IT'S ALL IN THE QUESTIONS

Six in 10 Americans Agree That Gay Sex Should Be Legal (Frank Newport, June 27, 2003, GALLUP NEWS SERVICE)

The Supreme Court decision is not a political one, of course, but there are other laws and proposed laws that are political -- including in particular those relating to gay civil unions and marriages.

An appeals court in Ontario, Canada recently changed the definition of marriage to include "two people" rather than a man and a woman, and there are indications that the Canadian government will pass laws legalizing same-sex marriage across Canada in future months.

Conservatives reacting to Thursday's Supreme Court decision have argued that it could lead to a higher probability of legal sanctioning of gay marriage or gay civil unions.

Our latest poll shows great ambivalence on the issue of gay civil unions that have "some of the legal rights of married couples," although the percentage of the public favoring such arrangements has increased over the last three years:

Would you favor or oppose a law that would allow homosexual couples to legally form civil unions, giving them some of the legal rights of married couples?

Favor 49%
Oppose 49%
No opinion 2%

Wow, could that question be any more wishy-washy? Given that one of the legal rights of the married is to engage in sexual congress and you've just gotten 60% of respondents saying they favor granting homosexuals that right it's hardly surprising that many favor some kind of civil sanction. The real question though is: Would you favor or oppose a law that would allow homosexual couples to marry, giving them all of the legal rights of married couples? Because the answer to that is likely still 60% "No" or higher (note that there's still a majority willing to say that homosexual behavior is immoral), this is still a good political issue for conservatives, as Bill Frist demonstrated by calling for a constitutional amendment defending marriage. It's especially useful because the Democratic presidential candidates can't afford politically to oppose gay marriage, which will show them to be extremists. Posted by Orrin Judd at June 30, 2003 7:41 PM