# New poll: Majority of Americans support legalising gay marriage **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 22, 2011, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-poll-majority-of-americans-support-legalising-gay-marriage/582736 "2011-05-22T01:19:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-poll-majority-of-americans-support-legalising-gay-marriage/582736/161 "2011-06-01T02:42:20Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > **CitizenPained** , you cannot say shit like this in a conversation on a message board. This is the internet and we have Google. > > [http://www.dspride.com/](http://www.dspride.com/) That’s actually held in Wisconsin as it’s near the border…I was making reference to rural areas, really. I meant to type “South Dakota”, not Duluth, but Duluth it is. Sure, anyone can drive to their nearest big city or major population area, but Uber Gay Pride™ is more of a fringe thing. The Duluth Pride Parade is pretty tame. Worship services, family time…sound like leather daddies, ass chaps & boobie tassels to you? Are they bad for the movement if they’re boring? Do leather daddies exist only in big cities? How about scantily clad sexualized parade participants? Hmmm? Thoughts? Calm down, Marley. In this conversation, I have _not_ been the one making up shit. > [@](#): > > Name an American city where you think nobody would ever have a gay pride parade and I’ll find a gay pride parade in it **or near it** If I live in Palo, Iowa and everyone things gay males are freaks it doesn’t help me if Cedar Rapids or Iowa City have (clothed and low key) pride parades. There’s a “march of gay people down the street” and there’s a PRIDE PARADE. See how they vary from state to state. (More liberal areas are the ones with nudity, and that’s what people buzz about.) And it’s people in the smaller towns that are hurting. So who is working for them? ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-poll-majority-of-americans-support-legalising-gay-marriage/582736/162 "2011-06-01T03:11:37Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > CitizenPained writes: > > \> If you want to talk evidence, look at voting patterns. > > The pattern is the same for polls and voting on every issue related to homosexual rights (i.e., same-sex marriage, civil unions, homosexuality not being a crime, homosexuals not being discriminated against in hiring for jobs, homosexuals being allowed to be in the armed forces, whether someone would refuse to associate with a homosexual relative, whether someone would vote for an open homosexual, etc.) in every region in the U.S. The pattern is that the movement is basically always toward more rights and acceptance for homosexuals, and the percentage on the poll increases by approximately 1% to 2% each year towards acceptance. > > That doesn’t mean that in every poll the current percentage is above 50%. It means that the percentage is moving upward. This is one of those cases where it’s more useful to look at the trends than at the results of any particular poll (or any particular vote or any particular court ruling). I know some people don’t like to think like this, but this is what happens on any major issue where the opinion of the public is what’s important. Nothing ever changes fast. Huh? Then how come anti-gay measurements are being passed? Cite? What? Also – how can you say pride parades with overt sexual content helped that? Because it’s my belief that while _overall_ opinions are changing, it is not at the same rate in most of America. And it’s not going to change much if the perception of gays is what we’ve talked about. It’s like what I said before - rural America may have a 13 per cent favorable opinion of same sex marriage versus 11 percent ten years ago, but that’s awfully tiny. > [@](#): > > Clear majorities of both Democrats and independents now support gay marriage, 69% and 59% respectively, contrasted with 28% support among Republicans. > > Majorities of moderates and liberals support gay marriage, as they did last year, contrasted with 28% of conservatives. And as history has shown, courts don’t always reflect the public’s opinion. Look at blacks and education. In my state, we practice institutionalized segregation. If gays want others to accept them, why not project what is the gay norm - or at least within a few deviations of it? Why give off the feeling of sex-crazed teenagers who can’t help but to splash their sex lives in public? There are so many straight people who go to Pride Parades to\* see the show\* more than anything, because it can be awfully entertaining. Shock value usually is. But chicks in tassels and guys in bikini underwear can’t casually stroll down Main Street, hook a left, and wave at schoolchildren