Survey: Gay 'Marriage' Opposition Increases; Support for Civil Unions Hits Low
WASHINGTON – The percent of the American public that opposes gay "marriage" has significantly increased over the past year, according to the latest national survey released by the nonprofit Pew Research Center. And the percent of the public that supports civil unions has meanwhile reached its lowest mark since October of 2003.
After dropping to a low of 51 in March 2006, the percent of the public that now opposes allowing gays and lesbians to marry was found to be 57 – a "clear majority," the Pew Center reported. The latest figures are part of an 88-page report that brings together demographic trends and survey results from interviews of 2,020 adults this year.
"The question of whether same-sex couples should have a right to marry has been a divisive issue in U.S. politics since 1993, when the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled that there must be a 'compelling state interest' in order to continue to deny gay couples the right to marry," the Washington-based Pew Research Center noted in its report, titled "Generation Gap in Values, Behaviors."
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"That ruling, along with a 2004 decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Court which made that state the first and only one in the nation to legalize gay marriage, have placed the issue in the center of the family-policy debate."
Since 1993, more than 40 states and the federal government have enacted statutes defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman; and more than half of all states have enacted constitutional bans on gay marriage.
According to the latest Pew survey, the groups most likely to take issue with gay "marriage" include men, older adults (ages 50 and above), the less educated (high school or less), Protestants (particularly white evangelicals), and regular church attendees (weekly or more).
Significant partisan differences also emerge on this issue with Democrats being more divided – 48 percent opposing gay marriage vs. 42 percent supporting – than Republicans, who oppose gay marriage by a margin of better than five-to-one (78 percent vs. 14 percent).
Civil Unions
Regarding whether gay and lesbian couples should be allowed to form legally recognized civil unions that would give them many of the same rights as married couples, the public was found to be more closely divided. More people were found to oppose civil unions than support it, but only by a 1 percent margin, the Pew Center reported. Furthermore, the 45 percent that do support civil unions is the lowest figure since October 2003.
As with gay "marriage," white evangelical Protestants (71 percent), frequent church attendees (64 percent) and Republicans (60 percent) stood out for their opposition to civil unions.
Gay Parenting
When asked about the trend of more gay and lesbian couples raising children, exactly half (50 percent) of the public said this is bad for society, compared with 34 percent who said it doesn't make much difference and 11 percent who said it is good for society.
Furthermore, the Pew survey found that a larger proportion of men (59 percent) vs. women (42 percent) say gay parenting is bad for society. Among women, opposition to gay and lesbian couples raising children has declined in the past decade. In a 1997 survey of women only, a majority (56 percent) said this was a bad thing for society, compared with minority saying this today. Pew reported that the negative reaction has fallen across the board among women, regardless of age, education and marital status.
The Pew Center's most recent findings are from a telephone survey conducted from Feb. 16 through Mar. 14, 2007, among a randomly-selected, nationally representative sample of 2,020 adults.
Other findings include:
• A generation gap in behaviors and values – Younger adults attach far less moral stigma than do their elders to out-of-wedlock births and cohabitation without marriage.
• A public concern over the delinking of marriage and parenthood – Adults of all ages consider unwed parenting to be a big problem for society.
• The public view of marriage as an ideal, albeit a more elusive one – Even though a decreasing percentage of the adult population is married, most unmarried adults say they want to marry. Furthermore, married adults are more satisfied with their lives than are unmarried adults.
• The standing belief that children are vital to adult happiness – Although children may be perceived as less central to marriage, they are as important as ever to their parents. "As a source of adult happiness and fulfillment, children occupy a pedestal matched only by spouses and situated well above that of jobs, career, friends, hobbies and other relatives," the Pew Center reported.
• The increased prevalence of cohabitation – Today about a half of all nonmarital births are to a cohabiting couple; 15 years ago, only about a third were. Cohabiters are ambivalent about marriage – just under half (44 percent) say they to want marry; a nearly equal portion (41 percent) say they aren't sure.
• The public's preference for divorce over unhappy marriages – Americans by lopsided margins endorse the mom-and-dad home as the best setting in which to raise children. But by equally lopsided margins, they believe that if married parents are very unhappy with one another, divorce is the best option, both for them and for their children.
