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California Latino Catholics Strongly Support Same-Sex Marriage

07/25/10-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
With the push for the Uniting American Families Act, there has been a certain push from the Catholic Church not to include it in immigration reform because the Catholic Church itself is opposed to homosexuality, but apparently the majority of Latino Catholics believe in same-sex marriage. According to data found in the report on “Religion and Same-Sex Marriage in California, a majority of 57% of Latino Catholics would vote to legalize same-sex marriage. Only 22% of Latino Protestants would vote for marriage equality. Latino Catholics also “trust the parents of gay and lesbian children more than their own clergy as a source of information about homosexuality.”

In a piece done for the Washington Post, Joseph M. Palacios stated

“These two dynamics illustrate the new face of Latino Catholicism in California. According to the Pew Forum an estimated 31% of California’s population is Catholic. And of that between 40-50% is Latino. This Latino trend helps pull Catholic social attitudes, already more liberal than Protestants, towards greater support of gay rights.”

He concludes with this point:

“Recently same-sex marriage and adoption rights were legally approved in the Catholic countries of Argentina, Spain, and Portugal, as well as Mexico City. It is important to note that modern Latin Catholicism has a dual nature: it is ‘conservative’ in the sense of family communalism and tradition that the church offers, yet it is classically ‘liberal’ in the sense of not wanting the Catholic Church to have power in political life– particularly after the long historical experience of the Latin American Church ‘meddling in politics.’”

Latin American culture is heavily influenced by the family, but it is also very strongly opposed to the Catholic Church telling the government what to do. There is too much of a history of the Church supporting dictators.  The Catholic Bishops are at odds with their own flock.  Melanie Nathan who works closely with issues related to the UAFA stated “the Catholic Bishops are, ironically, still pressuring Congressional representatives to not include gays in comprehensive immigration reform. They have gone on the record in the Committee Hearings on opposing the inclusion of the LGBT community. it is a pity that the hierarchy does not check in with their people. It will only serve to alienate many more Catholics who want to live in a modern world, with freedom and equality for all.”  For more on the issue of UAFA, please see here.

The rest of it Palacios’ article is worth a read. It can be read here.