in the middle of the week. The gay movement should **stand on its own merits** instead of capitalizing on people’s want to have a good time with half naked hot dudes (or chicks) and alcohol. “Gay Pride Parades” needs to be under “Stuff White People Like”. If you put off that vibe that _this parade is my pride - think of me as a sex object and look at this bulging penis_, it’s your fault if someone doesn’t take you seriously. I don’t object to the idea of having a pride parade. Not at all. I’ve participated in marches, parades, rallies. I have my “LET FREEDOM MARRY” pin on my political bag & “SAFE ZONE” stickers and such in my classroom and HRC tags on my car and bla bla bla. I don’t need someone to be _cookie cutter_ for me to think they deserve equal rights! **I object to the sexualization and exploitation** that has become the staple of some of the major cities - Toronto, NYC, SF, Chicago. To think that those things don’t hurt the movement is actually kind of silly. It’s like you’re too desensitized. I’m willing to bet that after gay marriage is no longer an issue, we’ll see a spike in anti-gay sentiment within the Department of Human Services/Child Protection of several areas. No one ever gained political traction in America by being outrageous. And unfortunately, this is not a true blue America. > [@](#): > > While big majorities of Democrats and young people support the idea of legalizing same-sex marriage, fewer than 4 in 10 Republicans and older Americans agree. Republicans in particular seem fixed in their opinions; there was no change at all in their support level this year, while independents’ and Democrats’ support jumped by double-digit margins. Aw, hell. Obama is so determined to leave _some_ positive legacy that I’m sure he’ll finally decide on ‘how he feels’ on the issue. What a pansy. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-poll-majority-of-americans-support-legalising-gay-marriage/582736/163 "2011-06-01T03:17:28Z")
> [@CitizenPained](#): > > The Duluth Pride Parade is pretty tame. Worship services, family time…sound like leather daddies, ass chaps & boobie tassels to you? Are they bad for the movement if they’re boring? Do leather daddies exist only in big cities? How about scantily clad sexualized parade participants? Hmmm? Thoughts? I think it’s remarkable that you keep forgetting what you’ve posted. Throughout this thread, you’ve said over and over again that gay pride parades are overly sexualized and it presents a problem for the gay rights movement. And here you just said this parade doesn’t have that. (You said the same thing about Denver earlier. For some reason you can’t acknowledge you overgeneralized.) So in fact, not all gay pride parades have a big sexual component, right? Is that not what you just admitted? That maybe they do more flamboyant parades in places that will tolerate that kind of thing and tone it down in other places? > [@](#): > > And it’s people in the smaller towns that are hurting. Cite. Cite something, please. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-poll-majority-of-americans-support-legalising-gay-marriage/582736/164 "2011-06-01T03:20:26Z")
> [@CitizenPained](#): > > I meant to type “South Dakota”, not Duluth, but Duluth it is. [Here’s the schedule](http://www.eventsetter.com/events/USA/South-Dakota/Sioux-Falls/Miscellaneous_Events/event86142.html) for the 2009 Sioux Falls gay pride event. Note that it includes two different drag shows. > [@](#): > > The Duluth Pride Parade is pretty tame. Worship services, family time…sound like leather daddies, ass chaps & boobie tassels to you? There’s plenty of family events at [San Francisco Pride.](http://www.sfpride.org/) Among more adult-oriented fare, of course. I don’t see any worship services as part of the official events, but the [list of supporters](http://sfpride.org/?ifr=community/) includes several religious organizations, including Christian churches, whom I assume will be offering services to people attending the festival. Also, I note that there’s a Trans Parade. I wonder what that’s doing in there? You should probably tell them that transsexuals aren’t gay. They seem to have missed your earlier newsflash. > [@](#): > > There’s a “march of gay people down the street” and there’s a PRIDE PARADE. See how they vary from state to state. (More liberal areas are the ones with nudity, and that’s what people buzz about.) [Here’s](http://www.mndaily.com/2010/06/30/tc-pride-festival-crowds-downtown-mpls) an article about the pride parade in Minneapolis. Not too different from what you’d find in SF or NYC. ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-poll-majority-of-americans-support-legalising-gay-marriage/582736/165 "2011-06-01T03:26:33Z")
