New Poll Says Majority of Americans Favor Same-Sex Marriage
Recent Votes on Marriage Amendments Tell a Different Story
A new poll by The Associated Press and the National Constitution Center released Wednesday shows that the majority of Americans is shifting towards supporting legalization, even as recent votes in many states show voters in solid support of defining marriage as between one man and one woman.
The poll concludes that 53 percent of the 1,000 adults surveyed believe the government should give legal recognition to marriages between couples of the same sex. In comparison, 44 percent were opposed. It was just in 2009, according to AP, that the majority rested on the side of opposition.
Some of the shift stems from a generational divide, with the new poll showing a majority of Americans under age 65 in favor of legal recognition for same-sex marriages, and a majority of seniors opposed.
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“Can these results be trusted?” Mathew Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, questioned in an interview with The Christian Post, “there’s often a big difference between what the polls say and how people really feel, how they really vote.”
“Every poll has indicated that a marriage amendment would either not pass or just barely pass,” Staver said. “Yet the results have always been proven wrong. Every time, a marriage amendment has received the majority of the support. I don’t think the majority of Christians support legalizing gay marriage.”
Staver goes on to explain his concerns about homosexual marriage and how, if legalized, it will affect our liberty and undermine our family values as a nation.
“If you pass same sex marriage, then that places homosexuality on the same level as race. But it has a profound impact on our liberty.”
The impact he describes regards forcing Christian or other religious workers to be forced to adapt their business policies to accept a pro-gay agenda. There have already been several lawsuits against Christian business owners who refuse to serve homosexual couples due to religious beliefs.
Also, many opponents of homosexual marriage claim that children do better when raised with a mother and a father. If gay marriage is legalized, the couple will more than likely be able to adopt or have children.
Many local governments have already moved ahead of the federal government on deciding the legality of gay marriage. In July, New York became the sixth state, along with the District of Columbia, to legalize same-sex marriage.
However, New York had a special election Tuesday to replace disgraced former Democrat House member Anthony Weiner. Democrat David Weprin's support for gay marriage is speculated to have cost him support among the district's Orthodox Jews, causing him to lose to Republican Bob Turner.
Most Americans who live in states where gay marriage is not already legal claim it is unlikely that their state will pass such a law; just 20 percent think it is likely to become law in their state, according to AP.
The poll also concludes that 48 percent of the respondents said they would favor an amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. About 40 percent would strongly favor such a change, 43 percent said they would oppose such an amendment, and eight percent were neutral on the issue.
The poll was conducted from Aug. 18-22 and is based on landline and cellular phone interviews. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.
