Let the people decide

Lots of encouraging things in this poll - people are almost evenly split on gay marriage as well as having their states recognize the validity of same-sex marriages from Mass. in their state. A strong plurality favors civil unions. As usual, those under 35 - whose influence will continue to grow for obvious reasons - are the strongest supporters of gay equality.

This is all the more reason to continue to try to persuade our fellow citizens to support and democratically enact gay equality, rather than having judges force it on people, which does nothing but create backlash and resentment even among otherwise pro-gay people, and which adds fuel to the fire for things like a Constitutional Amendment preventing gay marriage and/or extreme attacks on the judiciary:

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Poll: U.S. divided on same-sex marriage

Mass. began granting same-sex marriage licenses a year agoThe Associated Press

Updated: 7:15 a.m. ET May 15, 2005BOSTON - Half of Americans disapprove of same-sex marriages and do not want their states to recognize gay marriages from Massachusetts, a new survey by the Boston Globe shows.

The poll released Sunday found that 50 percent of Americans disapprove of gay and lesbian marriages, while 37 percent approve and 11 percent are neutral.

The poll also found that half of Americans believe gay marriages from Massachusetts, where same-sex marriages are legal, should not be recognized in their state. Forty-six percent said they should be recognized.

The poll of 760 randomly selected adults was conducted May 4-9 by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percent.

Massachusetts began granting same-sex marriage licenses a year ago after a landmark decision by the state Supreme Judicial Court that declared the state could not prohibit gay marriages. More than 6,000 same-sex couples have since tied the knot in the state.

Although the poll found that half of Americans disapprove of gay marriages, 46 percent of those surveyed said they support civil unions that would provide gay couples with “some, but not all of the legal rights of married couples.” Forty-one percent opposed civil unions.

Americans older than age 65, Republicans, Protestants, regular churchgoers and Southerners were more likely to oppose gay marriage.

People under age 35, Democrats and people who do not attend worship services or attend sporadically were more likely to support gay marriages.

© 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7860056/

RE: Let the people open the steeple

Majority rules, huh Doug? A quick reading of history will show you what that brings. That's why we have protection of minority rights, and it is the court's job to enforce them. Anybody who doesn't like it is un-American!

You can look at a dozen polls, you can quote a thousand articles and you can draw upon as many conclusions as you like. The bottom line is that at this stage the citizens of the United States Of America are simply not ready to accept the notion of equality for gay marriages.

If you want to take a trip down memory lane, then take a good look at the events surrounding the fiasco from San Francisco in 2004. What the mayor attempted to do might have been justified in his own mind with the notion granting gay couples marriage licenses. What he couldn't have predicted was the fury that would come about after his actions. Those events ignited a fire storm across the United States in which quite a lot of Christians felt and will always feel that gay marriage is blasphemy by their own interpretation of the Bible. In turn, part of President Bush acquiring a second term in the White House was due to what happened in San Francisco early last year and the Democratic Party partly suffered for it.

Maybe in twenty or thirty years from now, people may think differently, but not anytime soon. It really boils down to that word " Equality " , doesn't it? In our modern world, we're very lucky in lot of ways to have some basic things that for the most part we take for granted. The right to be equal citizens, the right to have an education, the right to attain a good paying job. Only forty years ago now, such things were considered inconeivable for quite a lot of people, and today it's about as common as can be. For me, to preserve these three principles holds more currency and value than the idea of gay marriage.

If there was ever a national referendum on Gay Marriage in the United States. Gay Supporters of Marriage would be crushed very badly and have to learn the hard way, that people are just simply not ready for it. Just remember this, the envelope can be pushed so far before the majority cuts or curtails the hand of the minority. It could happen so easily.

Rohale

Can you point out to me the provision in the Constitution for a national referendum? You might have been reading the Constitution of the 5th Republic, but it doesn't apply in the US.

That being said, I'd have to agree with your feelings that most of the US probably just isn't ready to embrace gay marriage.