Virginians Are Almost Evenly Split on Gay Marriage

In other news which will alarm the hate merchants at the toxic Family Foundation based in Richmond, Virginia, a new Washington Post poll found that forty-seven percent (47%) of Virginians say gay couples should be allowed to legally marry while only forty three percent (43%) continued to opposed same sex marriage. In other findings, the poll showed that a majority of Virginians support gay couples adopting children. I can just imagine the vapors that must be overcoming the falsely pious Victoria Cobb and her theocratic brethren at The Family Foundation ("TFF") who daily strive to destroy the freedom of religion afforded under Virginia and U. S. Constitutions to all citizens - not just to Christianists - under the guise of "protecting religious freedom." Ms. Cobb and her fellow haters want special rights for themselves plain and simple. Here are highlights from the Washington Post on the poll results:
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Virginians are closely divided over whether gay marriage should be legal, according to a new Washington Post poll, a striking result in a state that overwhelmingly agreed to amend its constitution to ban gay marriage just five years ago.
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Forty-seven percent of Virginians say gay couples should be allowed to legally wed, and 43 percent are opposed, according to the poll. Fifty-five percent of Virginians say gay couples should be able to legally adopt children.

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The results mirror a dramatic and rapid shift in national public opinion about gay rights in recent years. The evolving public opinion could create a challenge in the key political battleground for the commonwealth’s Republicans, who are almost universally opposed to gay marriage, if voters think the GOP is falling out of sync with the electorate. But the results also present complications for Virginia Democrats, who have moved more slowly than their national counterparts to embrace liberal social stands for fear of alienating independent voters.

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Claire Guthrie Gastanaga, a spokeswoman for the gay rights group Equality Virginia, said the political establishment’s views lag behind those of the public on the issue. “We knew that public opinion was evolving,” she said of opposition to the 2006 vote. “You end up leaving us in a posture where the public has moved and the policymakers haven’t and won’t.”

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Victoria Cobb, president of the Family Foundation of Virginia, countered that Virginians speak more clearly at the ballot box than in polls.