No traction for Bush in the culture wars:
Poll Finds Growing Support for Gay Civil Unions
By Richard Morin and Claudia Deane
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, March 10, 2004; Page A06
Public support appears to be growing for legalizing civil unions for same-sex couples, as well as for allowing states to make their own laws regulating gay marriage, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll.
About half the country -- 51 percent -- favors allowing gay couples to form civil unions with the same basic legal rights as married couples, up 6 percentage points in less than a month. A slightly larger majority also rejected amending the U.S. Constitution to ban same-sex marriages in favor of allowing states to make their own laws, an increase of 8 percentage points in recent weeks.
But it's too early to draw firm conclusions from these results. Polling on gay marriage has been particularly volatile. Support for giving states the right to decide on who can get married stood at 58 percent in January, dipped to 45 percent in February and now stands at 53 percent in the latest Post-ABC News poll.
The survey comes as the controversy over same-sex unions continues to build across the nation. In California, Oregon, New York and New Jersey, local officials have issued marriage licenses in the past month to gay couples. President Bush has said he supports a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, casting the issue into the middle of the 2004 presidential campaign.
Fifty-nine percent of Americans polled oppose same-sex marriage, up 4 percentage points from last month.
Still, the survey suggests that Bush's endorsement of a constitutional ban is far from popular. Overall, 52 percent said they disapprove of the way Bush is handling the issue of same-sex marriage, while 44 percent approve. And when asked which candidate would better handle the issue, the public was divided evenly between Bush and Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), the likely Democratic presidential nominee.
At the same time, Bush could reap political benefits from his endorsement. The survey suggests that the issue is more of a voting concern for opponents of same-sex marriage than for its advocates.
Those opposed to gay marriage are more than twice as likely as supporters to say they could not vote for a candidate who did not share their view on this issue. Overall, slightly more than a third of the public says same-sex marriage is important in deciding which presidential candidate to support this year, the least important of a dozen issues tested in the latest Post-ABC News poll, including the economy, health care and the war on terrorism.
A total of 1,202 randomly selected adults were interviewed March 4 to 7 for this survey. Margin of sampling error for the overall results is plus or minus 3 percentage points.
The poll comes after some supporters of same-sex marriage have expressed fears that the issue was moving too quickly. They fear the sight of same-sex couples kissing on courthouse steps may prompt a public backlash that could block even modest changes in the legal status of same-sex couples.
The survey found the country deeply divided along and even within partisan lines over exactly what rights, if any, to extend to same-sex couples. About six in 10 Democrats and independents support allowing civil unions for gay couples, while an equally large majority of Republicans oppose it.
Six in 10 Democrats and independents oppose a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages, while nearly as large a proportion of Republicans favor an amendment. |
