LIFETIME?????

New poll: 50% support legal same sex marriages

(CNN) - As people in North
Carolina vote on a controversial referendum that would constitutionally
ban same sex marriages, a new national poll indicates that half of the
public supports legalizing such unions.
According to a Gallup survey released Tuesday, 50% of Americans say
that same sex marriages should be recognized as legal, with 48% saying
such marriages should not be legal.

The poll's release comes two days after Vice President Joe Biden said on NBC's "Meet the
Press" that he was "absolutely comfortable" with the idea of same-gender
unions.
The vice president added, however, that it's the president, not him, who sets the administration's policy.
President Barack Obama, who once opposed same-sex marriage, says he
supports civil unions for same sex couples, and has taken the official
position that his views on the issue are "evolving."
Forty-seven percent of people questioned in a Pew Research Center
poll conducted last month said they favored allowing gay and lesbian
couples to legally marry, with 43% opposed. An ABC News/Washington Post
poll conducted in March indicated that 52% supported legal same sex
marriages, with 43% opposed. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll also
conducted in March indicated 49% in support of legal same sex marriage
and 40% opposed. And according to a CNN/ORC International poll conducted
last autumn, 53% backed legalized same sex marriages, with 46% opposed.
All of these surveys indicated building support for legal same sex marriages over the past decade.
Like the other polls, the new Gallup survey indicates a partisan
divide on the issue, with almost two-thirds of Democrats and 57% of
independents but just 22% of Republicans supporting legalizing same-sex
marriages.
According to the Gallup poll, there's also a divide along religious
lines, with Catholics, by a 51%-47% margin, in support of legal same sex
marriages but Protestants, by a 59%-38% margin, opposed. The survey
also indicates that the more frequently a person attends religious
services, the less likely that person is to support legalizing same sex
marriages.
The Gallup poll was conducted May 3-6, with 1,024 adults nationwide
questioned by telephone. The survey's overall sampling error is plus or
minus three percentage points.