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Poll: Most Americans Oppose Gay Marriage
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Most Americans oppose gay marriage and many believe homosexuality is "against God's will," but otherwise consider themselves tolerant of gays, according to a Los Angeles Times poll.
By a margin of 55 to 41 percent, those polled agreed with the statement that "if gays are allowed to marry, the institution of marriage will be degraded."
About half favored a U.S. constitutional amendment
efining marriage as the union between a man and a woman, while 42 percent opposed it, according to the poll published Sat*rday on the newspaper's Web site.
The telephone poll of 1,616 adults aroun
d
he country was conducted from March 27-30. The margin of error was plus or minus 3 perce
ntage points.
Other recent surveys have found at least half of Americans oppose gay marriage, but fewer support amending the Constitution to ban it.
A CBS-New York Times poll last month found only 38 percent saying gay marriage is an "important enough issue to be worth changing the Constitution for," and an ABC-Washington Post poll found 54 percent saying the matter should be left to the states.
Only about a quarter of those polled for the Los Angeles Times felt homosexuals should be allowed to legally marry and 38 percent believed they should be allowed to form civil unions. About a third said that neither type of union should be permitted.
While about six in 10 people felt
homosexual relationships are "against God's will," a similar percentage felt that legal recognition of same-sex marriages was inevitable.
Sixty percent of those polled described t
hems
elves as
sympathetic to the gay community. About the same percentage said they would be willing to vote for an openly gay po
litical candidate.
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Purchase this AP story for Reprint
Poll: Most Americans Oppose Gay Marriage
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Most Americans oppose gay marriage and many believe homosexuality is "against God's will," but otherwise consider themselves tolerant of gays, according to a Los Angeles Times poll.
By a margin of 55 to 41 percent, those polled agreed with the statement that "if gays are allowed to marry, the institution of marriage will be degraded."
About half favored a U.S. constitutional amendment
efining marriage as the union between a man and a woman, while 42 percent opposed it, according to the poll published Sat*rday on the newspaper's Web site.
The telephone poll of 1,616 adults aroun
d
he country was conducted from March 27-30. The margin of error was plus or minus 3 perce
ntage points.
Other recent surveys have found at least half of Americans oppose gay marriage, but fewer support amending the Constitution to ban it.
A CBS-New York Times poll last month found only 38 percent saying gay marriage is an "important enough issue to be worth changing the Constitution for," and an ABC-Washington Post poll found 54 percent saying the matter should be left to the states.
Only about a quarter of those polled for the Los Angeles Times felt homosexuals should be allowed to legally marry and 38 percent believed they should be allowed to form civil unions. About a third said that neither type of union should be permitted.
While about six in 10 people felt
homosexual relationships are "against God's will," a similar percentage felt that legal recognition of same-sex marriages was inevitable.
Sixty percent of those polled described t
hems
elves as
sympathetic to the gay community. About the same percentage said they would be willing to vote for an openly gay po
litical candidate.
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Purchase this AP story for Reprint