50% of Californians now support gay marriage, poll finds

Less than two years after Californians approved a ban on gay marriage, a new poll found that more residents support same-sex union than oppose it.

According to the Public Policy Institute of California poll, 50% of respondents support gay marriage and 45% oppose it. The PPIC said it marks the highest level of support for gay marriage their polls have recorded in California.

Some gay rights activists had planned to ask voters to repeal the ban on gay marriage, Proposition 8, this year. But several key groups decided to push back that effort until at least 2011.

A Los Angeles Times/USC poll released in November found a small majority of California voters supports the right of gay couples to marry, but a much larger portion of voters opposes efforts to place the issue on the ballot in 2010.

The PPIC polled 2,002 California adults by phone from March 9-16. It had a margin of error of 2%

-- Shelby Grad

Photo credit: Associated Press

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Comments

[cheryl]

how come my comment has not been put up where is my right and my freedom of speech i voted against gay marriage give me my rights and post my blogs

[crisitna menzies]

i support gay marriage 100% and believe that they should have equal rights like evryone else.

i am christain and i dnt believe everyone in the states are christain so the bible does not apply to every american.ppl got to stop using god as an excuse to discriminate.
LEVITICUS 19:18
"You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.."

if i were homosexual and a STRANGER tld me i couldnt marry the person i loved i would be pistt off toooo!!!

let them be!

[crisitna menzies]

never mix politics and religion..

never works outt!!!

[Hmph]

Keep polling all you want. I'm not changing my position, and judging from the comments on this after all this time, nobody else (pro or con) is either.

[crisitna menzies]

let gays marry!!!

it should be a right alreadyy!!!!

[crisitna menzies]

im straight and i go to church.

[dogrob1]

you are going to raise an generation of confused children, god gave no one the option, but you give it to them,and if you dont care either way God wont care, and when that time comes it will be to late to explain,you bunch of senseless spiritual hypocrites, and these couples being men or women should be banned from adopting children sense these children have no say so on who is adopting then=WHO WANTS GAY PARENTS==oh thats right California is a gay and criminally orientated state!and I guess thats where the money and the fame is! (HORROR)

[Alex]

please Bible thumpere!! quoting scripture to a group of people who are willingly in darkness to God's word if futile, God talks about people walking in their own lusts, let them, its their free will. The risk of AIDS doesn't stop the behavior so let them be, one day it'll all be revealed to them.

[Paralegal Los Angeles]

Why ruin the thrill of violating the taboos of a repressed culture with something so boringly middle class as marriage? If other people want to get married that's okay with me. Personally, I'll stay outside the mainstream and have some fun before the whole hot dog stand goes up in flames . . .

[RetroHousewife]

Gays can already get married, but like everybody else, they must marry a member of the opposite sex.

Here is a non-religious reason not to support this absurdity. Allowing two members of the same sex to marry would make their union legally equal to a real married couple. Since the two are obviously not equal, there is no basis for legal equality, and many reasons against it.

Marriage is first and foremost a legal construct designed to provide a stable environment for raising children. Two people of the same sex cannot ever produce offspring without a third party relinquishing their own rights to genetic material, a womb, or custody of existing offspring.

Because of this, a union between two same-sex people is most decidedly inferior to that of one between a male and female.

As a society, we do not want, as a matter of course, to promote the creation of offspring with only one genetic parent (as is the case in surrogate/sperm bank created offspring) - as this provides said offspring with only one parent with the biological imperative to provide and care for it.

Furthermore, nobody ever considers the rights of these offspring, commonly known as children - to have at least a chance at coming into the world as nature so obviously intended - with a mother and father that are their own.

[sitdownandbequiet]

God is not happy about all of this hatred. So good to see a majority of Californians evolving. Equal rights for all.

[Zach]

"Gays can already get married, but like everybody else, they must marry a member of the opposite sex."

I don't know what's worse, that some people actually think that this is how the law is supposed to work, providing "equally" only for certain people, or that they seem to think gay people marrying unwitting straight people is going to solve anything. Over 50% of straight marriages currently end in divorce, that anyone has the gall to talk about gay marriage as inferior is laughable. It also makes me wonder why, if kids have the "right" to a mother and father, where are all these self-righteous defenders of marriage when divorce deprives kids of them every day?

No one should be surprised by these polls. There was an increase in support for gay marriage between the first and second time it was put to a vote, why would a poll be so unbelievable if it showed that increase has continued? The margin was extremely narrow the second time, so why should anyone be shocked that it's closed and reversed since?
Some people need to deal with the fact that while they successfully made "protecting marriage" a fad and passed 8, fads don't last and enduring principles like equality bolster opposition. We WILL see that blight removed from our Constitution.

[ILoveCA]

This cracks me up. 2,002 people were polled out of 37-38 MILLION people that reside in California with a margin of 2% error. A more accurate poll was taken not that long ago and it said that OVER 50% were not in favor of Gays getting married. You remember it right? Everyone was able to participate in this poll....it's the same poll that elected Obama. Sorry you can't have it all!

[hollywoodron]

Let's use the abortion analogy for gay marriage. This analogy: 13 year olds can now get tax paid abortions w/o parental consent, and its encouraged by Democratic socialist tax funded groups. And encouraged by ALL Universities, High Schools, Govt officials, NPR...

So for gay marriage, if it becomes law... Gay Liberal Atheist Communist Activists will declare a 10-30% gay population or experimentation... which will then require 10-30% man-man or woman-woman couples portrayed in all cartoons, catalogs, school books, children's books, tv shows & movies. And the Democrats will REQUIRE this. Also, churches will be banned from preaching man-woman only marriages. Also, it will be termed hate speech. And even the Bible will be put on trial... as hate speech.

So that is why, they want Gay Marriage.

To define marriage as desire, not sacrifice or commitment, for children, but desire and social and financial standing.