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”

  2. Pogo, what makes for a boring blog is an echo chamber. This isn’t a COac meeting, it’s a blog that allows diverse opinions. As far as attacking ones political opposites, Pogo, you can’t get through one day without demonizing liberals, gays, Muslims, feminists, as I said, you are very touchy for one who lives in a glass house. Now how about getting back on topic.

    It basically has boiled down to this Conservatives are hopelessly behind the times, not in touch with the majority and they will pay for this dearly in 2016.

  3. Bam bam
    She makes it her job to attack attack attack, to avoid, eliminate and destroy diverse opinions.
    It makes for a boring blog, to be sure.
    It’s not worth the time to post here when she and Max and the other tommy gun poo flingers make up half the comments.
    Boring.

  4. Bambam, your entire comment @1:22 is bizzare and toxic. If challenging another commenter or their sources cannot be tolerated, perhaps you are out of your depth here.

    1. Pogo Hears a Who

      Again, my apologies for asking what I thought was a normal question as to your source for the quote. It appears as though Toxic Annie has deemed all questions, even those not addressed to her, as an opportunity to bash any and all civil discussion. Again, as Nick has pointed on, on several occasions, the appearance of certain participants creates a toxic mix. It really is unfortunate. Her odd and strange reactions are then explained, by her, as challenging your sources? I just asked what the source was of a very well-written quote, which is a normal question. Her response, was, anything but normal.

  5. Pogo Hears a Who

    Thank you for the cite.

    Even a straightforward question, posed to you, and you alone, is somehow blown out of context and reacted upon in bizarre and disturbed manner by a certain person. Sorry. Didn’t expect such a imbalanced and crazy response to a legitimate question asked of you and you alone. I guess that I should’ve known better. As Nick has said, certain people are simply toxic.

  6. Pogo, those who live in glass houses, you know the saying…

    Why do you get so personally insulted when someone dismisses your source? It’s done to liberals here all the time, you need to grow a thicker skin.

  7. Jim22

    One can always tell when an argument has no foundation when, “well if you want this then that means that that and that and that will happen”. What you imply is two positions. Firstly, that nothing should change for fear of everything changing. Secondly, that a subset of society, religion should determine what should change and what should remain the same.

    The society we know as the United States has continually placed its secular and democratic way of life above any of the subsets. That is to say, no religion will determine the value system for all.

    If nothing should change for fear of everything changing then how did we get rid of slavery?

    Mankind is a species that evolves societally as well as physiologically. If there is a supreme being responsible for this species it follows that this being has given mankind control of its own destiny or it would have revealed itself to all. That means that mankind must evolve. Adhering to one or another of a set of dictates based on one or another fairy tale is as far removed from evolution as can be. We can do better than Christianity, Islam, Judaism, or any of the other dictates. We have done better without them.

    Religion servers a purpose for some. There is no threat to religion in our secular society, as long as we remain a secular society and all follow the laws developed thus far and yet still evolving.

    Aside from that. Could you explain Russell Crowe and the rock people. for me?

  8. Yes indeed I know that Pogo, I’ve done that myself, many times. But it’s a courtesy to include a link to your source. Most of us here who quote people are able to do so, so can you.

  10. “Pogo’s got phobia. Again.”

    That’s how the transgenders closed down the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival after 40 years.

    All they do is destroy.
    They have nothing to replace our culture, however, just unshackled id supervised by an authoritarian government superego.

  11. Pogo, liberal sources get bashed all the time. You cannot make a comment without blaming liberalism for all the nation’s problems. Doctor heal thyself.

  14. Inga, people can cut and paste the text and find my source in 2 seconds via Google.

    Others, like Annie, use logical fallacies as their only arguments, here being an attack on the source because of who praised it.