> [@CitizenPained](#): > > Sorry, but gay pride fests is hardly good PR for same-sex marriage. > [@CitizenPained](#): > > It’s nice to see how open this forum is. :rolleyes: > > I’m just saying how it looks to others. And what the opposition is using. > [@CitizenPained](#): > > _sigh_ I am talking about the marriage movement, not the “We’re here, we’re queer, deal with it. Hey, let’s be a stereotype and rock it. Fuck em.” > > I wasn’t aware that gays were even trying to push for marriage in the 60s and 70s. > > Gay Pride in Denver is pretty Zen. One that I went to in Iowa had big adverts for lube and condoms and other things. But [this](http://blogs.uit.tufts.edu/littlepeoplebigmediaaviewfromthebottomofthefoodchain/ITALY_GAY_PRIDE_PARADE_XRDL_thumb.jpg) isn’t something I’d be caught anywhere near. (Er…Warning!) > [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > That’s very talented of me. Do you have an actual response or when you said pride parades hurt the movement did you really mean pride parades offend your sensibilities? One shouldn’t generalize unnecessarily or make baseless claims. Twist away. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-poll-majority-of-americans-support-legalising-gay-marriage/582736/166 "2011-06-01T03:33:07Z")
> [@CitizenPained](#): > > If gays want others to accept them, why not project what is the gay norm - or at least within a few deviations of it? Why give off the feeling of sex-crazed teenagers who can’t help but to splash their sex lives in public? Because not all gays are within a few deviations of norm, and the purpose of gay pride is inclusion, not exclusion. Again, even if we accept (without, as **Marley** keeps pointing out to you, not one single shred of evidence) that pride parades are hurting gay rights in mainstream society, that’s a small price to pay for the effects they have within the gay community itself. > [@](#): > > There are so many straight people who go to Pride Parades to\* see the show\* more than anything, because it can be awfully entertaining. Shock value usually is. I kinda think all the straight people who show up at gay pride parades are probably okay with what’s going on in the parades. Otherwise, I doubt they’d be attending. So, the fact that there’s a significant straight population in attendance at pride events rather works against your argument, don’t you think? > [@](#): > > But chicks in tassels and guys in bikini underwear can’t casually stroll down Main Street, hook a left, and wave at schoolchildren in the middle of the week. The gay movement should **stand on its own merits** instead of capitalizing on people’s want to have a good time with half naked hot dudes (or chicks) and alcohol. “Gay Pride Parades” needs to be under “Stuff White People Like”. Gay pride is one of the merits of the overall gay rights movement. The fact that people can do this, in public, without censure or violence, is the best tribute imaginable to the strides made by the gay rights movement over the last fifty years. > [@](#): > > I don’t object to the idea of having a pride parade. Not at all. I’ve participated in marches, parades, rallies. I have my “LET FREEDOM MARRY” pin on my political bag & “SAFE ZONE” stickers and such in my classroom and HRC tags on my car and bla bla bla. I don’t need someone to be _cookie cutter_ for me to think they deserve equal rights! There is not one single thing you’ve posted in this thread to support this statement. ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-poll-majority-of-americans-support-legalising-gay-marriage/582736/167 "2011-06-01T03:33:36Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Cite. Cite something, please. Of? Anti-gay laws in small town America? Do I start with the 21 states that went out of their way to write it in their constitutions or…? **Marley** , what is the point of this? You’re just going to contend every thing I say, pick apart stuff, twist my words, and for what? If you want to have a PRODUCTIVE conversation, that’s fine. But the stereotypes of gays --no, fuck that, the GROSS MIS-CHARACTERIZATIONS depicted in major pride parades fuel people’s fears. Oh hey, I said conservatives had fears of may happen as a result of the gay rights movement, and look:[In objection to gay rights law, diocese ends adoptions work](http://beaconnews.suntimes.com/news/5626920-418/in-objection-to-gay-rights-law-diocese-ends-adoptions-work.html) > [@](#): > > The Rockford Diocese is ending its state-funded adoption and foster-care program rather than comply with a new law that would require it to place children with gay or unmarried couples. > > Officials from the Rockford Diocese, which includes Aurora, Kane County and much of Kendall County, said they were forced to terminate state contracts worth $7.5 million after **lawmakers failed to pass an amendment exempting religious groups from provisions of the state’s new civil unions law.