Subscribe to Breaking News
Loading ...Poll: Mixed views on LGBT rights
04.30.2009 9:30am EDT
(New York City) A new national public survey has found Americans are conflicted over the term “marriage” for gays but supportive of a number of LGBT issues.
The survey of 2,041 registered voters nationwide was taken by Quinnipiac University’s polling institute, which said it was one of most comprehensive polls ever on attitudes toward a variety of LGBT questions.Repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
By 56-37 percent, voters said the ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military should be repealed.
Among voters with family in the military, the margin was 50-43 percent for repeal. Almost two-thirds of Catholic respondents supported repeal, but white evangelical Christians supported the current ban, 53-40 percent.
Passage of ENDA
The Quinnipiac poll, however, found most Americans do not favor passage of federal legislation guaranteeing job and housing protections for members of the LGBT commnity.
By 50-44 percent, survey respondents rejected the argument that ending discrimination against gays and lesbians is as necessary today as ending discrimination against blacks was in the 1960s.
Repeal of Federal DOMA
Voters also narrowly support maintaining the Federal Defense of Marriage Act which bars the government for any recognition of same-sex couples.
By 50-44 percent, voters supported the federal law.
Marriage
Despite support for federal DOMA, voters believe their states should provide some recognition of gay couples, but not marriage.
Fifty-five percent of voters said they did not want their state to allow same-sex couples to marry. Thirty-eight percent were in favor.
However, by 57-38 percent, they favored allowing such couples to form civil unions that would provide marriage-like rights and by 53-40 percent they supported allowing same-sex couples to adopt children.
LGBT Visibility
Asked if society is paying too much attention to the needs of gays and lesbians, 49 percent of voters said yes, while 21 percent said there’s too little attention and 22 percent said it’s “about right.”
“Americans have nuanced and at times inconsistent views about gay rights issues. For instance, 60 percent think preventing gays from serving in the military is discrimination, but 51 percent don’t think preventing gays from marrying is discrimination,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
“In general, Americans tend to be more supportive when it comes to narrow equity questions like serving in the military or collecting federal benefits,” Brown added. “But they are less accepting of more philosophical issues such as equating gay rights with civil rights for blacks and the belief that people are born gay rather than it being a choice. For example, 65 percent of those who think people are born gay support legalized gay marriage compared to 15 percent among those who say being gay is a personal choice.”
Four percent of respondents said they are gay or bisexual, while 63 percent said they have close friends or family members who are gay. Among those with a gay friend or relative, half supported same-sex marriage, while those without a gay friend or relative were opposed by 70-25 percent.
The New Hampshire Senate on Wednesday passed legislation that would make the state the fifth in the nation where same-sex couples can wed. The bill now goes to Gov. John Lynch who has said he believes the current civil union law works fine, but has not said if he would veto the bill.
In Maine, a Senate committee voted Tuesday to recommend legislation to allow same-sex marriage be passed by the full Senate.
Same-sex marriage is legal in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont and Iowa.
New York Gov David Paterson (D) has unveiled legislation to allow same-sex couples to marry in the Empire State. In California, the Supreme Court is expected to rule in the next few weeks on the legality of Prop 8, the voter-approved measure banning gay marriage in that state.
President Obama has stated he is not in favor of same-sex marriage but does support civil unions. He also supports repeal of Don’t Ask and DOMA and the passage of ENDA and the Matthew Shepard hate crimes act.
Earlier this week, a CBS News/New York Times poll found that 42 percent of Americans believe same-sex couples should have the right to marry, a jump in support of nearly 10 percent over a similar CBS/Times poll a month earlier that found support at 33 percent.
it’s interesting they got these results. in the meantime, the folks at washpost/abc found some interesting and different results. you be the judge. http://abcnews.go.com/PollingUnit/Obama100days/story?id=7459488&page=1
I don’t think heterosexuals should marry. Most of divorces are between heterosexuals. Heterosexuals spread diseases among both genders. Heterosexuals also tend to breed and bring more heterosexuals into the world. Heterosexuals are responsible for all the wars of mankind and most if not all the atrociities we deem unacceptable. Heterosexuals are child molestors, they are serial killers, and they are gang members. They do drugs. They corrput kids.
- Funny isn’t it.
it’s interesting they came up with these results while in almost the same span of time, the folks at washingtonpost/abc had differing findings… http://abcnews.go.com/PollingUnit/Obama100days/story?id=7459488&page=1
It’s funny how we have to watch them spread their breedering all over the place but we can’t be thrown a marriage bone. Meanwhile, they marry in disgusting ways on TV.
But I’m glad some straight people took some time to fill out a poll about my life and my rights.
I’m never asked how I feel about them. Probably a good thing.
I am appauled by your comments, I am a gay man who is an activist who is trying to make same-sex marriage or should I say marriage equality possible. All people I know are heterosexual, who I love deeply as well. Please say sorry for your comments. I work with heterosexuals who understand all sides of the debate – homophobia is NOT caused by heterosexuality, it is caused by religion, ingorance and fear and even out-dated ideas that have no relevance for justification in law or statute today – such as the ban on marriage for two adult person of the same sex. The sky will NOT fall with marriage for “any two or more adults”. [the reason I say more is because [see below] Marriage is a great thing it should not go away, I am a single gay man and I fully support gay and straight marriage, I even you guessed it I FULLY SUPPORT POLYGAMY as well!!!!
