Miami Herald Column, by Leonard Pitts, Jr., Wednesday, March 23, 2o11 – “We are gathered here today to look a gift horse in the mouth.
It seems a majority of the American people now favor allowing gay men and lesbians to wed. That majority, according to a Washington Post/ABC News survey released last week, is slender, just 51 percent. But even at that, it represents a significant increase from just five years ago, when only 36 percent of Americans approved.
Other polling organizations have reported similar trends, and for those who believe gay men and lesbians ought to be free to solemnize and formalize their relationships, that is very good news. It means they are — we are — winning the argument. That is cause for celebration.
But lurking at the edge of celebration there is, for me, at least, a nagging, impatient vexation. That vexation is based in what is arguably an esoteric question: In extolling the fact that the majority now approves same sex marriage, do we not also tacitly accept the notion that the majority has the right to judge?”
Delaware Governor Jack Markell has announced that he supports bipartisan legislation that would allow same-sex couples to enter into civil unions. Unveiled Tuesday, Senate Bill 30 would make Delaware the seventh state in the nation to permit civil unions and the 15th state to recognize same-sex relationships.
Results from a recent Washington Post/ABC news poll show 53 percent of voters back legalizing same-sex marriage. This is a remarkable shift towards equality from just five years ago, where a similar poll reported only 36 percent of responders supported legalization. Marriage proponents see these new results as a parallel to the nationwide shift towards accepting marriage equality. The poll posed this question to voters: “Do you think it should be legal or illegal for gay and lesbian couples to get married?”. Traditional marriage supporters believe the question is not worded aptly and resulted in biased findings.
Biased or not, similar polls by the Pew Research Center, the Associated Press and CNN also have similar results, that is, all with strong leanings towards marriage equality. This nationwide trend is seen with more states considering legislation legalizing same-sex marriage, President Obama’s instructions to the Justice Department to stop defending DOMA court cases, and Democrats proposing legislation to repeal DOMA entirely. While all of these still face major challenges, every step in the right direction is a step towards equality.
More than half of Americans say it should be legal for gays and lesbians to marry, a first in nearly a decade of polls by ABC News and The Washington Post.
This milestone result caps a dramatic, long-term shift in public attitudes. From a low of 32 percent in a 2004 survey of registered voters, support for gay marriage has grown to 53 percent today. Forty-four percent are opposed, down 18 points from that 2004 survey.
The issue remains divisive; as many adults “strongly” oppose gay marriage as strongly support it, and opposition rises to more than 2-1 among Republicans and conservatives and 3-1 among evangelical white Protestants, a core conservative group. But opposition to gay marriage has weakened in these groups from its levels a few years ago, and support has grown sharply among others – notably, among Catholics, political moderates, people in their 30s and 40s and men.
The New Hampshire House Judiciary Committee voted to postpone voting on two same-sex marriage repeal bills until early 2012. Last month’s WMUR Granite State Poll showed that 62% of respondents believe the same-sex marriage law should not be repealed. Governor John Lynch, a Democrat, vows to veto any repeal bills that come before him.
