Tuesday, July 31, 2012

New Pew Survey: 65% of Democrats Support Gay Marriage

Sometimes I feel as if I do nothing but talk about gay marriage related issues.  But the views on gay marriage are in many ways a litmus test on a number of issues be they religious, political and even economic.  The Neanderthals and those yearning for a Middle Ages society - and self-loathing gays such as those at the Vatican - oppose it while moderates and liberals and those not terrified by change and/or the future support it.  A new Pew Survey found that 65% of Democrats support marriage equality in contrast to only 24% of Republicans who are supportive.  Here are highlights from Politico:

A new poll shows that the partisan gap over same-sex marriage continues to widen, with 65 percent of Democrats now supporting it compared to 24 percent of Republicans.

The Pew Research Center poll found an increase in support among Democrats after President Barack Obama's announcement in May that he favored same-sex marriage. A poll taken in April found 59 percent of Democrats in support.

The latest poll was released a day after Democratic Party leaders said they intended to add support for gay marriage to the party platform at the Democratic National Convention in early September.

At the time of the previous convention, in 2008, 50 percent of Democrats favored legalizing gay marriage, while 42 percent were opposed.  In the new poll, only 29 percent of Democrats were opposed.
The Pew Research Center also had some other findings of interest:

Those who believe homosexuality is something people are born with have consistently been the most supportive of gay marriage, and that support has risen substantially in recent years, to 76% in the new poll. By comparison, there has been little change among those who say homosexuality is the way that some people prefer to live; 63% of this group opposes gay marriage.

A large portion of the growth in acceptance of gay marriage over the past two decades is the result of generational replacement -- the arrival of younger, more supportive generations making up a larger share of the population. But the pace of change in support for gay marriage has increased in recent years across generational lines. Millennials have consistently been the most supportive of gay marriage, but even here the share in favor of allowing gays and lesbians to marry has jumped from 54% to 63% since 2008. Similarly, support is up from 44% to 52% in Generation X.

These findings demonstrate why the Christian Right continues to desperately keep the fraudulent "ex-gay" lie alive.  They also once again suggest that long term opposition to same sex marriage may be a slow form of suicide for the GOP as the older gay hating generations literally die off.

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