Support for marriage equality on the rise

By Michael Crawford
Aug 23, 2010 at 12:12 pm

As a new piece in The New York Times shows, support for the freedom to marry is on the rise.

Gay marriage is not going away as a highly emotional, contested issue. Proposition 8, the California ballot measure that bans same-sex marriage, has seen to that, as it winds its way through the federal courts.

But perhaps the public has reached a turning point. 

Noting the recent CNN poll that found a slight majority of Americans supporting marriage equality, the authors of this story made the key observation:

That’s a big change from 1996, when Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act. At that time, only 25 percent of Americans said that gay and lesbian couples should have the right to marry, according to an average of national polls. 

DOMA restricts the federal government from honoring marriages between same-sex couples. The Respect for Marriage Act, introduced in the House by Rep. Jerrold Nadler, would repeal DOMA. The bill has 113 co-sponsors.

The most important gains are occurring at the state level. Five states and the District of Columbia have ended marriage discrimination against gay and lesbian couples.  

According to The Times, there is majority support for marriage in 17 states up from 3 states in 2008.

 

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