POLL: Solid Majority Supports Calif. Marriage Equality

The Los Angeles Times/USC poll released this weekend indicates that there is a solid majority in favor of marriage equality in California, with an overall 10 point increase in support since its last poll on the topic more than 3 years ago. The poll conducted May 27 to June 2, 2013 with a margin of error of ±2.9 percentage points indicates that a whopping 58% of Californians favor marriage for same-sex couples and only 36% oppose. Interestingly, this is a slightly higher number than the 55%-37% support for marriage found by David Binder Research I reported on last week. The LAT/USC number is not as high as the record 61%-32% that the respected Field Poll found in their survey from March 2013.

The Los Angeles Times reports:

Most national polls this year have found majority support, but only one of those surveys reported it as high as 58%. The average was roughly 51% in favor of gay marriage. As in the rest of the country, more women (63%) than men (52%) in California favor same-sex marriage.

Younger California voters also support gay marriage by larger margins than older voters, the poll found. Whereas 76% of voters ages 18 to 29 support legalizing the unions, only 52% of those ages 50 to 64 agree.

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Support is strongest in the Bay Area (69%), followed by Sacramento, the rest of Northern California and the Central Coast (59%), Los Angeles County (58%) and all of Southern California (52%).

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The survey also found that a majority of California's Catholics believe gays should be permitted to wed, 51% to 44%, despite opposition by church leadership.

Slightly more than half of Protestants disagree. Opposition rises with frequency of church attendance.

At least half of all ethnic groups surveyed favor same-sex marriage. Whites are most supportive (61%) followed by Asians (58%) Latinos (51%) and African Americans (50%).

Please note the quote in the excerpt: "Opposition [to marriage equality] rises with frequency of church attendance." This is the key issue. Even though we are talking about civil marriage licenses issued by the state, usually in the same office where you can pay your property taxes and register to vote, for some reason religious people can not separate their beliefs about marriage (and weddings) and civil marriage. It has taken literally decades for more and more people to realize that same-sex marriage has no impact on religious beliefs or practices in marriage.

It should also be noted that African Americans are the ethnic group with the lowest level of support but since they are also the group with the most frequent church attendance this is not a surprise.