A majority of Americans say President
Barack Obama should sign an executive order which would ban federal
contractors from employment discrimination based on sexual
orientation and gender identity.
The
poll, commissioned by gay rights advocate Human Rights Campaign
(HRC) and conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, found an
overwhelming majority (73%) of likely voters support such an order.
When HRC asked 800 likely voters, “As
you may know, under current federal law and in many states, gay,
lesbian, bisexual and transgender people are NOT protected from
discrimination in the workplace. Would you support or oppose a
policy that required companies that do business with the federal
government to not discriminate against gay, lesbian, bisexual or
transgender people in employment?” 73 percent said they supported
the policy, while 9 percent said they were opposed. Nine percent
refused to answer the question.
Majority support remained consistent
across divergent demographic groups, including Democrats (86%),
Independents (70%), Republicans (61%), Catholics (77%), Protestants
(68%), Born Again Christians (64%), Whites (72%), African-Americans
(80%) and Hispanics (72%).
The survey has a margin of error of
plus or minus 3.46 percentage points.