** The law, which will let gay and lesbian couples form civil unions, a rough equivalent to marriage, takes effect on Wednesday. > > Catholic Charities wanted to be allowed to refer unmarried or gay couples to other agencies, as it has for years. Will that extend to other areas? Religious charities? Religious hospitals? Their employees, their services, their contracts, their funding? That’s the kind of domino effect that conservatives are worried about. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-poll-majority-of-americans-support-legalising-gay-marriage/582736/168 "2011-06-01T03:38:09Z")
> [@CitizenPained](#): > > Of? Anti-gay laws in small town America? Damage done by gay pride parades. Small town gays who are hurt by the backlash to the exuberance of gays in the big city. Something related to the thing I asked you to cite. > [@](#): > > But the stereotypes of gays --no, fuck that, the GROSS MIS-CHARACTERIZATIONS depicted in major pride parades fuel people’s fears. Which parades are major and which aren’t? Do you have a list? ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-poll-majority-of-americans-support-legalising-gay-marriage/582736/169 "2011-06-01T03:43:12Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Tell it to Malcolm X. The guy who didn’t win a damned lawsuit? The one who realized his militant views were wrong? Look at the commentary [here](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/25/nyc-gay-pride-parade-slid_n_220866.html). It’s all over the web under news stories…and it’s kind of what we have been saying. > [@](#): > > I’m not the only one who thinks this way (not that there weren’t the same counter-arguments you gave): > > As a gay man, I have never understood gay pride parades. They seem to be the opposite of pride. > What they say is we want to show ourselves as outrageous, over-sexed, hedonistic, narcissistic > sometimes drag queens who are in your face and eager to offend you as much as possible for > not allowing us to be the people that we are in these silly parades. What straight people may > not know is that most gay men, at least, are hard-working, average people who wouldn’t be interested > in going to one of these parades,much less wearing an evening gown, beehive wig, leather jockstrap > or other cliche getup like the ever-popular nun’s habit. It has nothing to do with being ashamed of being > gay. But we’re not more proud of being gay than straight people should be of being straight. I, for one, > would much rather be proud of things I chose for myself not what fate chose for me. > [@](#): > > As a fellow gay Chicagoan, I’d like to invite you to mind your own freakin business! I don’t enjoy the Chicago parades either and it doesn’t mean I hate myself. You can stay locked deep in your hating-and-judging others life–you’re a typical intolerant member of the “community” which doesn’t represent all of us. > [@](#): > > YES!!! My feelings exactly! I get nailed on this site regularly for such comments and you’re already being accused of self-hating (the usual label for those of us who don’t base every aspect of our lives on being gay). I agree with you, and you’ve got a fan now in Siberia… > [@](#): > > How about being proud of being true to yourself and the world in the face of terrific social pressure to be something you are not? > [@](#): > > Gay parades like this are why so many straight people have a hard time taking Gay activisim seriously. Maybe its time to follow Martin Luther King Jr.'s example and show the face of dignity not frivolity. It is after all the comparison Gay activists keep evoking that they are the same as oppressed African Americans.\*\* When was the last time you saw an African American event where people dressed up as giant male organs? \*\* ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-poll-majority-of-americans-support-legalising-gay-marriage/582736/170 "2011-06-01T03:46:47Z")
You can’t give people shit for citing Wikipedia and then try to prove your point by quoting responses to blog posts. I’m sure there you are not the only person on the planet who feels the way you do about these parades. That does not mean anything you have said about them is correct. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-poll-majority-of-americans-support-legalising-gay-marriage/582736/171 "2011-06-01T03:50:16Z")
