Mea culpa: Okay, okay, so I was a little wrong in my last post — the Senate is debating a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as between a man and a woman, not gays or lesbians. But as today’s National Journal PollTrack notes, a majority of Americans don’t support changing the Consitution.
Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee last week passed a bill proposing the amendment 10-8 on a party-line vote and sent the bill on for debate in the full Senate. But analysts suggest the bill is unlikely to pass. A new Gallup survey suggests that although opposition to gay marriage still enjoys majority support among the public, the idea of changing the Constitution has lost popularity.
Asked if they would favor an amendment defining marriage in heterosexual terms, “thus barring marriages between gay or lesbian couples,” half said they would favor an amendment, and 47 percent said they would oppose one — statistically even.
Previous surveys showed a more substantial split— a spring 2005 survey showed 53 percent in favor and 44 percent opposed, and a March 2005 survey showed 57 percent in favor and 37 percent opposed.
The new Gallup survey found that nearly six in 10 respondents told pollsters that “marriages between homosexuals” should not be considered valid in the eyes of the law; 39 percent said they should be.
Support increases slightly when the phrase “same-sex couples” is substituted for “homosexuals,” with 42 percent saying the marriages should be recognized like heterosexual unions. But a 56-percent majority still said they should not be valid.
Gallup’s analysis found “no appreciable change over the past two years in Americans’ attitudes about legal recognition for same-sex marriage.”
But despite widespread opposition to same-sex marriage, the evangelical Bible-thumpers are still on the fringe, as I noted before.
