Constitutional Law, Courts, Politics, Religion, Society

Poll: Over Sixty Percent Of Americans Support Gay Marriage

Wedding_cake_with_pillar_supports,_2009There is good news for those of us who support same-sex marriage (as well as an indication in the remarkable turnaround in public attitude in a relatively short time). According to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, 6 out of 10 Americans now support same-sex marriage and believe that states should not be allowed to define marriage as only between a man and a woman. That is a record showing for same-sex marriage.

The poll was clearly timed for oral arguments next week on whether state restrictions on same-sex marriage are unconstitutional. I believe that there is likely a fifth vote with Justice Anthony Kennedy to support a ruling in favor of same-sex marriage. Indeed, it will be interesting to watch Chief Justice John Roberts on this issue. Roberts has shown a strong institutional sensitivity and many be the most likely of the remaining justices to feel the pull of history on the issue.

Not surprisingly, the greatest gains have been seen in those under age 30 where support has grown since 2005 from 57 percent to 78 percent. However, even among the historically least supportive group (those 65 and over) support is now at 46 percent (from just 18 percent).

Republicans still oppose at a rate of 6 to 10, however. This creates an interesting dynamic for the Republican primary where some candidates have already shown movement toward greater acceptance. The trend appears in that direction. Moreover, GOP candidates face the classic dilemma of fighting to secure the nomination from the most conservative members of the party while being able to run nationally to appeal to independents and democrats. The social agenda of conservative Republicans has never appealed to as much to independents and libertarians in the general election.

Source: Washington Post

325 thoughts on “Poll: Over Sixty Percent Of Americans Support Gay Marriage”

  1. Thanks, Squeek, some rumi is always welcome. Although bam bam and pogo averted their ears, ughh some muslim poetry!!!!

  2. @Po

    I applaud your effort! Anybody can just make comments, but it takes devotion and guts to do it in verse! Do you have room, for some Rumi???

    Not Here

    There’s courage involved if you want
    to become truth. There is a broken-

    open place in a lover. Where are
    those qualities of bravery and sharp

    compassion in this group? What’s the
    use of old and frozen thought? I want

    a howling hurt. This is not a treasury
    where gold is stored; this is for copper.

    We alchemists look for talent that
    can heat up and change. Lukewarm

    won’t do. Halfhearted holding back,
    well-enough getting by? Not here.

    Squeeky Fromm
    Girl Reporter

  3. Well, and this is an Original Squeeky Theory—the physics of the gay movement and any other modern movement can be equated to the scientific law regarding The Law of Conservation of Mass-Energy to wit:

    This [conservation of mass] law was later amended by Einstein in the law of conservation of mass-energy, which describes the fact that the total mass and energy in a system remain constant. This amendment incorporates the fact that mass and energy can be converted from one to another.

    Which I restate as, Squeeky’s Law of Conservation of Energy and Money!

    The total money and energy in a political movement will either remain constant, or grow if additional money or energy is added to the system. In no case will the total money-energy decrease.

    What this means is, that after the gay marriage goals are obtained, the total money and energy expended in that movement, will still be there, and will have to be expended to maintain the system.

    I predict that two new gay causes will accelerate and emerge to sop up the energy and money:

    (1) New and improved anti-heteronormative movements;
    (2) Movements to either lower the age of consent, or find a “civil right” for minors to engage in sexual activity.

    I look for additional energy input into the system because most gays aren’t going anywhere near traditional marriage, and will resist calls to normalize their behavior. This will tend to push them back into more primitive forms of homosexuality, including pedophilia.

    As it said there at the Nambla link above:

    The issue of love between men and boys has intersected the gay movement since the late nineteenth century, with the rise of the first gay rights movement in Germany. In the United States, as the gay movement has retreated from its vision of sexual liberation, in favor of integration and assimilation into existing social and political structures, it has increasingly sought to marginalize even demonize cross-generational love. Pederasty – that is, love between a man and a youth of 12 to 18 years of age – say middle-class homosexuals, lesbians, and feminists, has nothing to do with gay liberation. Some go so far as to claim, absurdly, that it is a heterosexual phenomenon, or even “sexual abuse.” What a travesty!

    Pederasty is the main form that male homosexuality has acquired throughout Western civilization – and not only in the West! Pederasty is inseparable from the high points of Western culture – ancient Greece and the Renaissance.

    Increasingly, the assimilationist gay and lesbian groups in the United States, in a kind of throwback to the nineteenth century, argue that homosexuality is inborn, that it is genetically determined (“we can’t help it that we’re gay, we were born that way, so please don’t discriminate against us” – an echo of the nineteenth-century argument that practically solicits pity and that in no way challenges the built-in social repression of same-sex love). The middle-class gay movement today seeks special treatment for a special kind of person who has adopted a “gay” identity – “gay people” – rather than seeking to liberate the repressed sexual potential of everyone. For them, what matters is identity, not practice. The basic argument of the gay movement today boils down to the following: Homosexuals are born that way, and heterosexuals are born that way; therefore, homosexual liberation poses no threat to the status quo and dominance of hetersupremacy. This is the old “nature versus nurture” argument dressed up in new, accommodationist clothes.

