America Sees Shift Toward Social Conservatism

According to one recent poll, Americans’ perspectives on social issues like abortion, sexuality, and gender identity have shifted in a conservative direction in recent years. A second poll suggests that many Americans may be growing weary of pro-LGBT messaging by companies during the so-called “Pride Month” of June.

A Gallup poll released in June shows that 38% of respondents identified themselves as socially conservative, while 31% self-identified as socially moderate and 29% self-identified as socially liberal. The 38% figure is an increase from the 30% of respondents who self-identified as social conservatives in 2021. Gallup notes that the last time their polling showed such a high percentage of social conservatives was in 2012. Seventy percent of Republican respondents described themselves as socially conservative—a 14% increase from 2021. According to Gallup, “the increase in conservative identification on social issues over the past two years is seen among nearly all political and demographic subgroups.” The poll’s margin of error was ±4%.

Also in June, the Trafalgar Group released a poll that asked the following question: “With the public backlash against companies like Bud Light and Target, do you believe businesses should continue to promote political themes during pride month, or should businesses seek to be neutral on cultural issues?” The poll showed that 61.9% of respondents stated that corporations should “be neutral on the issue,” while 23.9% believed that they should “continue to promote political themes” and 14.1% said “neither.” Among Democrats, 37.1% favored corporate neutrality on LGBT matters. Among voters who consider themselves “no party/other”, 66.2% agreed. Among Republicans, an overwhelming 81.8% of respondents believe that corporations should be neutral about LGBT issues. The margin of error for this poll was 2.9%.

Kay Hymowitz of the Manhattan Institute asserts that “the shift in self-identification is ‘backlash against the excesses of progressive gender and racial identity politics.’” At New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms, we hope that Hymowitz is correct, and we hope that the shift will last. The extremism of the LGBT movement and of abortion rights activists requires a determined and principled opposition.