Longitudinal U.S. public opinion polls
on same-sex marriage and civil unions

Newsweek polls. Conclusions

Sponsored link.

Newsweek polls _1,2 (Continued from an earlier essay):

Comments:

Polls on such an emotionally laden topic as same-sex marriage and other legal recognition of the relationships of loving, committed same-sex couples are sensitive to many factors. The results will vary according to:

Conclusions:

By an almost 2 to 1 ratio, it appears that most American adults now favor making civil unions available to same-sex committed loving couples. Their numbers are increasing.

A minority continues to favor full marriage rights; they are also increasing in numbers.

This raises the question of whether a better strategy for homosexuals and bisexuals might have been to:

1. Press for civil unions first -- i.e. legislation that would register their relationships and give them the full set of state benefits and protections that are given to opposite-sex married couples.
   
   
2. Focus on changing the federal DOMA legislation to in order that loving, committed same-sex couples could obtain the 1,050 or so benefits and protections given by the federal government to married opposite-sex couples.
   
   
3. Only when this second goal is attained, attempt to obtain access to full marriage on a state-by-state basis.

This strategy might have been more successful in attaining their goal of marriage equality sooner.

Meanwhile, by a small but growing margin, older youths and young adults now 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 morally equivalent to a heterosexual orientation for a minority of humans. They view both orientations as beyond the control of the individual, as unchosen and unchangeable.

Opposition to homosexual behavior generally and same-sex marriages and civil unions in particular is still very high among fundamentalists and other evangelicals.

One might expect that Roman Catholics would reject SSM and civil unions in large numbers 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.

Fundamentalists and other evangelicals 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 ₃ -- opposition to equal rights for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and SSM -- as the real problem. They will consider opposition to the recognition of same sex partnerships as one form of homophobia. Conservative Christians would then be faced with a difficult choice in future decades:

References used:

The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.

1. Arian Campo-Flores, "A Gay Marriage Surge Public support grows, according to the new NEWSWEEK Poll," Newsweek, 2008-DEC-05, at: http://www.newsweek.com/
2. "Newsweek Poll: Gay Marriage/President-Elect Obama," Newsweek, 2008-DEC-05, at: http://www.newsweek.com/ This is a PDF file.
3. The term "homophobia" has a variety of definitions. This is the one that we use.

Copyright © 2001 TO 2010  by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Originally written: 2001-JUL-30
Latest update: 2010-JAN-21
Author: B.A. Robinson

 
Sponsored link