  17. “Quoted by
    Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Mark Steyn, Daniel Pipes , Glenn Reynolds, Allen West, Lou Dobbs, Dick Morris, Ed Driscoll, Richard Fernandez, Andrew Bostom, Caroline Glick, Andrew Bolt, Pamela Geller, Tim Blair, Judith Klinghoffer, Phyllis Chesler, Robert Spencer, Melanie Philips , Michelle Malkin, Victor Davis Hanson, The Blaze, National Review and FOX News”
    *****************************************
    Of course, and that is why Pogo often doesn’t list his sources.

  18. @swarthmoremom

    You said, “Well I think you should then be excited that so many gay couples want to commit and raise children in a stable home.”

    That clueless comment is what makes the whole gay marriage farce sooo hilarious and sad at the same time! You live in some delusional little world where “little Johnny and Bruce are such a cute little gay couple, just like Brad and Janet down the street!” OMG, you are sooo bourgeois it’s pathetic! Do you even have any idea exactly how many gays ever get married to their same sex partner??? Or, of those so-called marriages between men particulary, how few have any real relationship to straight marriages???

    Read this, by a gay dude:

    Both sets of stories, Sully’s and mine, reveal truths about gay relationships on the road to marriage equality. The public stories focus on the universal experiences of straights and gays, while the private ones touch on the particular gay experience of sex. These latter stories—so integral to how gay men relate to each other, are left out of the conversation about gay marriage, by and large. Where straight unions idealize fidelity, gay men’s version of a lifelong commitment doesn’t necessarily include forsaking all others.

    These arrangements can be built right into the institution of marriage. Peter Zupcofska, a leading marriage and divorce attorney for same-sex couples, says he’s dealt with premarital agreements between gay men in which they’ve agreed that sex with other people “would not be a reason to penalize each other.” Before they ever said “I do,” they wrote a contract with “the intention that they’d have an open relationship once they were married.”

    Zupcofska says he has never drawn up such a clause for a heterosexual couple nor, fascinatingly, for a lesbian couple. A study out of UCLA found that two-thirds of formally legalized same-sex couples are made up of women; yet, nearly all the studies about sex and monogamy in same-sex couples focus exclusively on men.

    http://gawker.com/master-bedroom-extra-closet-the-truth-about-gay-marri-514348538

    It’s a really fascinating little article. I like this little blurb, too!

    Gay-rights groups are often nervous about sociologists or reporters looking too closely at what really happens in the bedrooms of gay relationships, out of fear that anti-gay activists will bludgeon them with a charge of sexual promiscuity, as a reason to deny them equal rights. But now that gays and lesbians are on the cusp of having access to marriage equality, will the conversation about monogamy change within queer culture? And would straight support have helped gays get the marriage rights they now have if the truly complex nature of sexual boundaries for gay couples were more openly talked about?

    You see, you are one of the “ignorant” ones, who don’t really know what goes on, even to the point of being able to ask questions about it, I am not slamming your position here, because your opinion about gay marriage is not better or worse than mine. It is just an opinion, and we are both entitled to have one.

    But I am slamming the ignorance with which you approach the problem, as evidenced by your “that so many gay couples want to commit” – – -NO, they don’t want to “commit.” They seek a special gay snowflake marriage. And this is not even getting into how many gays do not, and will not marry. Which is like 90%+. Gays are even more marriage-phobic than Blacks. (where about 70% eschew marriage) What is it with the Democratic Party’s main minorities and a a lack of commitment???

    And “stable”??? Did you smoke something funny this morning??? Unless science figures out how to make little Frankenstein kids, every single gay marriage with kids, will be a “step-parent” home. Every single darn one of them. Step parenting can work, but anybody who has been in that situation also knows that it can be a real problem which requires special attention and care. We don’t have “wicked stepmother” fairy tales for no reason. it really takes some special attention and work.

    Sooo, please recognize that there is more to the whole gay marriage thing than what you seem to have considered. If you actually looked into some of these things, you may not change your overall opinion, but you may come out with less smugness and more respect for the people who disagree with you.

    Squeeky Fromm
    Girl Reporter

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