(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – The topic of same-sex marriage continues to split public opinion in the United States, according to a poll by Angus Reid Strategies. 36 per cent of respondents think same-sex couples should be allowed to legally marry.
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – The topic of same-sex marriage continues to split public opinion in the United States, according to a poll by Angus Reid Strategies. 36 per cent of respondents think same-sex couples should be allowed to legally marry.
Conversely, 25 per cent of respondents would allow same-sex couples to form civil unions, and 29 per cent would offer no legal recognition to same-sex partnerships.
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. Same-sex marriage is also legal in Connecticut and Iowa, and will become legal later this year in Maine and Vermont.
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. In November 2008, 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.
Civil union and domestic partnership laws in California, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont and Washington, grant same-sex couples nearly 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 Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, and Maryland. 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, South Africa, Norway and Sweden. At least 20 countries offer some form of legal recognition to same-sex unions.
Yesterday, Democratic Iowa senator Tom Harkin—who voted in favour of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in 1996—acknowledged his support for same-sex marriage, saying, "As we all grow older, we become more exposed to different things in life, and we become more sensitive to people."
Polling Data
Now, thinking about same-sex couples. Which of these statements comes closer to your own point of view on the legal recognition of same-sex couples in the United States?
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Same-sex couples should be allowed to legally marry
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36%
|
|
Same-sex couples should be allowed to form civil unions, but not marry
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25%
|
|
Same-sex couples should not have any kind of legal recognition
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29%
|
|
Not sure
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10%
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Source: Angus Reid Strategies
Methodology: Online interviews with 1,000 American adults, conducted from May 6 to May 8, 2009. Margin of error is 3.1 per cent.
