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Nearly 40% of white evangelical Protestants now support same-sex marriage rights. That's one of the findings of a new survey from the Public Religion Research Institute. NPR religion correspondent Jason DeRose reports.
JASON DEROSE, BYLINE: According to PRRI's American Values Atlas, more than two-thirds of Americans now favor the right for same-sex couples to marry. The survey found an increase in the share of people from more conservative religious backgrounds who favor marriage equality. Thirty-eight percent of white evangelical Protestants now support same-sex marriage rights, up from 28% a decade ago. The survey also found that most Americans think it's wrong for businesses to refuse service to LGBTQ customers based on the owner's religious beliefs, something that mostly shows up around wedding services, like baking cakes. But PRRI's Melissa Deckman says Republicans are becoming more likely to favor allowing such refusals.
MELISSA DECKMAN: There's been a trend in recent years for them to litigate on the behalf of these business owners as a matter of what they view as religious freedom.
DEROSE: Meanwhile, LGBTQ people have been disaffiliating from faith groups. Fifty-two percent don't consider themselves part of any religion. Deckman says the survey found 28% of all U.S. adults to be religiously unaffiliated.
DECKMAN: We've often asked in the past, why are people disaffiliating from religion? And we find that more Americans than ever cite treatment of LGBTQ individuals by their religious faith traditions as a reason they do so.
DEROSE: PRRI found among the more than 22,000 U.S. adults surveyed, the country is evenly divided on laws banning gender-affirming care for minors.
DECKMAN: It's not merely that Republicans have become so much more in favor of these sorts of laws, but we see it among Democrats and independents alike.
DEROSE: Deckman attributes this split in part to fewer people knowing a transgender person than knowing someone in a same-sex relationship.
Jason DeRose, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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