You know.. really those numbers are surprisingly good. Considering the furor that gay marriage whipped up when bush was reelected, we have come a long way.
I think everybody should be getting civil unions, because marriage is a religious institution. Seems silly that we are denied equality based off of the connotation of a word.
I think society should accept that the hatred against us is of the same source as the hatred for race, and it’s repeatedly manifested in similar horrific ways as it had for many racial groups. The biggest difference is that others still allow the hatred against us to be open and oppressive. Just because some of us can hide from it, doesn’t make it less ugly. I could get macheted in Jamaica, hung in Iran, and practically indefinitely imprisoned in many African nations. Not accepting parallels between the plight of homosexuals and racial groups is another example of bigotry. It says our suffering around the world is somehow deserved.
@Paul – They shouldn’t apologize! I am tired of the same old “gay activists” who have done so very little to actually progress equality for the past decade who now want the new found energy and angry to just subside and continue on with this “oh, lets just reach out to them more” BS!!!! If it were up to me we take to the streets, we’d revitalize ACT-UP, it would be “in your face”, we demand our equality and HOW DARE YOU VOTE on our civil rights!!!!! While I too have many straight friends, they understand my anger and side with me in frustration over breeder ignorance, many of them joined me in the Prop 8 protests…so boo hoo that we toss back a little animosity towards those who have belittled, attacked, murdered, discriminated, hated and supressed us. You don’t get my sympathy.
OK – so of the main topics you covered here (from DADT through GLBT visibility) the results REALLY COME DOWN TO, the majority of people thing that GLBT people are :
- Good enough to die for their country.
- Don’t need job or housing security.
- Their concerns are not as important as blacks were in the 1960’s.
- Don’t want to repeal DOMA.
- Don’t want gay marriage.
- Think too much attention is being paid to GLBT people.
I’m sorry, exactly – how are these “mixed results”? I think these are shocking and hateful statistics – they just make me want to despise the str8 people who obviously believe that they and their relationships are superior to GLBT ones.
Interesting article, but your editor is not reading these through:
“while those without a gay friend or relative were opposed by 70-25 percent.”
The study is out of 90 people, 70/90 = 63%. Which is the same as the statistic you cited earlier in the same paragraph.
If you need an editor let me know. xD
17 years ago when my partner and I moved into a very straight neighborhood we went about our daily functions just like our neighbors. After a year or so our neighbor across the street told me during a general conversation: “gee, you guys are just like the rest of us in the way you live. It is nothing like what we were told at church in describing what you people are like. You are such a great addition to our neighborhood.” I smiled and immediately changed the subject to refrain from going into a silent rage. “Just like the rest of us.” What were we supposed to do, have sex in the front yard each day before dinner?
What ignorance! What evilness! Praise Jesus, right????
If organized religion didn’t have some group to demonize, how else would they be able to motivate the ignorant masses?
The really great news is in the poll daftpunkydavid posted!
I’m dubious about some of the Quinnipiac results, partly because they conflict with the ABC News-Washington Post survey posted by daftpunkydavid and seem out of step with the CBS News-New York Times survey cited in the last paragraph.
What exactly were the results for ENDA? Under that heading, the only figures mentioned are for the statement that ending discrimination is as necessary for gays and lesbians today as for African Americans in the 1960s. Several other studies have shown majority support for ENDA.
The ABC News-Washington Post survey shows that 66% of 18-29 year olds support marriage equality, and even 48% of 30-64 year olds are in favor – almost certainly more than not, although it isn’t explicitly stated.
Polls are for pole-cats. Ask the same questions relating to Black civil rights in the forties and fifties and you will see similar results.
Actually, you’ll see more people against Black civil rights. More people were against interracial marriage.
More people were against equal employment rights. More people were against Blacks serving in the military with Whites in the 1940s — when Truman ignored public opinion and desegregated the military.
So, the only thing that this proves is that the Masses are still Asses. Go figure.
What decent person would care what ignorant bigots think? The majority is almost always on the wrong side of history and progress.
Doing the right thing has always been unpopular at one time or another. That is where moral and political leadership comes into play. To bad we have so little of both in this morally retarded, profoundly stupid and hateful country.
This article covers marriage at the state level. Marriage at the federal level drew these results:
Favor marriage: 33%
Favor civil unions: 26%
Favor no legal recognition: 24%
Apparently this was a 3-part question or had a follow-up question. The largest group of respondents favored federal marriage equality. Similarly, in the survey cited at the end of the article,
Favor marriage: 42%
Favor civil unions: 25%
Favor no legal recognition: 28%
Also, most respondents don’t buy the right-wing argument that “same-sex marriage is a threat to traditional marriage between a man and woman”: 39% agreed with that statement, 58% disagreed.
I only wish that being gay was a choice. Because if it was, probably the only reason about 50% of the people wouldn’t choose to live in gay relationships would be they want to have children.
So the end result in a choice scenario would prob be that 10-20% of the people would choose to be gay. And lots of those would prob be willing to adopt and provide a good home for children needing families.
And it would also do the Catholic church and right wing christian churches proud – that the gay people offering to adopt children would reduce the number of abortions of which they are so opposed.
Just need to explore the arguments a little, and stop reacting.
Stephen1553@gmail.com