2002 POLL- ISSUES ANALYSIS (updated June 1, 2004)

Several issues items were included in the 2002 Mississippi Poll, in association with an NSF grant that two professors had involving Southern Grassroots Party Activists. In response to interest expressed by one Mississippi resident, the results from one of these questions has been analyzed and are provided below.

Question Wording: “Now I'm going to read some statements about some issues. For each of these statements, tell me whether you strongly agree, agree, disagree, or strongly disagree. There should be laws to protect homosexuals against job discrimination.”

Strongly agree = 9.6%

Agree = 44.3%

Disagree = 27.0%

Strongly disagree = 9.6%

No opinion = 8.2%

Refused to respond = 1.1%

(Note: percentages fail to total 100% due to rounding.)

The following chart excludes the 9% of the sample that have no opinion or refuses to answer the question. It examines all adult Mississippians, and subgroups based on race and sex.

	Strongly Agree	Agree	Disagree	Strongly Disagree
All adults	10.6%	48.9%	29.8%	10.6%
Whites only	5.7	46.7	32.9	14.7
Blacks only	19.2	53.3	23.6	3.8
Men only	6.5	44.7	37.4	11.5
Women only	14.5	52.8	23.1	9.7

Note: Cell entries fail to total 100% across each row due to rounding.

Special note on question wording: These issue items have limited utility in shaping the actual making of public policy, because of their simplistic wording which reflects the needs of specific research projects.