Love Is Love for Latinos
*More Latinos are in favor of same-sex marriage. No different from the general public. So much for the myth of the socially conservative Latino. VL
By Dan Cox, U.S. News & World Report
Before Donald Trump suggested that Mexican immigrants were largely criminals and rapists; before Ted Cruz dubbed illegal immigrants “undocumented Democrats” and before the 2012 GOP autopsy signaled a growing concern over the party’s difficulty attracting Latino voters, there was a sense among conservative pundits and elected leaders that Latinos could be an ally to the conservative cause. Charles Krauthammer, for instance,argued that Latinos are a “natural Republican constituency” because they are family-oriented, religious and socially conservative. The problem with this analysis, at least when it comes to same-sex marriage, is that Latinos have never been uniquely opposed to gay rights. Rather, their views have mirrored the general public and have followed roughly the same trajectory. Today, a majority (54 percent) of Latinos in the U.S. favor allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry legally; nearly identical to the support among the public overall.