> [@CitizenPained](#): > > Of? Anti-gay laws in small town America? > > Do I start with the 21 states that went out of their way to write it in their constitutions or…? The 21 states that amended their constitutions do not demonstrate a rising tide of anti-gay sentiment. In each one of those states, gay marriage was already illegal. The amendments were passed as a reaction to the steadily increasing acceptance of gays throughout the country. The people who wrote, and voted for, those laws weren’t pro-gay rights until they saw a pride parade. They were already anti-gay rights, and are freaking the fuck out because they can see that their numbers are steadily dwindling. They haven’t, yet, shrunk to the point where they’re politically powerless, but they can sure as hell feel the wolves nipping at their heels. > [@](#): > > **Marley** , what is the point of this? You’re just going to contend every thing I say, pick apart stuff, twist my words, and for what? To try to get you to make a coherent argument, would be my guess. > [@](#): > > If you want to have a PRODUCTIVE conversation, that’s fine. But the stereotypes of gays --no, fuck that, the GROSS MIS-CHARACTERIZATIONS depicted in major pride parades fuel people’s fears. How are those gross mischaracterizations? The people in these parades that you so vehemently despise are actual gay people. They’re not deep-cover members of Westboro Baptist, planting disinformation. They’re an accurate representation of one portion of the gay community. There are, certainly, a vast number of gays who are nothing like that - and they’re represented in the parades as well. Yes, enemies of the gay rights movement are going to pick out the most outrageous examples they can find, and try to paint them as representing all gay people. The solution to that isn’t to make the outrageous parts disappear, the solution is to keep fighting until people get it through their skulls that those people deserve the same rights as everyone else. > [@](#): > > Oh hey, I said conservatives had fears of may happen as a result of the gay rights movement, and look:[In objection to gay rights law, diocese ends adoptions work](http://beaconnews.suntimes.com/news/5626920-418/in-objection-to-gay-rights-law-diocese-ends-adoptions-work.html) And this is related to gay pride parades how, exactly? > [@](#): > > Will that extend to other areas? Religious charities? Religious hospitals? Their employees, their services, their contracts, their funding? That’s the kind of domino effect that conservatives are worried about. I should fucking well hope so. If a church wants to run a business, it has to run it by the same rules every other business does. It’s a pity that the Catholic Church has once again put their own medieval bigotry ahead of the welfare of children, but I don’t see any way a reasonable person can place the blame for that one the gay rights movement, and not on the Catholic organization that decided to end the program. ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-poll-majority-of-americans-support-legalising-gay-marriage/582736/172 "2011-06-01T03:51:15Z")
Oops, I stuck myself in quotes on accident. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-poll-majority-of-americans-support-legalising-gay-marriage/582736/173 "2011-06-01T03:56:25Z")
> [@CitizenPained](#): > > Look at the commentary [here](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/25/nyc-gay-pride-parade-slid_n_220866.html). It’s all over the web under news stories…and it’s kind of what we have been saying. No one ever suggested you had a monopoly on dumb ideas. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-poll-majority-of-americans-support-legalising-gay-marriage/582736/174 "2011-06-01T05:37:53Z")
CitizenPained writes: \> Then how come anti-gay measurements are being passed? Because, as I said already, the fact that the percentages in voting patterns are going upward doesn’t mean that they are all above 50% yet. When a particular vote in a particular region goes 55% to 45% against same-sex marriage, that doesn’t mean that suddenly it has been decided that never in the future will it pass. What you have to do is look at the history in that region. 10 years before, a similar vote might have gone 65% to 35% against same-sex marriage. 20 years before it would have been unlikely that it could have even got on the ballot, and if it did it would have been lucky to get 25% of the votes. As I already said, you have to look at the long-term patterns and not at any one particular ballot, legislative vote, or court decision. ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-poll-majority-of-americans-support-legalising-gay-marriage/582736/175 "2011-06-01T06:05:08Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > CitizenPained writes: > > \> Then how come anti-gay measurements are being passed? > > Because, as I said already, the fact that the percentages in voting patterns are going upward doesn’t mean that they are all above 50% yet. When a particular vote in a particular region goes 55% to 45% against same-sex marriage, that doesn’t mean that suddenly it has been decided that never in the future will it pass. What you have to do is look at the history in that region. 