Poll shows Gays have Lost Faith in Religion

Less than half of people in the gay community believe in God, according to a survey into religious attitudes conducted at this year’s Lesbian and Gay Mardi Gras. Only 46% of those questioned said they were believers, while 44% said they were atheists.

This is in stark contrast to the general population. A Gallup poll for the Daily Telegraph* (December 1999) showed that 68% of society at large professed belief (with 27% non-believers), while a BBC/Opinion Research poll* (April 2000) showed 62% believed while 30% did not.

When broken down by categories, 48% of gay men professed atheism, while 35% of lesbians said they did not believe in God.

In answer to the question “Have religion’s attempts to influence Parliament on the age of consent and Section 28 made you more or less sympathetic to religious organisations?” 55% said that they were now less sympathetic, while 32% hadn’t changed their opinion. 6% said they had come to hate religion as a result of religious agitation in Parliament.

The poll was conducted by the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association (GALHA). Its Secretary, George Broadhead, commented: “We had no idea what result this survey would give. On the one hand, it has been accepted that – in London at least – a disproportionately high number of priests are gay. On the other hand most religious groups have campaigned – one might almost say crusaded – against recent proposals to liberalise the law and to bring greater equality to the gay community. Given that there are large numbers of gay people in influential positions in the churches, and yet the churches are generally anti-gay, we were interested to know whether there was a significant difference in the way religion is perceived by lesbians and gay men.”

Full results of the survey can be found at http://www.galha.org/survey/2000_07.html

* We gratefully acknowledge permission to quote these statistics.