Status of same-sex marriages (SSM) and civil unions:
As of 2008-JUN, same-sex marriages are only available in the Netherlands,
Belgium, Massachusetts, Spain,
Canada, South AfricaCalifornia,
and Norway. Some jurisdictions limit SSM to residents only. Their legislators or courts have simply
re-written their marriage laws so that loving, committed couples of all sexual orientations can marry.
However, the states of Vermont,
Connecticut, New Zealand, the UK, and other
states and countries allow gays
and lesbians to enter into civil unions or domestic partnerships. In the U.S., these couples receive all of the rights, privileges,
and obligations that the state gives to married couples, but are denied over 1,000 federal
benefits.
A bit of perspective:
It may be worth noting that a rapid change in the
U.S. occurred over a little more than four decades:
In 1948, about 90% of American Adults opposed
interracial marriage when the Supreme Court of California legalized it, and
California became the first state that allowed loving, committed interracial
couples to marry. 16
When pollsters substitute the word "marriage" for "civil unions"
then results shift towards increased opposition. When the Gallup Organization asked the question: "Do
you think marriages between homosexuals should or should not be recognized by
the law as valid, with the same rights as traditional marriages?" the
following data were obtained: 1
Date
Allowed
Not allowed
No opinion
1997-MAR
27%
68%
5%
1999-FEB
35
62
3
2000-JAN
34
62
4
Pew Forum: Detailed data on same-sex marriage from 1996 to 2003:
The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Lifealso polls the American
public on this matter. Survey results over the period 1996 to 2003 show a major shift away from continuing the
prohibition of same-sex marriage:
Date
Strongly favor
Favor
Oppose
Strongly Oppose
No opinion
1996-JUN
6%
21%
24%
41%
8%
2001-MAR
8
27
23
34
8
2003-JUL
10
28
23
30
9
Comparing favor vs. opposition:
Major opposition comes from Evangelical Christians (83% either oppose or
strongly oppose in 2003) and African-Americans (64%). Nearly every
segment of society has shifted towards favoring allowing gays and lesbians to
marry. However, neither Evangelical Christians nor African-Americans have significantly
changed their beliefs between 1996 and 2003. The percentage of adults who oppose
or strongly oppose same-sex marriage has reduced by:
20% among mainline Christians
19% among Roman Catholics
16% among Secularists
14% among Whites
12% among all adults
10% among Hispanics
1% among Evangelical Christians
1% among African-Americans
As of 2003, a majority of those Mainline Christians, Roman Catholics and
Secularists who have an opinion on the topic favor same-sex marriage. They
reported that: "Perhaps not surprisingly, people who have a gay friend,
family member, or co-worker are more than twice as likely to favor gay marriage
(55%) as those who do not (24%)." 2
The 2008 poll showed that "... overwhelming majorities of Republicans (75%)
and white evangelical Protestants (81%) oppose allowing gays to marry, and about
half in each group strongly opposes gay marriage (48% of Republicans, 54% of
white evangelicals). Opinions about gay marriage in both groups are virtually
unchanged from July 2004. 18
Pew Forum: Summary of data on same-sex marriage from 1996 to 2008:
The poll in 2004-FEB showed a sudden reversal in the trend towards increasing
support for SSM. This poll was taken during a short period when hundreds of
couples married in San Francisco. The couples were later forcibly divorced
against their will by the courts.
The 2006 poll involved 1,405 randomly selected adults from across the U.S.
The margin of error is approximately ±3 percentage
points.
The most recent three surveys show a fairly constant trend towards greater
acceptance of same-sex marriage. By extrapolating the data forwards in time, one
might predict that equal numbers of American adults will support and oppose SSM
by 2007-FEB. After that, one might predict that more adults will support than
oppose SSM. 3 However, even
if this were to come to pass, it would probably have no impact in the political
realm:
Plebiscites allowing SSM would probably not pass unless the public was
on the order of 60% to 40% in favor. That is because those individuals who
oppose SSM are often strongly motivated and will be more likely to vote,
whereas many persons who favor SSM are not as passionate about the topic and
will be less likely to vote. Focus on the Family quoted Matt Daniels,
director of the Alliance for Marriage, who said that: "We've seen
routinely with these polls that what people will say is at least 10
percentage points different from what they do when they go to the voting
booth." 4 Actually,
it is probably not a matter of people changing their mind on the way to the
poll, as Daniels seems to imply. The difference is probably between polling, which accurately estimates public opinion, and
voting,
which boosts numbers for those who feel most passionately about the topic.
