Friday, July 29, 2011

Americans Split 50% For to 46% Against New York Marriage Law

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A new Washington Post/ABC News poll finds that Americans split 50 to 46 percent over whether New York's the state’s law legalizing such unions is a positive or negative outcome. The good news is that the views of younger citizens is decidedly in favor of marriage equality which means as elderly Bible beaters die off, the polling will only get better. Also, a majority of independents support marriage equality - something that should cause increasing angst among those in the GOP who regularly prostitute themselves to the Christianists. Here are some highlights from the Washington Post:
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As New York gears up for its second weekend of same-sex nuptials, a Washington Post-ABC News poll finds Americans split 50 to 46 percent over whether the state’s law legalizing such unions is a positive or negative outcome. Reactions to the new legislation — like support for legalizing gay marriage in general — range tremendously across generational, political and religious lines.
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Americans have grown increasingly accepting of same-sex marriage over the past decade, according to surveys by The Post and ABC, Gallup, the Pew Research Center and others. The public opposed legalizing gay and lesbian unions by a 58 to 36 percent margin in 2006, but the new Post-ABC poll finds a slight majority — 51 percent — saying such marriages should be legal.
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The age gap is one of the brightest dividing lines on gay marriage and on the New York law in particular. Adults under age 30 welcome the new law by a roughly 2 to 1 margin. But six in 10 seniors give it a negative assessment, compared with one in three who take a positive view.
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Republicans broadly reject the law by a 2 to 1 margin, but alignment with the tea party movement complicates political calculations concerning the issue. More than seven in 10 Republicans who support the tea party movement view the New York law as a negative development. But that slides to just 45 percent of non-tea party Republicans who reject the law, while half react positively.
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Beyond the political divisions over the New York law, religious differences cut just as sharply among white Protestants. More than seven in 10 white evangelical Protestants call the new law a negative development, but white non-evangelical Protestants take the opposite view by a 63 to 34 percent margin.
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Catholics overall are more closely aligned with mainline Protestants in their views of the gay marriage law — 58 percent see it as a positive development. Religious observance plays a role, too. Catholics who attend Mass weekly split evenly, 48 to 48 percent, on the law, but less observant Catholics welcome it by a more than a 2 to 1 margin, 66 to 31 percent.
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The poll confirms what I have believed for some time: the Tea Party is largely synonymous with the Christianists and similarly an obstacle to progress.

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