This is why something like this is never put to a vote.
Poll Shows Most Americans Oppose Gay Marriages
By Mark EganNEW YORK (Reuters) – Most Americans oppose gay marriage and same-sex unions but nevertheless do not support President Bush (news – web sites)’s proposal to amend the U.S. Constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman, a new poll revealed Thursday.
The Quinnipiac University Polling Institute survey found that 63 percent of Americans were against gay marriage while 31 percent favored marriage for same-sex couples.
The poll of 1,865 registered voters nationwide, with a margin of error of 2.3 percentage points, found that older Americans were more likely to be opposed to gay marriage.
Younger voters aged 18 to 34 opposed gay marriage by a margin of 52 percent to 44 percent. Of those 65 or older, 77 percent were opposed compared with 15 percent in favor.
The issue of gay marriage has become a hot-button election year issue ahead of the presidential vote in November after thousands of gay and lesbian couples were married in San Francisco and elsewhere.
Bush has denounced such nuptials as undermining the institution of marriage and has proposed a constitutional amendment that would effectively ban gay marriage.
His Democratic opponent, Sen. John Kerry (news – web sites) of Massachusetts, is also against fully-fledged marriage but supports civil unions for gays and lesbians.
The Quinnipiac poll suggested neither position was likely to curry favor with voters in November’s election.
American voters opposed amending the U.S. Constitution to ban same-sex marriage by a margin of 51 percent to 41 percent. They also opposed allowing same-sex civil unions 53 percent to 40 percent.
“Americans don’t like gay marriage 2-1,” said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. “They also oppose by a smaller margin John Kerry’s position in favor of same-sex civil unions.
“But by almost the same margin, they oppose President Bush’s call to amend the Constitution to ban gay marriage,” Carroll said.
The Hamden, Conn.-based university conducted the poll March 16-22.
The gay marriage issue came to prominence this year when Massachusetts’ highest court ruled that gay marriages should be allowed to begin in that state in May. That ruling sent ripples throughout the nation.
About 4,000 gay couples were married in San Francisco in one month before California’s Supreme Court ordered the city on March 11 to halt the same-sex marriages.
Gay marriages have also taken place in Oregon, New York, New Jersey and New Mexico, and the issue has prompted a flurry of lawsuits across the nation from gay-rights advocates who believe that barring gay marriage is discrimination.
I really do find it interesting that they keep polling on this same subject over and over and over again, and the results have kept coming up the same since they started, and have actually skewed more against gay marriage over the last few months as Mayors, Governors, and Attorney Generals refuse to enforce existing laws and disregard referendums.
Do you ever get the impression that the reason they keep polling on this and commissioning polls is so that at some point activists can get the result they want and then latch on to it? The closest poll I’ve noticed in the last couple of weeks was 52-42 or somewhere thereabout, all outside the margin of error.
Are they fishing for an answer and hoping that if they ask the question enough they’ll get it?
Just thinking out loud here.