More Americans Think Gays Are Humans Who Deserve The Right to Marry

Americans are starting to realize that gays and lesbians are, like, humans who deserve the constitutional right to marry. Well, about half of Americans, anyhow. These people also say that companies should not deny “serving gays for religious reasons.” Isn’t that nice?

Beyond the constitutional questions, a record-high 59 percent say they support same-sex marriage, while 34 percent are opposed, the widest margin tracked in Post-ABC polling.

Everyone can’t be on the right side of history.

Since the Supreme Court ruled to disburse federal benefits and recognition to same-sex couples in the states where gay marriage is legal last year, others like New Jersey, New Mexico and even Utah have boarded the gay marriage train. Elsewhere, states that ban gay marriage might be on the way out too.

In the 33 states that prohibit same-sex marriage, 53 percent of those polled support allowing it, while 40 percent oppose doing so.

On the matter of businesses refusing service to gays, seven in 10 polled Americans felt that was wrong. This trend was buttressed when Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, who touts a notoriously staunch Republican hard line against abortion and general happiness, vetoed against businesses refusing service to the LGBTQ community because of religious reasons. Hopefully she made that decision because that that entire proposal sounds like a return to what Bayard Rustin, SNCC, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. fought against during the Civil Rights Movement. I am totally offended and enraged that Brewer even had to “decide” on something so blatantly discriminatory. Maybe we should all vote on whether black people are still allowed to eat at integrated lunch counters, drink from public water fountains or ride in cars with loud music?

“She did the right thing in vetoing that,” said Charles Musser of Marana, Ariz., who said that he opposes same-sex marriage and adoption rights for gays but that he thought the legislation was ill-conceived. If they passed that law, “that would open the door to all kinds of discrimination,” he said.

You don’t say, Mr. Musser.

Fools aside, the general opinion of same-sex marriage has changed quickly over the last ten years. In 2004, 59 percent of Americans thought same-sex marriage should be illegal while 38 percent did not. Now eight in 10 people feel LGBTQ parents can raise kids just as well, or as badly, as anyone else and adoption views are similar.

Ultimately, the split in opinion over gay marriage is rooted in religion, age and politics.

Six in 10 evangelical Protestants oppose same-sex marriage, while about six in 10 Catholics, non-evangelical Protestants and eight in 10 with no religious affiliation support it. Three-quarters of Americans younger than 30 support same-sex marriage, while less than half of seniors say the same.

Democrats support gay marriage by 70 percent, just ahead of Independents who ring in at 60 percent. But Republicans? 54 percent oppose same-sex marriage. On the other hand, Democrats splinter off along race and class divisions.

Support for same-sex marriage peaks at nearly eight in 10 white Democrats, and an even larger proportion with incomes more than $50,000 favor such unions. Support is lower, just over six in 10, among non-whites and those with lower incomes.

Can we all agree that marriage is a constitutional and civil right for every American?