A poll from Gallup reveals some interesting numbers when it comes to American's thoughts on the "morality" of our gayness.

Americans interviewed in Gallup's 2008 Values and Beliefs poll are evenly divided over the morality of homosexual relations, with 48% considering them morally acceptable and 48% saying they are morally wrong.

While similar to last year's results, current attitudes are more affirming of gays than what Gallup found at the start of the decade when the majority said such relations were morally wrong.

Still, homosexuality emerges as the most divisive of 16 major social and cultural issues measured in the May 8-11, 2008 survey. Only doctor-assisted suicide and abortion come close to it in splitting public opinion.

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A poll released Wednesday shows that for the first time a majority of Americans believe that gays and lesbians could not not change their sexuality even if they wanted to.

The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll found that 56 percent of respondents do not believe sexual orientation can be changed.

That is a marked change in the past six years.

A 2001 CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll found only 45 percent of respondents believed sexuality was unchangeable and in 1998 a CNN/Time poll the number was 36 percent.

When asked whether homosexuality is nature or nurture the 515 people surveyed in the new poll respondents were more closely divided.

Forty-two percent of respondents to the current poll said they believe homosexuality is the result of upbringing or environment, while 39 percent said they believe it is genetic.

Similar polls in the 1970s and 1980 found fewer than 20 percent of Americans believed said a person is born homosexual.

The survey is the latest in a series of recent polls showing public support growing for gays and lesbians.

A poll conducted last month found that 79 percent support gays serving openly in the military. A second poll conducted in May found that a majority believed same-sex couples should be recognized but were almost equally divided on whether that should be marriage or civil unions. Forty-three percent opposed both.

On the topic of adoption, however, 57 percent said same-sex couples should be allowed to adopt children.

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A recent Harris Interactive national survey found that gays, lesbians and bisexuals use the internet, in general, and in particular social media - from Craigslist and blogs to MySpace and YouTube - proportionately more than heterosexuals.

As a whole, six percent more gays, lesbians and bisexuals consider themselves heavy internet users; in the case of blogging, 36 percent of the gay community reads blogs daily, whereas only 19 percent of heterosexuals do.

According to Harris (via ClickZ), the gay, lesbian, and bi population beat out heterosexuals by five percent on short visits to YouTube, and Craigslist is visited by 20 percent of the gay community versus 13 percent of heterosexuals.

In social networking, Friendster accounts for 11 percent of time spent online for gay, lesbian and bisexual internet users, versus 4 percent of heterosexual users. MySpace mirrors the trend, with 33 percent versus 28 percent.

via MarketingVox.com

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Fifty-seven percent of the American public believe that another state will legalize same-sex marriage in 2007 according to a new poll.

The Associated Press-AOL survey asked Americans their predictions on a wide variety of issues.

On the issue of marriage, the prediction of another state legalizing gay weddings does not necessarily suggest 57 percent supported the idea, just that they believed it would occur.

Currently Massachusetts is the only state where same-sex couples can wed. Civil unions are available in Vermont and Connecticut.

In 2006 the Supreme Court of New Jersey declared it unconstitutional to deny same-sex couples rights and benefits of marriage but left it to the legislature to decide whether it should be called marriage or civil unions. Lawmakers opted for civil unions and the law will go into effect next month.

The only state where the issue of gay marriage will reach the Supreme Court this year is California, although lawsuits are underway in several other states at the lower court level.

In California, which already has the nation's strongest domestic partner law, the legislature will also consider a bill that would legalize gay marriage. A similar bill last year passed both the state Assembly and Senate only to be vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The telephone poll of 1,000 adults was conducted Dec. 12-14 by Ipsos, an international polling firm. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Labels: california, marriage, poll

Direct from the soldiers on the ground... According to an October Zogby poll of 545 troops who served in Iraq and Afghanistan:

A new poll sheds insight into the national opinion of gay unions and how there is a rising trend in support over the past two years.

Most adults in the United States believe same-sex partnerships should be legally acknowledged, according to a poll by Opinion Dynamics released by Fox News. 30 per cent of respondents think gays and lesbians should be allowed to legally marry, while 30 per cent support a similar legal partnership that should not be called marriage.

Conversely, 32 per cent of respondents believe there should be no legal recognition to gay and lesbian relationships.



In 2004, marriage certificates were issued to same-sex couples by local governments in the states of California, Oregon, New Mexico and New York. In May 2004, the state of Massachusetts allowed gay and lesbian partners to apply for marriage licenses, the first state-sanctioned homosexual weddings in the U.S.

Civil union and domestic partnership laws in Vermont, Connecticut and California grant same-sex couples all state-level rights and obligations of marriage—in areas such as inheritance, income tax, insurance and hospital visitation. There are more than 1,000 federal-level rights of marriage that cannot be granted by states.

On Jun. 7, a proposal to enact a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage failed in the Senate after a 49-48 vote. On Jul. 18, a House of Representatives effort to constitutionally prohibit any form of marriage other than one "between a man and a woman" fell 46 votes short of the 289 required to pass.

Over the past two years, 19 American states have enacted amendments to define marriage as the union between a man and a woman. Seven more approved similar measures after statewide ballots on Nov. 7.

On Nov. 8, Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, expressed satisfaction with the victories of Deval Patrick and Eliot Spitzer, saying, "Massachusetts and New York voters have elected in overwhelming landslides the first two governors ever who support marriage equality for same-sex couples. These historic victories show that support for full equality for our families is not a negative but something voters are willing to embrace enthusiastically."

via Angus-Reid

Labels: civil union, marriage, poll