Gallup: Support For Gay Marriage At All-Time High

Another day, another poll released showing that the United States is a nation where support for marriage equality is the majority position, and opposition is a minority position, slowly becoming a fringe one. Gallup's latest poll indicates that 53% of respondents agree that "marriages between same-sex couples should be recognized by the law as valid, with the same rights as traditional marriages" while 46% disagree. (The margin of error is ±4 percentage points.)

As usual, the demographic split shows that support for marriage equality is much stronger in younger cohorts, and in this sample support for marriage is stronger among Democratic-affiliated respondents (73%-26%) than it is among Republican-affiliated respondents (30-69%).

Gallup goes further into the numbers and tries to tease out what are the top reasons that people give for supporting equal marriage rights. The top 3 affirmative responses are: 32% (equal rights/ everyone should have the same rights/ freedoms), 32% (Personal choice/Love, Happiness matters, not sexual orientation) and 14% (Not my business/Not government's business to decide).

But even more interesting are the Top 3 reasons given for opposing marriage equality: 47% (Religion/Bible says it is wrong), 20% (Marriage should be between a man and woman), 16% (Morally wrong/have traditional beliefs).

First off one can basically ignore the 20% who say "Marriage should be between a man and a woman" because that is not a reason for opposing same-sex marriage it is simply a talking point parroted from organized heterosexual supremacist groups. To see this is so all you have to do is ask someone who say this "Why does marriage have to be between a man and woman?" and they will almost certainly revert to the religion or morality reason.

What is the real difference between citing the Bible and citing "morality/tradition"? Combining these two reasons would say that almost two-thirds (63%) of the opposition to civil marriage for same-sex couples is rooted in religion! We're talking about civil marriage licenses people! These marriages have nothing to do with your religious institution. What part of separation of church and state do you simply not understand?