‘Duck Dynasty’ Has Reduced Gay Marriage Support In U.S., Activist Says, But Is Data ‘An Anomaly?’
Duck Dynasty has caused public support for marriage equality to drop, says the leader of a prominent anti-gay marriage activist group, who credits the infamous Phil Robertson GQ interview and the A&E Network’s subsequent banning of Robertson — albeit very briefly — from appearing on Duck Dynasty with causing the American public to rethink its growing acceptance of gay marriage.
A recent Pew Research Center survey found an unexpected drop in public support for gay marriage, reversing a gradual, two-decade-long rise in acceptance of the right of same sex couples to legally marry. The poll released last Monday showed U.S. public support for gay marriage at 49 percent — down from 54 percent.
“Something happened over the last year to give traditional Christians second thoughts about what gay marriage would mean. What could that be?” asked National Organization for Marriage co-founder Maggie Gallagher in a recent article. “The most likely candidate is A&E’s decision to suspend Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson, after he expressed, rather colorfully, rather standard orthodox Christian views on gay sex.”
In the controversial interview, Phil Robertson expressed disbelief that any male would prefer “a man’s anus” over a female vagina for purposes of sexual relations.
“I mean, come on dudes! You know what I’m saying?” Robertson said in the interview.
He later said that his comments were not intended to express hatred or ill-feeling toward gay people, but the A&E network issued him a brief suspension after the remarks appeared in print.
Gallagher believes that the interview and subsequent punishment of the Duck Dynasty star helped persuade Americans that gay marriage leads to political oppression.
Gallagher also cited the case of Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich, who resigned his position when it was revealed that he gave financial backing to California’s anti-gay marriage Proposition 8 in 2008.
“Other cases have not received the same widespread attention as Duck Dynasty and Mozilla, but they are beginning to mount, raising fears that gay marriage means tolerance for thee and persecution for me,” said Gallagher.
What Gallagher did not say, however, is that Pew Research statisticians believe that the poll results could be merely a mathematical “anomaly,” and may not accurately reflect a public rejection of gay marriage, whether due to Duck Dynasty or any other cause.
“It is too early to know if this modest decline is an anomaly or the beginning of a reversal or leveling off in attitudes toward gay marriage after years of steadily increasing public acceptance,” the Pew report stated.
Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson was in the news again recently with new remarks stating that sexually transmitted diseases as well as HIV and AIDS are divine punishment against gay people for their homosexual behavior.
