Second Poll Shows Majority Support for Gay Marriage

With oral arguments nest week in the DOMA and Proposition 8 cases, another survey  - this one by Reuters - shows majority support for gay marriage and only 25% of Americans strongly opposed.  Yes, the Christofascists are losing the war on gays.   As previously noted, polls and surveys have no direct bearing on how the U. S. Supreme Court may rule, but the more evidence there is a majority public support for gay marriage, the more likely it becomes that justices like Kennedy and even Roberts may decide to support marriage equality and role broadly.  A broad ruling that a constitutional right to same sex marriage exists would be devastating for hate merchants like Maggie Gallagher, Brian Brown, Tony Perkins and a host of others who work to stir anti-gay animus virtually ever day while enriching themselves in the process.  Here are highlights of the survey results:

As the Supreme Court prepares to decide whether the federal government may deny benefits to same-sex married couples that it allows their heterosexual counterparts, Americans seem already to have made up their minds.

Fifty-five percent of those surveyed said married gay and lesbian couples should be able to qualify for Social Security survivor payments and other benefits provided to married heterosexual couples, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling of 2,886 people between March 5 and March 14.

Majority support for such benefits was seen across all regions of the United States, even in the traditionally more conservative South.

A more extensive Reuters/Ipsos poll of 24,455 people between January 1 and March 14 found only a quarter of Americans opposed same-sex marriage or civil unions, although there were deep regional differences of opinion. Overall, that Reuters poll found 63 percent supported gay marriage or civil unions, with 41 percent of people saying same-sex couples should be permitted to marry.

The greatest support was in the Northeast, with 69 percent of adults favoring a gay marriage or civil-union right. The lowest support was in the South, at 57 percent.

Overall, surveys have shown a drop in endorsement of civil unions simultaneous to a rise in support of same-sex marriage.

[S]aid Julia Clark, Ipsos vice-presiden,  "The long-term trend shows steady movement toward a majority of Americans supporting the legalization of same-sex marriage."

The support for equal federal benefits in the Reuters/Ipsos poll suggests a majority of people, regardless of their views on the marriage question, believe the federal government should not discriminate among couples based on sexual orientation.

Those views were not tied to respondents' own sexual preferences. The overwhelming majority of people who took part in the poll, 93 percent, described themselves as heterosexual or straight.

One can only imagine the shrieks and tears - a flying spittle - at the offices of hate groups like Family Research Council, American Family Association and The Family Foundation.