(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – Half of adults in the United States disagree with the concept of same-sex marriage, according to a poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. 50 per cent of respondents oppose allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally.
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – Half of adults in the United States disagree with the concept of same-sex marriage, according to a poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. 50 per cent of respondents oppose allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally.
In 2004, marriage certificates were issued to same-sex couples by local governments in the states of California, Oregon, New Mexico and New York. In May 2004, the state of Massachusetts allowed gay and lesbian partners to apply for marriage licenses. In May 2008, California’s Supreme Court overturned a ban on same-sex marriage in a 4-3 decision, effectively allowing full marriage rights to homosexual partners.
Civil union and domestic partnership laws in Vermont, Connecticut and New Jersey grant same-sex couples all state-level rights and obligations of marriage—in areas such as inheritance, income tax, insurance and hospital visitation. Other forms of domestic partnership exist in the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, New Hampshire and Washington State. There are more than 1,000 federal-level rights of marriage that cannot be granted by states.
Same-sex marriage is currently legal in the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Canada, and South Africa. Norway will allow homosexual couples to get married in 2009. At least 18 countries offer some form of legal recognition to same-sex unions.
On Nov. 4, 52.5 per cent of voters in California endorsed Proposition 8, which seeks to amend the state Constitution to define marriage as only between a man and a woman.
Brian Brown, executive director of the National Organization for Marriage California, expressed satisfaction with the outcome, saying, "Government did not create marriage, and neither politicians nor legislators have the right to redefine its basic meaning. (…) Common sense, and concern for the common good, trumped ideology, bigotry and power politics here in California."
Jennifer Pizer, a staff lawyer for Lambda Legal, discussed the scope of the initiative, saying, "The magnitude here is that you are effectively rendering equal protection a nullity if a simple majority can so easily carve an exception into it. Equal protection is supposed to prevent the targeting and subjugation of a minority group by a simple majority vote."
Polling Data
All in all, do you favour or oppose allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally?
|
Favour |
39% |
|
Oppose |
50% |
|
Not sure |
11% |
Source: Pew Research Center for the People & the Press
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,532 registered American voters, conducted from Oct. 23 to Oct. 26, 2008. Margin of error is 2.8 per cent.
