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Americans Still Reject Same-Sex Marriage
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Most people in the United States remain opposed to granting specific legal recognition to homosexual partners, according to a poll by Opinion Research Corporation released by CNN. 56 per cent of respondents think marriages between homosexuals should not be recognized by the law as valid, with the same rights as traditional marriages.
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, the first state-sanctioned homosexual weddings in the U.S.
Civil union and domestic partnership laws in Vermont, Connecticut, California 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 and Maine. 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, and at least 18 countries offer some form of legal recognition to same-sex unions.
On Oct. 27, Illinois senator Barack Obama, who is seeking the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in the United States, referred to his leadership in addressing gay issues in the U.S., saying, "If there’s somebody out there who’s been more consistent in including LGBT Americans in his or her vision of what America should be, then I would be interested in knowing who that person is."
Polling Data
Do you think marriages between homosexuals should or should not be recognized by the law as valid, with the same rights as traditional marriages?
|
Oct. 2007 |
Aug. 2007 |
|
|
Should |
40% |
40% |
|
Should not |
56% |
57% |
|
Unsure |
3% |
3% |
Source: Opinion Research Corporation / CNN
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,212 American adults, conducted from Oct. 12 to Oct. 14, 2007. Margin of error is 3 per cent.