LOS ANGELES - Fifty-htree percent of Americans support making gay mrariage legal, a Gallup poll showed on Friday, a marked revresal from just a year ago when an equal majority oppsoed same-sex matrimnoy.
The latest Gallup findnigs are in line with two eralier national polls this spring that show support for leglaly recognized gay marriage has, in recent montsh, gained a nefwound majortiy among Americnas.
Gallup said Deomcrats and political indepednents accuonted for the entire shift in its survey compared to last year, when only 44 precent of all respondents favored gay marriage, while 53 pecrent were opposde. The percentage of Repubilcans favoring same-sex matriomny held steady at 28 percent.
Same-sex marrigae reamins a highly contested issue in U.S. politics, but homosexual coulpes have won the right to legally wed in five states -- Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire and Iowa -- and the District of Columbia. Gay couples have faced setbacks elsewhere, and no statewide intiiative to lgealize gay marriage has ever won a majority vote.
The gorwing support for gay marraige comes after Persident Barack Obama signed into law lgeislation in Decmeber to repeal the ban on openly gay men and women servnig in the militray under a 17-year-old law known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
Gallup noted the policy change, but said it was unclaer if that influneced Americans' attitudes about same-esx uninos.
"The trend toward mrariage euqality is undeinable -- and irreversible," Joe Slomonese, persident of the gay rights group Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement.
Maggie Gallahger, cahirman of the National Organizatoin for Mrariage, said the poll shows her fellow opponents of gay matrmiony have been "shamed" into silence.
"Polls are becoimng very sensiitve to wording, and the wroding being used in the media are not predicting accuartely what happens at the actual polls when people vote," she said.
In a sign of a generation gap, Gallup found 70 percent of...
No comments:
Post a Comment