英语访谈节目:同性恋被民众接受但歧视仍然存在

RAY SUAREZ:Does that explain why gay Americans are so prominent as activists in other people's fights?

GARY GATES:Well, I think so.

I mean, I think there's no question that the experience of being stigmatized allows people to understand what that's like, and then to empathize or relate to other people who have experienced stigma. And I think that is one of the reasons why you see so many LGBT people involved in a variety of activist causes that are not necessarily LGBT-specific.

RAY SUAREZ:Paul Taylor, of course, you couldn't have done this survey without asking about marriage, and an interesting piece of data emerged there, near-universal support of legalization of marriage for gay people, 93 percent.

Yet, four out of 10 say the marriage debate has drawn too much attention from other issues that gay people face. Like what?

PAUL TAYLOR:Like employment rights, like AIDS/HIV programs, like adoption rights. This is a community that has lots of issues. For political, constitutional, legal reasons, we all understand that the same-sex marriage issue has come to—become front and center.

And literally and figuratively, it has become the symbolic issue. And it obviously has very real importance as well. And a majority say, yes, it's a good thing—60 percent say it's a good thing that it is the centerpiece issue, even at the expense of the other issues we care about, but a significant minority says, no, wait a minute, there are a lot of other things on the table.

RAY SUAREZ:So, Gary, when gay people talk about their lives and think about their lives, even though they see marriage as sort of drowning out the other issues, is it a gateway issue, that once you clear this threshold, some of those other things become easier?

GARY GATES:Well, I think in fact many LGBT people believe that's the case.

But, as Paul pointed out, I think there is a bit of a challenge here from a sizable group of LGBT people who really see, for instance, workplace discrimination as something that they experience at relatively high levels, and that they believe that there should be laws that protect them from that kind of discrimination.

And, you know, and I think these data challenge to us think through all of those issues.

RAY SUAREZ:Leaning forward, did you ask people—well, I guess you asked people, also, to self-report about questions you didn't ask and got, in your own words, some very touching responses.

PAUL TAYLOR:Yes, this is—we conducted this survey online, which we think was methodologically wise, because it's a more anonymous way of doing surveys, and part of the issue here is, are you willing to come out in a—to a survey taker?

And that also gave us the ability to put little boxes as people were filling out their forms on their computer, and we asked them for their comments.

RAY SUAREZ:Any one jump out at you?

PAUL TAYLOR:No, but 1,000 jumped out at me.

And I used to be a newspaper reporter. And I kind of know a good quote. There were 1,000 good quotes. These stories are riveting, because the life these folks have led at all ages are fascinating. And the lives of the middle-aged and older survey respondents, who sort of say with regret, you know, I wish I had come out earlier, we track in all of their lives when they came out and how it was, some good, some bad, all fascinating.

RAY SUAREZ:Paul Taylor and Gary Gates, gentlemen, thank you both.