Changes in federal and state laws may well not pass unless the public
became on the order of 70% to 30% in favor. Again the reason is the passion
with which people hold opinions. Any politician who voted for marriage
equality would find that her or his constituents who are opposed to SSM
would very likely retaliate against the politician in the next election
whereas those who favor SSM would not be as likely to vote for the
candidate.
The 2008 poll showed that "... overwhelming majorities of Republicans (75%) and
white evangelical Protestants (81%) oppose allowing gays to marry, and about
half in each group strongly opposes gay marriage (48% of Republicans, 54% of
white evangelicals). Opinions about gay marriage in both groups are virtually
unchanged from July 2004. 18
Other national polls on SSM:
Date
Allowed
Not allowed
No opinion
Reference
1997-FALL
51%
-
-
Poll of college freshmen 5
1998-JUL
33
-
-
6
2000-MAY
34
51%
15%
7
" "
54
Poll of those 18 to 34 years 7
" "
14
Poll of those over 65 years 7
2000
39
55
6
8
2000-Fall
56
-
-
Poll of college freshmen 9
2001-Spring
66
-
-
Poll of high school seniors 10
2001
35
-
-
11
2001-Fall
58
-
-
Poll of college freshmen 5
Zogby International and Hamilton College polls of high school seniors:
Professor Dennis Gilbert and students from his public opinion polling
class have conducted polls with the help of Zogby International. They sampled
the opinion of one thousand randomly selected U.S. high school seniors on
matters related to homosexuality, in 2001 and 2005. The margin of error is � 3%.
In their 2001-Spring "Gay Issues Poll" of "the class of 2001"
high school students, they found:
66% feel that same-sex marriages (SSM) should be legal. This compared to
about 33% of adults, according to
polls at that time conducted by the Associated Press, Gallup and the LA Times.
Several factors influenced their support (or lack of support) for same-sex
marriage:
84% of students, who would expect their parents to be accepting of a gay
friend, favored SSM.
80% of Roman Catholics support SSM in spite of strong opposition by
their church.
80% of Jews support SSM. (The accuracy of this value may be low because
of the low sample size)
78% of students who has a close gay friend support SSM
59% of those who know a gay person favor SSM
55% of those who don't know a gay person favor SSM
On other matters related to homosexuality:
78% disagree with the statement "Lesbians are disgusting."
77% believe that "gays contribute to society in unique and positive
ways."
71% believe that adult homosexual behavior should be legal.
69% disagree with the statement "Gay men are disgusting."
68% would allow gay couples to adopt children.
In their 2005 "Hot Button Issues Poll" on abortion, homosexuality and
gun control, they found that:
53.6% support same-sex marriage.
20.1% support civil unions for same-sex couples.
24.6% oppose same-sex marriage and civil unions.
1.7% are unsure or gave no response.
On related matters:
25.8% support an amendment to the U.S.
constitution to ban same-sex marriage
63% support adoption by same-sex couples.
These data are important because they represent the
opinions of high school students who are about to graduate and will soon be
voting. In a generation or two, they will be political leaders.
The pollsters commented:
"Approximately 20 percent of high school seniors are staunchly anti-gay �
that is, they reject both gay marriage and civil unions and hold negative
attitudes toward gays, as measured by our index. Over 80 percent of antigay
seniors believe that 'homosexual
relations between consenting adults' should be illegal and regard gay people
as 'disgusting.' Both attitudes are rare among seniors, outside this
anti-gay minority. Many of our respondents thought the very notion of labeling
gays 'disgusting' was laughable.
Antigay seniors are typically observant and born-again Christians, who
view homosexuality as a moral or religious issue."
Peter D. Hart Research
Associates' 2004-MAY and 2006-APR polls:
They conducted a poll in 2006-APR among 802 registered voters. The margin of error is
� 3.5 percentage points. They conducted a similar poll about two years earlier.
This is one of the rare polls that gave subjects three option about recognizing
same-sex relationships. Support for SSM appears to be dropping
even as support for civil unions is increasing. Results for a poll in 2004-MAY
and 2006-APR were:
Preference
2004-MAY poll
2006-APR poll
Gay/lesbian couples should have the same right to marry
as men and women do.
