Leave a Comment Jacob Combs
Marriage equality polling update: significant support in general, Tea Party overwhelmingly opposed
August 20, 2012
By Jacob Combs
A new Washington Post poll on marriage equality published Saturday has some very encouraging numbers for equal marriage rights, finding 53 percent of adults support such rights, 39 percent strongly, with 42 percent against equal rights, with 32 percent reporting strong opposition. Those numbers line up almost exactly with the poll’s results with registered voters, which found 52 percent support and 44 percent opposition. A more than 10-point split in favor of marriage equality is extremely promising, as are the numbers showing a good deal more respondants with strong feelings on the issue support rather than oppose equal marriage rights.
The Post poll’s party ID results are also not too surprising: 68 percent of Democrats support marriage equality, while only 27 percent oppose it, whereas Republicans are flipped on the issue, with 67 percent opposing and 30 percent supporting. Independents, however, favor equal marriage rights by a strong margin, 57 percent to 39 percent. That last number is a positive one for marriage advocates, since we continue to see independents siding with Democrats on this issue, and Republican intransigence on this matter of equal rights will likely become increasingly untenable in terms of the nation’s changing position.
What is most interesting, though, is the Post‘s finding along what it calls ‘party clusters.’ (For more information on the paper’s sub-categories, check out this graphic.) The Post analyzed the results of its poll in an article published Saturday, pointing out that while partisan polarization is indeed extremely pronounced these days, there are also dramatic divisions within the parties as well and these divisions play out in intriguing ways in the marriage equality. For instance, so-called “window shopper” Republicans, who tend to be female, non-white and attend religious services less frequently, favor marriage equality by an remarkable 76 percent margin. Similarly, “urban liberal” Democrats are almost unanimous in their support of equal marriage rights, with 93 percent in favor.
Tea Party Republicans, who were almost exclusively white and married in the Post poll, are mirror images of the urban liberals: only 6 percent support equal marriage rights, with 94 percent opposed. On the other hand, “do-it-yourself (DIY)” Democrats, who tend to be white, poorer, less-educated and live in rural areas, also oppose marriage equality, by a 64 to 29 percent margin.
There are two ways to look at the Washington Post‘s marriage poll. First, one can look at the marquis numbers, which are by-and-large quite positive for equal marriage rights, and feel hopeful about the movement’s chances in the future. But digging down into the sub-group data reveals the demographics of the coalition that will help bring marriage equality to the United States, as well as the groups among which we need to make further inroads. As the public’s view on the issue matures, looking at marriage from a Democrat/Republican divide will be too broad and imprecise. America’s political fabric is shifting, especially on social issues, and it’s up to us to recognize those shifts and use them to our advantage in a time where the rest of the political conversation is so often us-versus-them.
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14 Comments Leave a Comment
1.
Demographics | August 20, 2012 at 9:14 am
Sounds like we have the demographics to create and focus group test some TV ads to determine which ones are the most effective for each target group.. What is the next step to make this happen?
2.
bayareajohn | August 20, 2012 at 10:06 am
Good info. No surprize that those who define themselves by their affiliation as Tea Party are unified in their hate for all that isn't their fantasy of how things were in the past. They cannot be swayed and any expenditure on that group is wasted. The DIY Dems are perhaps the most likely to accept information and potentially change their minds.
3.
Sagesse | August 20, 2012 at 10:17 am
@
4.
Glen | August 20, 2012 at 11:26 am
The D-I-Y Democrats could be an opportunity. I think the biggest problem there is a low rate of people being 'out'. Having myself grown up in a white poorer less-educated rural area (which I escaped from), I can tell you that its much more difficult to come out because when you are already financially disadvantaged you do not want to further disadvantage yourself among the disadvantaged.
Hence being that there are fewer kids who are out to their family, friends, and class-mates they are less likely to realize they KNOW someone who is LGBT in order to persuade them that the evil stereotypes that their pastors and community feeds into their heads about who gay people are, are not in fact reality.
