by Rex Wockner - SGN Contributing Writer

More Gays than straights oppose Arizona immigration law
LGBT people are much more likely than straight people to oppose Arizona's controversial new law targeting undocumented immigrants, according to a Harris Interactive poll.

The statute, enacted in April, requires police to check an individual's immigration status anytime an officer suspects the individual may be in the U.S. illegally.

Sixty-three percent of LGBT Americans oppose the law and 45 percent of LGBT Americans strongly oppose it.

However, 60 percent of straight people support the law and 41 percent support it strongly.

The national survey of 2,698 U.S. adults, of whom 335 were LGB or T, was conducted online between May 10 and 17.

The poll also found that, because of the immigration law, 43 percent of LGBT respondents are less likely to vacation in Arizona and 36 percent are less likely to attend a convention there.

According to Harris: "Harris Interactive avoids the words 'margin of error' as they are misleading. ... The data have been weighted to reflect the composition of the adult population. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate in the Harris Interactive panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated."

HUD establishes Gay protections
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced June 7 that it will require applicants for HUD funding to comply with state and local anti-discrimination laws that protect LGBT people.

"We're using every avenue to shut the door against discrimination," said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. "Today, we take an important step to insist that those who seek federal funding must demonstrate that they are meeting local and state civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity."

Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia ban discrimination based on sexual orientation, and 12 states and the District of Columbia protect Transgender people. At least 373 counties, cities and towns ban anti-Gay discrimination and 132 of them also ban anti-Trans discrimination, according to data accumulated by the Human Rights Campaign.

With assistance from Bill Kelley

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