POLL: Support For Marriage Equality Up 8 Points in 3 Years

Looks like 2011 will be the tipping point where there is more popular support for marriage equality than opposition. Ever since the heterosexual supremacists' Pyrrhic victory with Proposition 8 in November 2008, there has been an 8 percentage point movement towards marriage equality. That's faster than the generally accepted 1-2 percentage point per year movement that most activists cite.

The Pew Research Center for People and the Press poll was conducted February 22 to March 1, 2011 and has a margin of error of  3 percentage points.

The new poll finds that about as many adults now favor (45%) as oppose (46%) allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally. Last year opponents outnumbered supporters 48% to 42%. Opposition to same-sex marriage has declined by 19 percentage points since 1996, when 65% opposed gay marriage and only 27% were in favor. 

Majorities of the public now support same-sex marriage in the Northeast (59% in favor) and West (56%). In many states in those regions, efforts to legalize same-sex marriage have been underway or have already succeeded. By contrast, support is much lower in the Midwest (40% favor) and the South (34%). 

As has been the case since 1996, there is a wide partisan division on the question of same-sex marriage. Currently 57% of Democrats favor making it legal, while only 23% of Republicans agree. Independents (at 51% in favor) are more similar to Democrats than to Republicans, in part because 46% of Republican-leaning independents are supportive of same-sex marriage, along with 58% of independents who lean Democratic. 

Hopefully legislattors in Rhode Island and Maryland will see these results and do the right thing. I also hope that these poll results may help President Obama as he "struggles" with the issue of marriage equality.