The biggest way to change hearts and minds is to know a gay person; for gay people to come out to their friends, family, and neighbors. The problem is how do you convince people who already feel at a disadvantage in the world to come out of the closet? That I think is easier said than done.
5.
Mark M. (Seattle) | August 20, 2012 at 1:30 pm
In the immortal words of Harvey Milk:
Gay brothers and sisters,… You must come out. Come out… to your parents… I know that it is hard and will hurt them but think about how they will hurt you in the voting booth! Come out to your relatives… come out to your friends… if indeed they are your friends. Come out to your neighbors… to your fellow workers… to the people who work where you eat and shop… come out only to the people you know, and who know you. Not to anyone else. But once and for all, break down the myths, destroy the lies and distortions. For your sake. For their sake. For the sake of the youngsters….
6.
AnonyGrl | August 20, 2012 at 1:54 pm
And let's hope there are enough of us around to offer support, moral and financial if needed, to those kids that do and are left homeless afterwards. It is awful to contemplate that this is what happens to some kids, and I have, in the past, occasionally advised a teenager NOT to come out because there was no safe option to do so, until they were out of the house and on their own. Come out, but be safe!
7.
Mark M. (Seattle) | August 20, 2012 at 4:19 pm
I hear ya Anony…I was one of these kids. At age 17 I found myself homeless, hoping form couch to couch and even the occasional bench or bush.
At least now we have a few more resources available to some of these kids, but again not so much for the rural kids.
I am a firm believer in coming out, but only if it can be done safely.
8.
Mike in Baltimore | August 20, 2012 at 5:11 pm
6% of Tea Party Republicans support us?
Shame on me, because I thought it would be much less.
(The reporting also reaffirms that the Tea Party ain't no party, but just the descriptive for the most reactionary of the reactionary party known as the Republican Party.)
9.
Kawika Kupono | August 21, 2012 at 8:23 am
Isn't the Tea Party the one that advocates for LESS Goverment ?
Don't understand the logic…
LESS Goverment's regulations so that companies can pollute our environment, move capital and jobs off-shore
LESS Goverment, so that anyone can buy 6,000 bullets and a few assault weapons….for what purpose ?
LESS Goverment, so that unlucky children born to poor families don't receive any aid and go hungry and uneducated
…you get the drift….
BUT HELL !!!
MORE GOVERMENT when it comes to regulating what people do in the PRIVACY of their bedroom, and preventing people from loving each other.
I didn't know there was so much HATE in a cup of TEA.
I think I am sticking to my Kona Coffee in the morning (…Splenda, please….need to count the calories !!!)
10.
Mike in Baltimore | August 21, 2012 at 1:01 pm
Is anyone arguing that bigots are logical?
11.
AnonyGrl | August 21, 2012 at 1:18 pm
And how tragic it is that we have to do it that way, but with children still being killed, beaten and berated and tossed out in the cold by their own parents for simply saying "This is who I am" we do know that we have a LONG way to go. So we keep fighting the good fight.
12.
AnonyGrl | August 21, 2012 at 1:22 pm
Not when they insist that a couple of cells are a human being, and must be protected at all costs, until after it is born, and then, well, hell, let's cut all services that might help it survive, then eventually send it off to war to be shot at, and possibly kill it ourselves for committing some crime either with the death penalty, or perhaps shoot it ourselves if we PERCEIVE that it has committed a crime against God, or make sure it has no medical care or insurance…
Yeah… logic is not in there….
13.
Gregory in SLC | August 21, 2012 at 6:18 pm
You sound like my hubby (in an awesome way!) I was so ignorant when I met Ariel. He used to rant about this very thing. It took me a while to get it. I grew up loved, accepted and successful. It wasn't until I heard and felt the emotions behind Ariel's life experiences did I grasp how horribly we(society, churches, "family") treat some of our precious children…while defending the unborn. F.U. Tony Perkins et al!
14.
Mike in Baltimore | August 21, 2012 at 6:21 pm
I know they are not logical, and you know they are not logical.
But it seems as if someone has doubts about the bigots not being logical, and that's what I was trying to determine – exactly WHO is it that believes that bigots might have even some logic?
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