Gay marriage makes headlines, but it won’t sway elections, poll reveals_32204

Posted: 3/19/04

Gay marriage makes headlines,
but it won't sway elections, poll reveals

By Amanda Mantone

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)–Gay marriage is not a decisive issue for American voters in the 2004 presidential election, despite national debate over gay rights, according to recent polls.

A CBS News poll found that more than half (52 percent) of all voters would support a candidate who doesn't share their views on gay marriage.

Only 4 percent of voters said gay marriage is the main issue they want to hear about in the election.

Sen. John Kerry, the apparent Democratic presidential candidate, has said he does not support legalization of same-sex marriage, but he opposes the constitutional amendment proposed by President Bush banning gay marriage completely.

Voters in a poll sponsored by the Alliance to End Hunger said candidates' positions on issues such as poverty and hunger are more important than positions on gay marriage.

In the survey, a majority of voters–78 percent–said a candidate's plan for fighting poverty would affect their voting decision, while only 15 percent said a candidate's position on gay marriage would matter.

A Pew Research Center study found that a national ban on gay marriage, despite recent debate, is not an issue of importance for voters.

Gay marriage did, however, rank as a more important issue than abortion or gun control.

The Pew poll, which surveyed 1,500 U.S. adults, found that American voters oppose gay marriage by more than two-to-one.

Gay marriage remains a “make-or-break” voting issue for two-thirds of gay marriage opponents but only 6 percent of gay marriage supporters.

Some voters are more strongly opposed than others, according to the Pew report.

Six in 10 Republican voters strongly oppose gay marriage, as dotwo-thirds of evangelical Protestant voters. Of voters 65 and older, 60 percent oppose gay marriage. Catholics and mainline Protestants are less likely to count gay marriage as an important factor in their voting decision.

According to CBS, opposition to gay marriage is growing. Nearly 60 percent of Americans said they favor an amendment limiting marriage to a man and a woman, up from 55 percent last December.

The number of voters who favored allowing homosexual couples to legally marry in a July poll was 40 percent; it has dropped steadily since then to a current low of 30 percent.