Anti-gay bias surging 'sharply' among least expected groups: report

The success of the TV show "Heated Rivalry," about two closeted hockey players who fall in love, may be masking the fact that anti-gay bias has "surged particularly sharply" since 2020, say two research psychologists in a New York Times opinion piece.

Five years after the U.S. Supreme Court's 2015 decision that found same-sex couples have the same rights and responsibilities to marriage as their different-sex peers, support for gay people began to "sharply reverse," according to Dr. Tessa E.S. Charlesworth and Dr. Eli J. Finkel.

Perhaps most "surprising" are the groups where anti-gay bias is surging.

Charlesworth and Finkel noted that anti-gay bias trends "were distinctly robust among the youngest American adults — those under 25. This group increased its animus against marginalized groups in general and gay people in particular at a faster rate than older Americans did."

"Also surprising is that although anti-gay bias has risen faster among conservatives, it has also risen among liberals," they noted.

A 2024 Gallup poll found that support for same-sex marriage was dropping, especially among Republicans.

When asked if marriage equality should be legal, Republicans’ support fell to 46% from a high of 55% in 2021 and 2022. But support also fell among Democratic and independent voters who were asked the same question.

The percentage of Americans who think homosexuality is morally acceptable had also fallen since 2022’s record high. In that year, 71% thought it was morally OK to be gay, but that fell to 64% in 2023.

Charlesworth and Finkel acknowledge that they are unsure of why support for gay people has reversed.

They speculate that social instability and anti-establishment sentiment could be to blame.

"Gay and lesbian people, newly woven into the fabric of mainstream society, may have been collateral damage in a broader revolt against a system that felt broken, especially among younger generations grappling most intensely with uncertainty about their future," the researchers wrote.

And they issued a warning.

"At a time when social advances can coexist with backlash, watching queer stories on television can feel comforting. But comfort on the couch is not the same thing as progress."