Poll Shows Rapid Increase in Virginia Support for Marriage

According to a new Washington Post poll, support for legal marriage for gay and lesbian couples has risen to 56% of all adults (33% want to them to remain illegal). This is a sea change, especially given that in 2006, 57% of the state’s voters adopted a constitutional amendment prohibiting that very thing.

 And the shift in just two years is stunning: in May 2011, 46% approved of legal marriage and 43% wanted such marriages kept illegal. Politically, only Republicans retain a majority in favor of the current law (47-40%) while Democrats favor legal marriage 75-21% and independents support legalizing same-gender-loving marriage by the same margin as the overall population (56-33%).

Now is a great time to forward this information on to your legislators. You can find the right link for you here. And share all this with your friends. Let’s build on this!

And there’s more. Based on the polling data, that there has been a significant increase in support for marriage equality among African-Americans (64-28). Also, non-evangelical white Christians support equality 61-27.

The only region in the state registering disapproval of equality is the western portion of the state (38-56%), with Tidewater and NoVA registering approval above 60%. White evangelical Protestants and the elderly continue to resist equality, only 23% of these religious people registering support and only 38% of those 65 and over doing so.

 We are examining the underlying demographic data closely and will have more to say, so stay tuned as POFEV builds on this information to inform our strategies to carry equality work forward!

 And enjoy looking at these results . . .  read more 

This blog was written by Robin Gorsline on Tuesday, May 14, prior to publication of the new Washington Post survey of voter attitudes in Virginia. The polling numbers suggest that Robin’s point here is correct: this is eminently winnable. And sooner than most expect.

It’s Our Turn

by Rev. Dr. Robin H. Gorsline, President

Wow!

Now Minnesota.

That means that most regions of the country—except the southwest, and the south/southeast (unless you count Maryland as part of the South, which lots of people do not)—have at least one state that has made same-gender-loving marriage legal.

And in the southwest, New Mexico permits civil unions and domestic partnerships, while California, Nevada, and Colorado allow those but deny full marriage equality through their state constitutions. [See the marriage equality map here]

So, once again, the South can be called “the solid South.” Not for Democrats—that is long gone, of course—but solidly against marriage.

We have our work cut out for us.

But notice this fact. Virginia is now the northern-most state on the Atlantic seaboard that denies both full marriage and civil unions/domestic partnerships.

It’s our turn, my friends.

It won’t be easy, not because we cannot convince the majority of Virginians of the rightness of this, but because first we have to dislodge the constitutional provision—what was called the Marshall-Newman amendment in 2006, but, as I keep saying, should be called the anti-marriage amendment—from the cold, hard hands of the General Assembly.

Read more . . .