[Vision2020] Most Californians Back Gay Marriages

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (May 28, 2008) Spokesman Review and San Jose Mercury News -

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Most Californians back gay marriages
Field poll finds young voters driving a cshift in attitudes

Stuart Gaffney (left) and John Lewis talk with a friend before a rally at 
the LGBT Community Center in San Francisco, May 15, 2008.
http://tinyurl.com/4zkuoo

California voters’ view on gay marriage
http://tinyurl.com/4ld3on

SACRAMENTO - For the first time ever, a statewide survey reports a 
majority of California voters favor gay marriage - a finding that 
pollsters describe as a milestone driven by younger people. 

The Field Poll result, released today, shows the highest level of support 
in more than three decades of polling Californians on the hot-button issue 
of same-sex marriage laws. The poll found 51 percent of registered voters 
favor the idea of allowing gay and lesbian couples to wed, while 42 
percent disapprove.

An almost identical result was recorded in the random survey of whether 
voters favor an amendment to the state constitution that will likely 
appear on the November ballot, which seeks to define marriage as between a 
man and a woman: Fifty-one percent opposed that proposal, the survey 
reported, while 43 percent approved of the restrictive amendment.

"I would characterize it as a historic poll," said Field Poll Director 
Mark DiCamillo, noting that a marked number of young voters - more than 
two of every three - supported permitting same-sex nuptials. DiCamillo 
called the result one of the rare issues "where public tolerance I would 
say is generationally induced."

The random-sample survey went into circulation May 17 - just two days 
after the California Supreme Court's landmark ruling that struck down the 
state's ban on same-sex marriage, a decision that opponents would like 
voters to overturn through the proposed amendment. Gay marriages are 
likely to begin this summer, unless the state court agrees to reconsider 
its ruling or delay its taking effect until after the November election.
The poll of 1,052 registered voters has a margin of error of 3.2 
percentage points, and the results, while notable, show the public clearly 
divided on the issue. When voters were asked about the ruling, the results 
were nearly even: 48 percent supporting the court ruling permitting same-
sex marriage, and 46 percent opposed.

Divisions evident

The Field findings were released less than a week after another statewide 
survey, the Los Angeles Times/KTLA Poll, showed a different outcome of the 
divided population: 41 percent of respondents said they approved of the 
Supreme Court's decision to allow same-sex marriage, and 52 percent said 
they disapproved.

"Either way you look at it, they're close," said Larry Gerston, a San Jose 
State University political scientist. "From a statistical point of view, 
they're not as far apart as people think."

While the Field Poll was conducted between May 17 and 26, the Times Poll 
was conducted May 20-21 and included 705 registered voters.

The Field Poll's results have come a long way since the poll 

Click on image to enlarge. first asked the same-sex marriage question in 
1977, when 59 percent of Californians disapproved and only 28 percent 
approved. Since then, support has increased steadily: 30 percent in 1985, 
for example, and 42 percent in 2003.
The changing attitude reflected through Field Polls, DiCamillo said, can 
be attributed to a "generational replacement" that has resulted in younger 
Californians being more sympathetic to providing equal protection of the 
laws to gays and lesbians. The shift, he added, is akin to the public's 
attitudes on race that changed after the civil rights movement.

Age differences

Jesse Guerrero, a 71-year-old retired vinyl floor installer from San Jose, 
says he can attest to the generational divide - 55 percent of voters age 
65 or older disapprove of gay marriage.

"My daughter is 37, she's pretty liberal, more liberal than I am, and it 
doesn't bother her. She says let people live the way they want," said 
Guerrero, who participated in the Field Poll. "But I'm of the belief that 
men and women were put on this Earth for procreation," Guerrero said, "and 
they certainly cannot get procreation out of two men married."

Another Field Poll respondent, Ursula Cabalzar, 59, of Santa Clara, formed 
a pro-gay-marriage attitude after growing up in Switzerland.

"I do not understand what the difference is, if as a heterosexual you have 
about a 50 percent failure rate, yet, how can we say that we value the 
institution of marriage - and we want to deny it to other people that love 
one another?"

The poll found support for same-sex marriage strongest in the state's 
second-largest urban center, the Bay Area. But in the more conservative 
Central Valley, and counties outside Los Angeles, more voters disapprove 
than approve.

Democrats approve permitting gay marriage 65 percent to 29 percent, and 
independents favored the idea 61 percent to 27 percent, the poll found. 
Republicans surveyed opposed the measure 69 percent to 25 percent.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
 
"Gays and lesbians stood up for civil rights in Montgomery, Selma, in 
Albany, Georgia and St. Augustine, Florida, and many other campaigns of 
the Civil Rights Movement.  Many of these courageous men and women were 
fighting for my freedom at a time when they could find few voices for 
their own."

- Coretta Scott King (March 30, 1998)


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