    The theoretical poverty of this view can be seen in the fact that many people – including, no doubt, some in this room change their sexual behavior depending on the circumstances or over the course of their lives. If there is a genetic basis for homosexuality and heterosexuality – that is, our behavior is determined by our genes, rather than myriad social and cultural variables that differ from person to person – it is not as distinct and mutually exclusive categories, but as potentials for varieties of sexual expression that lie within everyone’s reach. (This line of antighetto thinking has been eloquently expressed by the late Italian gay activist Mario Mieli in his book, Homosexuality and Liberation.)

    http://nambla.org/pederasty.html

    IMHO.

    Squeeky Fromm
    Girl Reporter

  4. BamBam, your ridiculous arguments that pedophilia will become legal in any modern country is simply the stuff of WND, The Blaze and the fevered minds of wacky rightists.

    1. Annie wrote: “BamBam, your ridiculous arguments that pedophilia will become legal in any modern country is simply the stuff of WND, The Blaze and the fevered minds of wacky rightists.”

      His arguments are not ridiculous at all.

      Historically, the age of consent was lower than it is now. In Spain today, which is a modern country, the age of consent is 13. Are you comfortable with that age of consent?

  6. Quite fascinating though…religious bigots and sexual bigots…very likely gender bigots and racist bigots…bigotry is bigotry.

    You got me inspired, Squeek

    In the name of God, they speak
    For chosen they are, forget the meek
    Love all he said
    Hate laws they made.

  7. No fear mongering. Just the facts. The abhorrence that you feel and openly communicate with regard to pedophiles was once also held, by most in our society, when the subject of homosexuality was broached. You are as unwise, as you are unenlightened, to believe that our society is not traveling down this path. Again, it’s all about the shifting of definitions. I know, I know, you don’t get it. . .or simply refuse to.

    Your accusations of fear mongering are wasted on me.

  8. Bam bam what part of UNDERAGE don’t you get. There will be no legislature anywhere that would lower the age of consent, especially being pushed by pedophiles lobbyists. Seriously, the fear mongering is laughable.

  9. I. Annie

    What part of legally changing the status of a victim to a willing participant don’t you get? Once children are no longer considered victims–yes, the shifting of definitions, as previously discussed–and society classifies them as willing, consensual participants, there no longer exists a crime.

    How exhausting!

  10. BamBam, not hardly. I understand and embrace change, I’m a progressive after all. But to think that a criminal activity that involves a victim will become legalized in our society is fear mongering and ridiculous. The thing you seem to keep missing is the word “consensual”. Our society may become more tolerant regarding consensual activity, but not criminal activity that requires a victim to occur.

  11. Pogo

    By the way, picture the dress, big, teased 80’s hair and braces.

    I was a goddess, I tell ya! A goddess! Lol!

  12. Pogo, I comprehend your argument, but your argument is fallacious. You can’t tolerate push back.

  14. I. Annie

    You do realize, don’t you, that there are individuals who are trying to decriminalize pedophilia? It is not such a far-fetched notion that society will again shift and legitimize this behavior by changing the status of the child from that of a victim to that of a willing participant. You seem to think that there are these clearly marked lines that will never, ever change. Never say never. It’s a scary world out there.

  15. Bam bam, thanks, that was kind of you.
    As for Inga, she can only insult. Cannot comprehend a counter-argument, or won’t admit it.
    E.g., your prom dress comment was funny.
    What kind of person throws an insult based on that.
    Inga.

    And yes, your summary was spot on.
    She immediately denied its meaning, of course.
    She can’t but do otherwise, because it cannot be defeated on its merits.

    Insults and trash talk. That’s all.

  16. @bam bam

    Well, if Po does that, he will get kudos from me for his bravery! And, a posthumous Irish Poem!

    Dive-rsity???
    An Irish Poem by Squeeky Fromm

    The brave Muslim, he gets a “high five”!
    Maybe “10” when he does his high dive???
    ‘Cause I doubt his Imam
    Will view with aplomb,
    All this gay, and same-sex marriage jive!

    Squeeky Fromm
    Girl Reporter

  17. Bam bam, I understand that was what he was TRYING to do. But the fact remains that pedophilia back then as well as today remains a crime with a victim and homosexuality is a consensual act between two adults. Thank goodness it wasn’t up to Pogo to decriminalize homosexuality, because if it were it would STILL BE A CRIME. Get it?

  18. http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/faculty_sites/rainbow/html/facts_molestation.html

    “Conclusion

    The empirical research does not show that gay or bisexual men are any more likely than heterosexual men to molest children. This is not to argue that homosexual and bisexual men never molest children. But there is no scientific basis for asserting that they are more likely than heterosexual men to do so. And, as explained above, many child molesters cannot be characterized as having an adult sexual orientation at all; they are fixated on children.”

  20. I. Annie

    If you had only bothered, for once, to read and COMPREHEND what Pogo wrote–I know, one day, perhaps–you would realize that he was not equating the two. I know that this may be well above your pay grade, but he was merely pointing out that, at one time, homosexuality was viewed in the same manner as pedophilia and polygamy. The the shifting sands, with regard to definitions–what is considered vile and abhorrent–continues to move. At one time, people would have said that homosexuality would never, ever be accepted or legitimized through marriages. The very thought would have been ludicrous. It is not beyond all reason that the same shifting will occur with regard to society’s view on pedophilia, for example. Not a difficult concept. Try to get it.

    Pogo Hears a Who

    This is my interpretation of what you said. I hope that I did it justice. You were much more eloquent.

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