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This poll is notable because it is the first time a major national poll has showed majority support for government recognition of same-sex marriage. It should also be noted that the margin of error is +/- 3%.
The inexorable trend continues...
I can tell you part of what is contributing to that trend, and it isn't solely the fact that the younger generations are getting to an age where they're voting, participating in surveys, etc.
We've reached the proverbial "tipping point" as it relates to gays and lesbians coming out of the closet to their friends. Less so to their families, but still more than once did.
It used to be that the cliche was along the lines of, "if you know 10 people, 1 of them is gay even if you don't realize it." Gays and lesbians are less inclined to keep their orientation a secret. There's a lot of reasons for this, and I think the internet is part of it. NOT because of what you find on the internet, but for the simple fact that the 'net has made the world a heck of a lot smaller.
I have people I consider close friends who live in Australia, Israel, the UK, France, Turkey, India and Canada with a few odds & ends places thrown in for good measure. People I talk to with more regularity than I do my family. So our potential friendship pool has grown exponentially. It used to be that if a gay or lesbian outed themselves, they risked completely alienating their support base... their friends. Bluntly put, in today's world, if their friends run screaming because they are gay, it isn't all that hard to make NEW friends who just don't care about someone's sexual orientation.
Coupled with that, people in general are becoming more tolerant... that might also be the influence of the internet... but reality is, people are less likely to shun someone who is gay than they once were.
The tipping point is this: More people actually have someone in their life who is gay, who they KNOW is gay, than ever before. And it's a lot harder to say "suck it up and suffer" when someone YOU YOURSELF care about is the one suffering.
It's less easy to toss off a snarky, "they have the same rights we do, they can marry someone of the opposite sex just like everyone else" when you're talking about a friend... someone you know would be miserable in alone or in a heterosexual marriage... when you think of them potentially having children with a spouse they really don't love or aren't really attracted to... when you imagine them crying at night because there is a big, gaping hole in their life and in their heart.
The trend is picking up speed, rapidly... and at this point, I think we're no more than 5 years away from legal gay marriage nationwide, and federal anti-discrimination laws in relation to hiring practices, housing, etc.
Judges are well-educated people versed in the Constitution who are appointed to protect what was enshrined in said Constitution- namely, that we as Americans should be allowed to do whatever we want as long as we hurt none.
I applaud Judge Walker for extending freedoms to THE PEOPLE- even when a bunch of do-gooder Mormons think to tell us all how to live our lives.
Why does everyone think their opinion MUST be heard on everything, anyway? There are some things such as human rights that we must have an educated, well trained, knowledgeable person who is versed in the laws of this Nation decide and not a bunch of random people, of whom only 30% even graduated college. I wouldn't want someone "just like me" to be President or Judge or Mayor- I am not cut out for the job because I don't know enough to have an opinion. Can I have an opinion on, say, welfare reform? Yeah, because it's my tax money, therefore I am directly impacted. Can I have a point of view on say, pot legalization? Yes, because it doesn't involve the dignity of all human beings.
Gay marriage does. Therefore, I will always refer to the Constitution when defending the right of gay couples to marry. It doesn't matter how *I* feel- it's a human rights issue. I shouldn't have an opinion. Although I don't have a problem with gays personally, having grown up with a lesbian.
The trend is picking up speed, rapidly... and at this point, I think we're no more than 5 years away from legal gay marriage nationwide, and federal anti-discrimination laws in relation to hiring practices, housing, etc.
It's a matter of when, not if.
This is quite likely to be true. Did anyone else notice the deafening silence from the mainstream Republicans on this one? They're sensing the trend as well: It was a useful, reliable wedge issue, and it isn't any more.
Not too long ago the idea of civil unions sent people into hysterics and would NEVER have been discussed openly in polite society. Now people would LOVE for that to be accepted because now gay marriage may actually be legal everywhere before too long. It's weird to actually have lived through this whole thing and seen how people change their way of thinking once they realize they don't have a leg to stand on.
According to a Gallop poll in May this year, it looks like public opinion has been changing towards approval of gay marriage. If the trend continues it won't be too much longer before more than 50% of Americans are in favor of legalising gay marriage.
It won't be long before this is a moot point anyway. Until then, gays will continue to live together without marriage and line the lawyers' pockets to document the exact same rights and priviledges that they would have if their marriages were recognized by the law.
So . . . shall we just keep dragging this out and let the only real winners be the lawyers?
And 2 more of my cents. This is NOT a Republican vs. Democrat issue. It is a right-wing religious vs. everyone else issue. There are Christians, Jews, Muslins, and others on both sides of this issue. But it's the right wing of religions that want religion to govern our country.
The country's largest lawyers' group has backed a resolution calling on all state legislatures to let same-sex couples get married.
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American Bar Association backs same-sex marriage - Nation AP - MiamiHerald.com (http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/08/10/1769925/american-bar-association-backs.html - broken link)
The shift continues. Whereas once support for same-sex marriage was held only by a small minority, we now stand on the tipping point where the national consensus is almost evenly divided, while more and more institutions emerge to express their support for marriage equality.
And the trend should be glaringly obvious for anyone paying attention.
Nate Silver has a very nice article graphing the shifting public attitudes towards whether or not same-sex marriages should be legally recognized as valid.
In 1994, when polling on the topic essentially began in the wake of the Hawaiian Supreme Court's decision that found laws barring same-sex marriages to be in violation of the state constitution (a decision that was stayed and eventually overturned by constitutional amendment), support-opposition to legal recognition of same-sex marriage stood at around 25%-67% nationally. By 2000, when Vermont was breaking ground by establishing civil unions, support-opposition had shifted to around 32%-60%.
Now? It's a virtual dead heat. Silver further notes that the trend is not only consistent in direction, it appears to be accelerating.
I'm watching the live feeds online waiting for the ruling on the stay... some of the signs being held are interesting:
"A moral wrong cannot be a civil right" - yes, and interracial marriage was once considered very morally wrong.
"Stop Judicial Tyranny" - I wish I were there holding a sign that says, "How did you graduate high school without even a basic understanding of the role our judicial system plays in questions of constitutionality?"
This is why Prop 8 will remain overturned, and why gay marriage will be legal nationwide... because opponents of gay marriage are missing two key components - a legal leg to stand on and any actual, legitimate argument against gay marriage.
Perhaps we need signs which say, "your personal morality may not dictate national policy."
"Stop Judicial Tyranny" - I wish I were there holding a sign that says, "How did you graduate high school without even a basic understanding of the role our judicial system plays in questions of constitutionality?"
That's going to be a pretty big sign.
You illustrate a basic problem with political discourse in that one sentence - nuanced viewpoints simply cannot be expressed as poster slogans.
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American Bar Association backs same-sex marriage
