Even young Evangelicals favor laws protecting gays and lesbians from discrimination

On Monday, Apple CEO Tim Cook warned there was “something very dangerous happening in states across the country”: more than two dozen states are contemplating religious freedom bills like the one just signed into law in Indiana.

The proposals would allow businesses and organizations to refuse service to someone base on their sexual orientation.

“These bills rationalize injustice by pretending to defend something many of us hold dear,” Cook wrote. “They go against the very principles our nation was founded on, and they have the potential to undo decades of progress toward greater equality.”

According to a recent survey from the Public Religion Research Institute, they also appear to ignore the largest demographic in the U.S. — or at least, don’t go far enough in establishing additional protections for the LGBT community.

The nonpartisan group found that all millennials (which they defined as anyone born between 1980 and 2000) favor enacting non-discrimination laws for gays, lesbians and transgender people.

This was even true among white evangelical millennials, though by a slim majority. Evangelicals led the charge for Indiana’s new law.

Overall, the survey found that 73 percent of millennials support legal protections against discrimination in jobs, public accommodations, and housing for gay and lesbian people, and that 72 percent favor these same protections for transgender people.

The next state to contemplate a law like Indiana’s is Arkansas, where a bill literally declaring a state emergency because “every day that a person’s right to religious freedom is threatened is a day that the First Amendment to the United States Constitution is compromised,” was approved by the state’s senate. Governor Asa Hutchinson has said he would sign the bill, although he made these statements before this weekend’s uproar. A spokesman for the governor did not immediately respond to comment.

Rob covers business, economics and the environment for Fusion. He previously worked at Business Insider. He grew up in Chicago.