by Mel Green

For the first time, more Americans support than oppose same-sex marriage, according to the 2010 General Social Survey.

[caption id="attachment_1661" align="aligncenter" width="579" caption="Support for and opposition to same sex marriage, 1988–2010"][/caption]

This finding was announced by Darren Sherkat, a sociologist of Southern Illinois University, on his blog last Friday, and follows on his January 2010 article in the peer-reviewed journal Social Science Research, based on data from the General Social Survey through 2008, which had already found that support for same-sex marriage was trending upward.

Sherkat wrote on his blog,

For the first time, a legitimate scientific survey is showing very clearly that the proportion of Americans who agree or strongly agree that same sex marriage should be legal exceeds the proportion who either oppose or strongly oppose marital rights.  46% of Americans favor civil rights, while 40% oppose civil rights, and the remainder just can’t seem to decide. Of course, this is an incredible shift from the first time the question was asked in 1988—when 73% of Americans opposed marital rights, but it is also a seismic change from 2004, when only 30% of Americans supported marriage rights for same sex couples, and 56% opposed civil rights.

Sherkat told Sarah Posner, associate editor at the online Religious Dispatches Magazine,

There are no other scientific surveys which have asked questions about same sex marriage over a long period of time. The only other remaining scientific general population surveys are the National Election Surveys, and I don’t think they ever asked a question about that (or if they did it was only in the 2008 version). I can’t stress this enough.

Posner comments,

In other words, the GSS is the only survey that shows these trends over time, using face-to-face surveys of respondents (as opposed to telephone polls).

Posner’s article on Sherkat’s findings went on to discuss some of what the more detailed information from the 2010 Social Science Research paper disclosed:

[W]hile Sherkat found a correlation between youth and tolerance for LGBT rights, that trend was not borne out among younger Republicans and Christian conservatives.

That flies against the common belief that younger evangelical and conservative Christians are more accepting of gays and lesbians than older generations.  Posner concludes,

Overall, attitudes are indeed shifting. But the zealousness of political and religious conservatives to continue to battle LGBT rights, even facing an absence of overall public support, makes it unlikely that they will retreat anytime soon.

Still, it’s great news, underscoring last week’s news that the Justice Department under the Obama Administration will no longer conduct legal defense of Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in court, based on President Obama’s conclusion that Section 3 is unconstitutional.  (But that’s just one part of DOMA, and just  one area in which DOJ won’t defend the law.  DOJ will still enforce the law until it’s declared unconstitutional.  See the Wikipedia article on DOMA for a very general description of the issues involved.)

I first learned of these findings yesterday reading Andrew Sullivan’s The Daily Dish blog at Atlantic.com.  Sullivan, a Catholic and fiscal conservative, is however not a social conservative.  He is gay, and has long been a strong voice advocating marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples.  His “Chart of the Day” comment about the new findings is an apt summing up of what they mean:

I’m proud to say it must represent one of the most successful political, social and cultural movements in history.

References

• Jan 2010. “Religion, politics, and support for same-sex marriage in the United States, 1988–2008” by Darren E. Sherkat, Melissa Powell-Williams, Gregory Maddox, and Kylan Mattias de Vries. Social Science Research 40(1): 167–180.
• 25 Feb 2011. “Support for and Opposition to Same Sex Marriage: 1988-2010” by Darren Sherkat (Iranianredneck’s Weblog).
• 28 Feb 2011. “More Americans Support than Oppose Same-Sex Marriage for First Time” by Sarah Posner (Religion Dispatches Magazine).
• 3 Mar 2011. “Chart of the Day” by Andrew Sullivan (The Daily Beast, Atlantic.com).

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="640" caption="Artemis & Lori were married in Palm Springs, California on November 3, 2008. The following day, California voters voted to strip them of their civil right to to marry the partner of their choice by passing Proposition 8. This photo was taken in Anchorage, Alaska 12 days after their wedding, on November 15, as they joined millions of lesbians, gays, & their allies in cities all around America protesting Proposition 8 & other such products of prejudice which deny us equality under the law. (Alaska voters passed a similar proposition in 1998.)"][/caption] Tags: Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), marriage equality, same-sex marriage