Sexuality Quiz

Article #1, "Race, Religion, and Opposition to Same-Sex Marriage"

The methods that was used in this article was General Social Surveys, with two other surveys, but those two didn't go as into depth pertaining to religious affiliation and demographics, so the authors focused on the data that ranged from 2006-2008.

The findings pertaining to race were interesting pertaining to how many people were against same sex marriage in 2006, white people opposed gay marriage by 50%, other races increased to 45.2%, and blacks went down to 64% (87). In 2008, the percentages of blacks opposing gay marriage went down to 58%, while the whites went down to 45.7%, and other races went down to 42.6% (87).

When it came down to gender, women were more supportive of same-sex marriage compared to men (89).

Rural residents were more supportive of gay marriage than southern residents (89).

People who have never been married or divorced individuals were also more likely to support gay marriage (89).

Education also had a toll on whether or not you supported gay marriage. The higher the education you had, the more likely you were to support gay marriage (89).

Religion also had a dramatic toll on whether or not you supported gay marriage. If you identified as a conservative protestant or catholic then you were less likely to support same-sex marriage. If you were nonaffiliated, or had no religious affiliation, then you were more likely to support gay marriage (89).

Article #2, "Talking about Sex: Religion and Patterns of Parent-Child Communication about Sex and Contraception"

The methods from this article were the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health and the National Study of Youth and Religion.

When it came to the findings of how parents communicate about sex based off of their religious attendance was fascinating. 22% of parents who attend church once a week never talk about contraception with their children (89). 47% of frequent church goers reported having a long discussion about sexual morality with their children (89). Members of the Black Protestant Church had the greatest amount of communication and comfort when talking about sexual topics to their children (89). Roman Catholics, Jews, Mormons, and people who were unaffiliated had lower levels of communication with their children about sex (89). Mormons put up a wall and tend to avoid the talk about the infamous "birds and bees" (89). Mainline Protestants had the lowest percentage rate of constant conversations about sex with their children, and also had the lowest rate of feeling at ease when discussing sex (89). A few other religions on the NSYR survey, except none for the Mormons, never talked to their child or children about sex (89). Even if you didn't identify with a certain religion, they were not likely to have the talk about sex with their children (89). Black Protestants had no issue in discussing birth control compared to Roman Catholics and Mainline Protestants (92).

Racial backgrounds took an interesting toll about the infamous talk. In this article, African-American parents were three times more likely to talk to their children about sex than Asian- American parents (92). Asian American, Whites, and Hispanics were less likely to talk about the morals of sex to their children than African- American parents (92).

The most interesting thing I found during this article was that parents of young girls were more likely to have the sex talk than parents who had little boys (92). I found that interesting because sex is characterized as to be more important for men because we don't shy away from discussing sex, as normally do women.

Richard James 598 words