Northern states, Canada share values
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| Fri, 12-12-2003 - 2:38pm |
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/152194_canadapoll12.html
Northern states, Canada share values
Poll says split is actually within U.S.
Friday, December 12, 2003
By SHAWN MCCARTHY
THE (TORONTO) GLOBE AND MAIL
NEW YORK -- Americans from the northern states often have more values in common with their Canadian neighbors than they do with their cousins from southern states, according to a leading U.S. pollster.
Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center, rejected assertions by many of his colleagues that Canada and the United States are on divergent paths leading to a widening values gap.
"When we look deeper into the data, we find the gap between Americans and Canadians is not a national gap, it's a regional one," Kohut told the Canadian Society of New York this week.
For example, the United States is both more religious and more secular than Canada, with religious intensity on the rise in the South and Southwest and church adherence on the decline in the Northeast and on the West Coast, he said.
Americans from the North, particularly New England, are less religious, more tolerant of homosexuality and less likely to regard a husband as the dominant head of the family than their counterparts in southern states.
On such issues, northerners' views are strikingly close to the norms in adjoining areas of Canada, although Kohut said that in some regions of Canada -- notably Southern Alberta -- moral and social views are more in tune with those of the Southern United States.
A number of analyses have mentioned a growing social divide between the United States and Canada, highlighted by the power of the evangelical right in the White House and the Liberal government's move to decriminalize marijuana and allow same-sex marriages.
Last week, The New York Times carried a front-page story describing a "chasm that has opened up on social issues that go to the heart of fundamental values." But Kohut said that chasm is as pronounced within the two countries as it is across the border. The Pew Center conducted a series of polls last month, testing U.S. attitudes toward homosexuality and other social issues.
On gay rights, there is a "general liberalizing trend" in the United States, he said, adding that regions with large evangelical populations are lagging the more secular areas.
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Renee
cl-Libraone
What I was saying was that HISTORICALLY there were more divergant cultures living in the coastal areas so that historically (going back many many generations) there was more exposure to differing viewpoints, cultures, religions and to some degree, wealth etc...This is just a fact that places blame on no one.
All you have to do however is go back just 50-25 years or so and compare and contrast the demographics of the majority of the southern states to the coastal/northern areas (as well as general tolerance levels for differences due to exposure) and you do see a stark difference.
This is also not to say that there were/are not terrible instances of racism everywhere or that there were not instances of tolerance and kindness either....just generally, people in the coastal areas were not "thrown for a loop" 40 years when (for example) a family wearing saris walking down main street of a town and did not generate a lot of comments and staring.
This same observation applies to the coastal/cosmopolitain areas of Canad as opposed to those in central Canada.
Edited 12/16/2003 10:08:20 AM ET by suemox
I think, however, that you would have a hard time making that case for coastal cities in general, of which there are more in the south being a reason for Northern & Southern regional differences. If that were the case, you'd see cultural similarities up and down the Atlantic & Pacific & Gulf coasts with a separate in-land culture.
Renee
There are no lws that foster discrimation of ANYONE. Wrong there.
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Once again...they do.
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WHY does anyone need the government to reconize their marriage? Gay people can marry in a church, they can live with their partner, they can work anywhere they want. Like one other poster here stated...Call a spade a spade...Gay rights= Legalize gay marriage. Aren't you one of those liberals that thinks religion/church whatever you want to call it should be separate?
There are no lws that foster discrimation of ANYONE. Wrong there.
I think you might want to look into the laws in Texas that were recently overturned???
Because the differences we are talking about are regional I think each region has its own special profile and reasons why one is more conservative than another. Generally though, the more a person has been exposed to a variety of different experiences and people, the more liberal they tend to be. I suppose you would have to qualify this further and say that these exposures would have to be positive ones. Negative exposures would probably result in a more conservative/careful approach.
I was with you until I got here. If you're using 'liberal' to mean tolerant, I agree. If you are using it in the political sense, I don't. As I mentioned on another thread, Republicans tend to be better educated than Democrats which translates into more exposure to new experiences and people.
Renee
Laws about sexual acts have been on the books for YEARS. Those are those laws that no one pays any attention to. Got news for ya...MOST STATES have them. Oh yeah...they apply to heterosexuals as well. Try again. As for the don't ask/don't tell...GIVE ME A BREAK. I could give a rats reat who you want to have sex with. It is NO ONE'S business who you sleep with. It is unprofessional as well as stupid to discuss whom your sleeping with.
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AGAIN...why does this matter? Do you go around telling everyone about who you are sleeping with? Who cares? No one wants to hear about any one else's sex life. THat is just dumb.
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Ever hear of a WILL?? Try again. You can leave any of these things you listed above to anyone you chose in a will. I am married, BUT if I didn't leave certain things in a WILL that I want taken care of, my husband would have NO legal right to them. Marriage doesn't help ANYTHING you listed above.
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What legal protections?? Last time I checked...the state recognizes my marriage and I a pay a tax penalty. So please do tell of these protections you speak of??
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Not buying thsi either. My SO could make ANY medical decisions etc with one easy document...A WILL. I think you can pick a kit up at your local post office. The inheritance, a will takes care of that too. Sorry the buying the home thing is wrong too. I work with 2 men both gay, both have partners, BOTH owned homes together. I have hetero couples that aren't married that bought homes together. No problem.
I have no idea where you live. In the US doing anything you listed above can easily be taken care of. Marriage doesn't fix ANY of those things. Ever hear of Terri (I forget her last name)she lives in Flordia. She has been living with serious brain damage for years, and her husband wants to let her die. Her family has fought him and tied him up in court for years. Again marriage fixes NOTHING...a will does.
A will is all good to have, but wills are quite easily contested. I could leave all my wordly posessions to my brother when I die, but my husband would still have a pretty good legal case should he decide to contest my will, by virtue of his being legally married to me. The reverse would also be true, and in fact, my brother would probably have greater legal weight than my gay partner would.
A legal marriage (partnership, etc) also allows certain 'rights' that other relationships do not have, marital privilege being a very big one. Medical information/decision-making is another.
It's all well and good to say that we should all have wills (which, really, we all should), but there's extra weight carried with a legal marriage and or blood relationship.
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