Issue Watch
Track global public opinion on current issues.
- 2008: Race for the White House
- 2008: The U.S. Electoral College
- Abortion
- Africa
- Angela Merkel
- Death Penalty
- Economy and Globalization
- Environment
- European Union
- George W. Bush
- Global Warming
- Gordon Brown
- Hamas
- Immigration
- Iran
- Iraq War
- Kevin Rudd
- Latin America
- New Zealand Election 2008
- Nicolas Sarkozy
- North Korea
- Oil and Gas
- Same-Sex Marriage
- Silvio Berlusconi
- Stem Cell Research
- Stephen Harper
- Terrorism
- U.S. Election 2008 - The Democrats
- U.S. Election 2008 - The Republicans
- U.S. Election 2008: The Primaries
- Vladimir Putin
- Yasuo Fukuda
Angus Reid Global Monitor : Polls & Research
Pennsylvanians Mull Same-Sex Amendment
Credit:Flag courtesy of ITA's Flags of All Countries used with permission.
(CPOD) Feb. 29, 2004 - Residents of Pennsylvania are split over an amendment that would prevent states from allowing same-sex marriage, according to a poll by the Franklin and Marshall College's Center for Opinion Research. 49 per cent of respondents favor modifying the constitution to allow wedlock for homosexual partners, while 43 per cent disagree.
On Feb. 24, U.S. president George W. Bush asked the U.S. Congress to enact a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as the union between a man and a woman.
The regulations regarding constitutional amendments in the U.S. establish a two-step process. First, two-thirds of members in both the House of Representatives and the Senate --or two thirds of the country's state legislatures-- must vote to request the change. In order for the amendment to be ratified, it must be approved by 38 of the country's 50 state legislatures.
Since Feb. 12, the city of San Francisco has issued more than 3,200 marriage certificates to homosexual couples. In the United States, legal status to same-sex partners is offered --in the form of a civil union-- only in the state of Vermont. 42 per cent of respondents in Pennsylvania support such agreements.
Polling Data
Would you favor or oppose a state constitutional amendment that would define marriage as being between a man and a woman, thus barring marriages between gay and lesbian couples?
Favor | 49% |
Oppose | 43% |
Would you favor or oppose a state law that would allow homosexual couples to legally form civil unions, giving them some of the legal rights of married couples?
Favor | 42% |
Oppose | 50% |
Source: Franklin and Marshall College's Center for Opinion Research
Methodology: Interviews to 532 adult Pennsylvanians, conducted from Feb. 19 to Feb. 22, 2004. Margin of error is 4.2 per cent.