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A recent survey finds that many young people of color disagree with same-sex marriage being the top priority of the LGBT agenda, pointing instead to other issues like HIV/AIDS and bullying. The new survey, “Moving Beyond Marriage: What Young People of Color Think about the LGBT Agenda” from the Black Youth Project at the University of Chicago, used a nationally representative survey of 1,500 young people between the ages of 18 and 30 and was conducted during June 2014.
The main findings are as follows:
- More Black (80.2%) and Latino (74.9%) youth believe the marriage equality movement has taken too much attention away from other important LGBT issues compared to white youth (64.0%).
- More Black youth (58.0%) believe that LGBT issues in communities of color are not well-represented by mainstream LGBT organizations than Latino (45.9%) and white youth (42.7%).
- More than a third (35.0%) of Black youth reported that HIV/AIDS is the single most important issue for LGBT organizations to address. Latino youth reported that bullying (20.1%) is the most important issue, while white youth (21.3%) reported that same-sex marriage is the most important issue.
- Young people of color are more supportive of policies that would provide sensitivity training for police around transgender issues (77.8% and 73.2%, respectively) and require health insurers to provide coverage for transgender health issues (64.5% and 65.8%, respectively) than white youth (66.2% and 56.3%, respectively).
The report is co-authored by Cathy J. Cohen, the David and Mary Winton Green Professor and chair, Political Science; and Jon C. Rogowski, assistant professor, Political Science at Washington University, St. Louis.
“For the last decade, many LGBT organizations have worked tirelessly to expand marriage rights to same-sex couples and the public has become considerably more acceptant,” Cohen said. “This report demonstrates that while young people grant strong support to marriage equality, young people—especially young people of color—also believe that several other policies should have greater priority in the fight for LGBT equality, including employment rights and prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS.”
“Our findings indicate that young people of color are skeptical about whether mainstream LGBT organizations advocate policies that are important for LGBT individuals in communities of color,” Rogowski commented. “The data in this report may provide some guidance about how LGBT organizations may branch out beyond same-sex marriage in advocating on behalf of LGBT youth. While much has been accomplished, young people of color are reminding us that the fight for overall equality is far from over.”
