Polls are now showing that support for same-sex “marriage” has grown to more than half of Americans. The changing opinions correspond with a wave of rulings against bans on same-sex “marriages” in a number of states.
The question posed in the May 20 Gallup survey was, “Do you think marriages between same-sex couples should or should not be recognized by the law as valid, with the same rights as traditional marriages?”
According to Gallup, support for same-sex “marriage” has now reached a “tipping point,” with 55 percent of Americans now voicing approval.
“For proponents of marriage equality, years of playing offense have finally paid off as this movement has reached a tipping point in recent years — both legally and in the court of public opinion,” Gallup notes in reporting that such support has “solidified above the majority level.”
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The poll follows a wave of rulings over the course of the past six months wherein eight federal judges have struck down laws against same-sex “marriages” as unconstitutional.
For example, Arenda Wright Allen, a federal judge in Virginia, wrote,
Justice has often been forged from fires of indignities and prejudices suffered. We have arrived upon another moment in history when We the People becomes more inclusive, and our freedom more perfect.
Tradition is revered in the Commonwealth, and often rightly so. However, tradition alone cannot justify denying same-sex couples the right to marry any more than it could justify Virginia’s ban on interracial marriage.
And in Michigan, District Judge Bernard Friedman, ruled,
State defendants lost sight of what this case is truly about: people. No court record of this proceeding could ever fully convey the personal sacrifice of these two plaintiffs who seek to ensure that the state may no longer impair the rights of their children and the thousands of others now being raised by same-sex couples.
Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge John Jones III overturned a ban on gay marriage in the state of Pennsylvania, observing,
We now join the 12 federal districts across the country which, when confronted with these in their own states, have concluded that all couples deserve equal dignity in the realm of civil marriage.
“The fundamental right to marry as protected by the due process clause of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution encompasses the right to marry a person of one’s own sex,” asserted Jones, insisting that Pennsylvania’s ban against same-sex “marriage” within the state as well as its failure to recognize such unions performed in other states, are unconstitutional.
Oregon was the 18th state to recognize same-sex “marriage” after U.S. District Judge Michael McShane issued a ruling overturning the state’s voter-approved same-sex “marriage” ban on May 19.
Also on May 19, a federal judge in Utah ordered state officials to recognize over 1,000 same-sex “marriages” that took place in the state over a two-week period before the U.S. Supreme Court halted such weddings with an emergency stay.
Fox News writes, “State [same-sex] marriage bans have been falling around the country since the U.S. Supreme Court last year struck down part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act.”
The most significant ruling came in June of 2013, when the Supreme Court said that same-sex couples were entitled to federal benefits.
The vote in the case striking down the federal Defense of Marriage Act was 5 to 4, and Justice Anthony M. Kennedy was joined by the four members of the court’s liberal wing.
“The federal statute is invalid, for no legitimate purpose overcomes the purpose and effect to disparage and injure those whom the state, by its marriage laws, sought to protect in personhood and dignity,” Justice Kennedy wrote. “By seeking to displace this protection and treating those persons as living in marriages less respected than others, the federal statute is in violation of the Fifth Amendment.”
As noted in Yahoo News, the judges who issue these rulings do not fall into any sort of category. They are male, female, black, white, Republican-nominated and Democrat-nominated.
Likewise, state attorneys general have been showing support for same-sex “marriage” in their refusal to defend laws banning such unions.
Pennsylvania’s Attorney General Kathleen Kane said prior to Judge Jones’ ruling that she will “not … defend Pennsylvania’s Defense of Marriage Act because I made a legal determination as to the unconstitutionality of this law.”
A March Rasmussen Reports poll showed 43 percent in support of gay “marriage” and 43 percent opposed. That poll also revealed that the majority of Americans continue to view marriage as more of a religious institution than a civil one. Fifty percent of those polled said that marriage is a religious institution, while 39 percent considered it a civil one.
There has been a 28-point increase in approval for same-sex “marriage” since 1996, when 27 percent of Americans supported the legalization of such unions. Among Republicans, there has been a 14-point increase (to 30 percent) since 1996, when only 16 percent supported same-sex “marriage.”
As a result of the increasing support for same-sex “marriage,” the Nevada Republican Party has dropped opposition to such unions from its party’s platform, with a campaign to remove it from the national party platform by 2016.
The Gallup poll notes that one factor that continues to drive the trend in public opinion is age:
Among the most dramatic divisions in opinion on the issue are between age groups. Currently, adults between the ages of 18 and 29 are nearly twice as likely to support marriage equality as adults aged of 65 and older.
As observed by Yahoo News, the changing opinion on same-sex “marriage” is even pervading institutions that once held strong positions against homosexuality.
Yahoo News writes, “In the U.S. military, the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ ban on openly-gay service members has been replaced with full acceptance: same-sex partners are eligible for service benefits, and same-sex weddings are being performed in military chapels.”
And former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who has taken the role as president of the Boy Scouts of America, announced it was “time for a blunt talk” about the organization’s ban on homosexual leaders.
