Catholic Latino Voters Support Marriage Equality

The Pew Hispanic Center and the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life have released data from a new survey which shows for the first time in their polling that more Latinos are in favor of marriage equality than are opposed to it, with 52% in favor and 34% opposed.

Those numbers get better when looking at Latino Catholics vs. Latino Evangelicals.  According to a Reuters news report:

“Despite increased activism against same-sex marriage by some U.S. Roman Catholic bishops this election season, Latino Catholics are more supportive of same-sex marriage than Latino evangelical Protestants, the Pew survey found, by 54 percent compared with 25 percent.”

Lourdes Rodriguez-Nogues, President of DignityUSA, offered an explanation of the favorable statistics:

“Growing support among Latinos for civil marriage equality is not at all surprising. The importance of family across Latino cultures means that they want the best for all of their members, including those who are gay and lesbian.”

The Reuters story also cited another influence:

“Obama’s declaration of support for gay marriage May 9 may have prompted some Americans, especially blacks and Hispanics, to reconsider their opposition, an analysis of Reuters/Ipsos poll data showed in May. The data found that fewer blacks and Hispanics opposed gay marriage after Obama’s remarks than before.”

A poll earlier this year conducted by the Social Science Research Solutions group found that 54% of Latinos support marriage equality, as opposed to 53% of the general population.

Meanwhile a group of Catholic and Evangelical Latino leaders are holding a press conference today to urge Hispanic voters to support Mitt Romney, according a  Fox News Latino report.   These religious leaders opposed Barack Obama in part because of his support for marriage equality.

–Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry