Monday, March 21, 2011

New Poll: ABC/WaPo

By now you may have heard about the recent ABC/Washington Post poll, which joined a series of other polls in showing that marriage equality now polls at more than 50% approval (53% in this one).

More than half the country now agrees that same sex marriage should be legal.

It's pretty amazing, isn't it. On the issue of inter-racial marriage, which was legalized in 1967 by Loving v. Virginia, , it took until the 1990s!!!! for half of America to think it was okay for blacks and whites to marry. 25 years after it became legal. Same sex marriage is illegal in more than 30 states.

But the rate of change is amazing. I graphed the individual data for you. Look at the Catholics and MainLine protestants -- support is really growing there. Even the Evangelicals are showing progress.

Here are the data for approval of same sex marriage:



As Steve Benen wrote,
But even the most radically anti-gay conservative has to realize that equality is inevitable. As the arc of history continues to bend toward justice, most of the country now believes two consenting adults should be legally permitted to get married if they want to. It's exceptionally unlikely that trend will ever reverse -- civil-rights trajectories simply never move that way. Society becomes less prejudiced, less hateful, and less bigoted over time.


Oh, and the picture? If you Google images for "arc of history bends toward justice" this is at the top. And the reason that cracks me up, is that's me! with my rainbow sparkly "Arc of History" sign that has been my trusty companion at marriage equality marches since 2008. I look forward to being able to put it away for good. Meanwhile--keep an eye out for me. :-)

3 comments:

Paul said...

One thing hasn't changed: age is still a powerful predictor. I wonder how much of this change can be attributed to people with fixed views who progress from one age bracket to the next. (And those 65+ who "leave the voting pool".) The balance of the effect would be those who actually changed their minds.

I have no idea how to model that. But it can't be too hard . . .

IT said...

NOte that those over 65 actually have a striking, striking increase relative to other age groups.

Paul (A.) said...

Congratulations on the sign, IT!