10 years before, a similar vote might have gone 65% to 35% against same-sex marriage. 20 years before it would have been unlikely that it could have even got on the ballot, and if it did it would have been lucky to get 25% of the votes. As I already said, you have to look at the long-term patterns and not at any one particular ballot, legislative vote, or court decision. Ah, now I see what you mean. I don’t dispute that such things come in waves - just ta few years ago, support for same sex marriage was ‘down’, but now it ‘isn’t’. My point was to not get too terribly excited over the Gallup poll and to focus on what’s happening in the legal realm. ---
**Author:** ![5-HT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/f19dbf/32.png) [@5-HT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5-HT)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-poll-majority-of-americans-support-legalising-gay-marriage/582736/176 "2011-06-01T07:13:53Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > You have no idea how little I care about Joe Q. Homophobic’s opinion. I’m on your side here, but if what you just said was true I doubt you’d be in a thread about a gay marriage opinion poll. ---
**Author:** ![5-HT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/f19dbf/32.png) [@5-HT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5-HT)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-poll-majority-of-americans-support-legalising-gay-marriage/582736/177 "2011-06-01T08:26:49Z")
> [@Naxos](#): > > 70% of the US population believes in angels. There’s a long time before this disease is cured. I really wanted this not to be true, but when I looked it up not only did I find out that it is(according to one poll at least), it turns out 67% of Canadians do too. ---
**Author:** ![Naxos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/50afbb/32.png) [@Naxos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Naxos)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-poll-majority-of-americans-support-legalising-gay-marriage/582736/178 "2011-06-01T08:28:22Z")
> [@5-HT](#): > > I really wanted this not to be true, but when I looked it up not only did I find out that it is(according to one poll at least), it turns out 67% of Canadians do too. That’s why religion is a mental disease. Thanks for the research. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-poll-majority-of-americans-support-legalising-gay-marriage/582736/179 "2011-06-01T11:47:13Z")
> [@Naxos](#): > > That’s why religion is a mental disease. Thanks for the research. Since you made that post about angels 10 days ago, the Great Debates mods have told you several times that you need to stop posting this comment (and ones like it) over and over and over again. This is another warning for ignoring those instructions. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-poll-majority-of-americans-support-legalising-gay-marriage/582736/180 "2011-06-01T18:44:08Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > CitizenPained writes: > > \> Then how come anti-gay measurements are being passed? > > Because, as I said already, the fact that the percentages in voting patterns are going upward doesn’t mean that they are all above 50% yet. When a particular vote in a particular region goes 55% to 45% against same-sex marriage, that doesn’t mean that suddenly it has been decided that never in the future will it pass. What you have to do is look at the history in that region. 10 years before, a similar vote might have gone 65% to 35% against same-sex marriage. 20 years before it would have been unlikely that it could have even got on the ballot, and if it did it would have been lucky to get 25% of the votes. As I already said, you have to look at the long-term patterns and not at any one particular ballot, legislative vote, or court decision. Here’s another indication of how things have changed: In 1978, there was a proposition on the California ballot, the so-called [Briggs Initiative.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Briggs_Initiative) If passed, it “would have banned gays and lesbians, and possibly anyone who supported gay rights, from working in California’s public schools.” It lost, but more than 40% of the electorate voted for it. In California! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-poll-majority-of-americans-support-legalising-gay-marriage/582736.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-poll-majority-of-americans-support-legalising-gay-marriage/582736.md?page=10)