplifies decades of Republican failure in culture wars that have seen Leftists wipe the floor with them.

The deletion of "mother" is just one more reflection of the government's adoption of Gender Ideology, which insists sex is irrelevant (and sex-based rights, dispensable): you are what you say you are. 

Yet, later in her otherwise strong piece, Ms. Shrier concludes:

Think what you want about abortion or same-sex marriage, but neither has anything to do with the crisis at hand — or how to repair it. Abortion is an important moral and political question — but not every other serious issue we face bears upon it or derives from it. And neither same-sex marriage nor Caitlyn Jenner poses any threat to children.

If Ms. Shrier doesn't believe that same-sex "marriage" and the use of "birthing person" in place of "mother" have anything to do with each other, then she, too, has been duped by "Aw Shucks Conservatism."  Likewise when it comes to same-sex "marriage" not harming children.  In other words, there are some things in this world that have been settled for all time, and it's past time for more Americans to start acting like it.

Trevor Grant Thomas: At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
www.trevorgrantthomas.com
Trevor is the author of the The Miracle and Magnificence of America.
tthomas@trevorgrantthomas.com

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