27%
25%
Give civil unions or other legal rights to same-sex
couples
34%
40%
Give no legal regulation to gay or lesbian couples
36%
33%
The Human Rights Campaign, a gay-positive human rights group, writes:
"Catholic voters are especially wary of the amendment. Majorities of
Catholic voters say states should make their own marriage laws (53 percent,
while only 37 percent support the amendment). When asked about the statement
'Marriage is about love and commitment. Regardless of how I personally
feel about gay people getting married, I don't think it's my place to judge
these people's love for and commitment to each other,' an overwhelming
80 percent agreed."
"General political environment for gay issues is changing. In a similar
survey done by Hart in May 2004, only 40 percent of voters said it was very
important that we ensure gays and lesbians receive the same rights under law
as other Americans. In this poll, 51 percent said it was very important."
That is an unusually large change in 23 months. 13
Gallup Organization polls of 2006-MAY and earlier:
They conducted a poll among 1,002 American adults
from 2006-MAY-08-11. The margin of error is about 3 percentage points. Results
were:
On extending marriage to include "gay
marriage:"
58% are opposed.
39% are in favor
3% are undecided or did not respond.
In 2006, the opposition to "gay marriage"
is at approximately equal to the opposition to interracial marriage in
the mid 1980s.
The trends appears to be towards decreased
opposition for same-sex marriage. The Gallup Organization has asked in this
and previous polls: "Do you think
marriages between homosexuals should or should not be recognized by the law
as valid, with the same rights as traditional marriages?"
They reported opposition at:
68% in 1996-MAR;
62% in 1999-FEB;
59% in 2005-AUG;
58% in 2006-MAY.
As with earlier data on interracial
marriage, the rate of decline in opposition to same-sex marriage is
approximately one percentage point a year.
In their 2006-MAY poll, Gallup asked a more
precise question in addition to the above. They substituted the term "same-sex
couples" for "homosexuals". Opposition dropped from 58% to 56%.
14,15
About trends:
It appears that most American adults now favor civil unions for
same-sex committed loving couples, or will do so in the very near future.
Meanwhile, older youths and young adults favor enlarging the definition of
marriage to include both same-sex and opposite couples. We suspect that
these trends are based on the belief by a growing number of American
adults that a homosexual orientation is equivalent to a heterosexual
orientation for a minority of humans. They view both orientations as
beyond the control of the individual, as unchosen, unchangeable, and
perhaps morally neutral.
Opposition to homosexual behavior generally and same-sex marriages and
civil unions in particular is still very high among Protestant Fundamentalist
and other Evangelicals. One might expect that Roman Catholics would reject SSM
and civil unions because of their church's unalterable
opposition to both. However, at least among Catholic graduating high school
students, support of SSM by individual Catholics is much higher than the general
population.
Conservative Protestants remain the main organized resistance to change. If
present trends continue, then most Americans will no longer view homosexuality
as a problem. They will view homophobia 12
-- opposition to equal rights for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and SSM -- as the
real problem. They will consider as unethical those
opposed to the recognition of same sex partnerships. Conservative
Christians would then be faced with a difficult choice in future decades:
Whether to continue political action to deny the right of gays and
lesbian to marry or enter civil unions, and thus to impede their main
task which is to evangelize the world, or
To quietly back off on their activity against same-sex partnerships
and allow gays and lesbians to achieve equal rights to opposite-sex
couples.
References used:
The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above
essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.
Keating Holland, "Poll: Bush continues to lead Gore in
presidential match-up: Education tops list of voter concerns,"
CNN.com, 2000-JAN-18, at:
http://www.cnn.com/2000/
"Religion and politics: Contention and consensus," The Pew
Research Center for the People and the Press, 2003-JUL-24, at:
http://pewforum.org/publications/*
"Less Opposition to Gay Marriage, Adoption and
Military Service," The Pew Research Center for the People and the
Press, 2006-MAR-22, at:
http://people-press.org/
"New Marriage Poll Doesn't Tell Whole Story," Focus on the Family,
2006-MAR-24, at:
http://www.family.org/
Higher Education Research Institute at the University of
California at Los Angeles. Study similar to Ref. 7.
Princeton Survey Research Associates poll for Newsweek
magazine. N = 602. Margin of error is 4%.
ICR of Media PA conducted the poll which was commissioned by the
Associated Press. N = 1,012. Margin of error 3%.
Kaiser Family Foundation, referred to in Ref. 11.
Higher Education Research Institute at the University of
California at Los Angeles. Study was based on 269,413 freshman
students at colleges and universities. Margin of error is less than 1%
"Gay Marriage Is Back On The Radar For Republicans, Evangelicals But Overall
Opposition to Gay Marriage is Less Than in 2004," Pew Research Center,
2008-JUN-12, at:
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/
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