One year later, nation divided on gay marriage

Ok, so bottom line: nationally, Americans currently oppose same sex marriage 50-37, but support civil unions 46 - 41.

You'd never know the numbers were this close if you listened to the mainstream media, which likes to dishonestly portray national sentiment as against legal unions for gay couples.

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http://www.boston.com/news/specials/gay_marriage/articles/2005/05/15/one_year_later_nation_divided_on_gay_marriage/

Split seen by region, age, Globe poll finds
By Scott S. Greenberger, Globe Staff | May 15, 2005

Half of Americans polled say they don't want their states to recognize Massachusetts gay marriages, reflecting a continuing uneasiness or outright opposition to same-sex marriage that is especially strong in the South and in states that backed George W. Bush in 2004, according to a nationwide survey conducted for the Globe.

Nearly a year after same-sex couples were legally allowed to marry in Massachusetts, 50 percent of respondents said they opposed recognizing same-sex marriages from Massachusetts ''as legal in all 50 states," and 46 percent favored it. The respondents also said they disapproved of ''gay and lesbian couples being allowed to get married" by 50 percent to 37 percent.

Forty-six percent of respondents backed civil unions that would give gay couples ''some, but not all, of the legal rights of married couples" while 41 percent said they were opposed. Vermont and Connecticut have legalized civil unions for gay and lesbian couples, but Massachusetts remains the only state that has legalized same-sex marriage.

Overall, the poll suggested, attitudes toward gays and lesbians may be softening, and there are indications that support of gay marriage will grow as older people, who are more likely to oppose gay marriage, pass away.

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There is more gay sex going on in the heads of conservatives than there is in reality. Just my observation on a Sunday morning. I never get involved in the gay posts. It just doesn't seem like something the world should be worried about. Conservative repressors is a problem.

but dubya & co keep it in the limelight to fire up the fundi base. That good christian in the WH can't be wrong about anything if he wants to have marriage be the only true way.......hetero marriage that is. Diversion........no war news just SS and gay marriage. If you can buy the license, you can get married.

I agree with your post completely.

I wish they would ask these people to spell out what legal rights of married couples they think gay people should not have.

if civil unions offered ALL the legal rights of a marriage.

Personally, I think the government should license, perform, and recognize ONLY civil unions.

Leave Holy matrimony for the churches.

If we stop using the word marriage in our laws to apply to both, the numbers would swing in the favor of equal rights for all Americans.

and get rid of it entirely? Civil Unions for all, I say!!

can be a legal contract.

There's an old saying I use to hear as a kid:

"Dogs bark at what they do not understand."
It's called "fear" of the unknown.

AND

"Nothing to fear but fear itself."
President Franklin D. Roosevelt

http://memory.loc.gov/learn/lessons/99/fear/intro.html

facing reality. Homosexuals aren't going anywhere,so you may as well get used to it.

Until the Dem's put a stop to each and every media headline on issues in which the terms are framed by the Repubs, this type of media BS hype for the Right will continue to divide our nation. This only further serves the Repubs in diverting attention away from the bigger issues crashing around their ears such as the failures and horrors in Iraq, our economy and its global effects, the health of our citizenry, and the biggest mistake and failure in having George W. Bush as the self-elected fascist leader of our nation.

This article isn't about the "gay issue". It's really about framing the debate and keeping alive any venality and division that has thrown our nation into a tailspin in terms of a dying democracy since the Clinton witch hunt and the grab for absolute power by the Re bubs.

We have become a nation of Us v. Them, and our nation is is suffering from a media blitz that is serving to destroy it.

I've said this before, and will say this again:

We all have a stake in the future of the United States. We are united in this concept regardless of our diverse cultures and views; We are the nation.

paying their taxes. If they are to have their civil rights messed with, and if they are treated as second class citizens or 3/5's of a person, they should make a statement with their pocketbooks. They pay taxes like everyone else who is a citizen, yet their rights are being taken away. No taxation without civil rights and representation. Period.

It would have to be something done in large numbers however to be effective. Gay and lesbian people and families contribute quite a bit economically to this country, they can make a very big statement with this.

and it's sad that the national gay groups are so completely devoid of leadership.

This has got to be started at a grassroots level. The blacks did not gain their civil rights simply by the peaceful civil disobedience of Martin Luther King. Even though history ignores it, the Black Panthers and groups like them, SCARED enough white people in government into finally agreeing to equality.

As you eloquently said, gays and lesbians are paying huge amounts of cash to the government in taxes, yet they do not receive the same benefits and rights that straights do.

Taxation without representation. That's the whole ball game in a nutshell.

I know of NO ONE that worries about Gays! Sure don't mind taking their hard-earned taxpayments though.

Haughty, nervy, non-compassionate, non-Christ-like, anger-filled, predjudical hypocrital MORONS!

Of course, I sway from neo-conservatives and pin-head-wing-nut-religious-fanatics ;)

support gay marriage. Maybe longer if some of today's young supporters change their minds as they get older.