Voters oppose gay marriage, amendment

09/29/2006

But support for civil unions rises in most recent poll

BY BILL SALISBURY
Pioneer Press

By nearly a 2-to-1 ratio, Minnesota voters oppose allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally, a recent poll shows.

But that doesn’t mean they want to write their opinions into the Minnesota Constitution. A narrow plurality of Minnesotans oppose a constitutional amendment to prevent the courts from legalizing same-sex marriages, according to a recent Pioneer Press-Minnesota Public Radio survey.

And the poll showed decreasing opposition to allowing gay and lesbian couples to enter into legal agreements that would give them many of the same protections as marriage.

Minnesota law defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman. But since the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled in 2004 that same-sex marriages are legal in that state, opponents here have argued a constitutional amendment is needed to ensure judges don’t overturn this state’s law.

The poll of 625 registered Minnesota voters was conducted Sept. 18-20.

It found 54 percent of voters oppose legalizing same-sex marriages in the state, while 29 percent support it.

Tim Gunderson, a copier repairman from Brainerd, said he opposes gay marriage because he believes that institution should be reserved for a man and a woman.

Donna Sowers, a hospital-laundry worker from Fergus Falls, disagreed, saying gay and lesbian couples should be allowed to marry. “Why shouldn’t they go through the same hell as we do?” she asked.

By a 47 percent to 40 percent margin, however, Minnesotans oppose a constitutional amendment that would bar legalizing same-sex marriages, including those performed in other states.

“I’d hate to see an amendment to take away people’s rights,” said high school math teacher Jim Halvorson of Rosemount.

A plurality also favors protecting gays’ and lesbians’ legal rights. Forty-nine percent of the poll respondents supported legalizing civil unions, which would give same-sex couples many of the same rights as married couples, while 39 percent opposed such legal agreements.

Gays should not be denied legal protections, said retiree Kevin Gerdeman of Coon Rapids. “I think they should still have civil rights, but I think marriage is still between a man and a woman, just based on my religious beliefs.”

Opposition to civil unions has declined from the 47 percent who were against them in a January 2004 Pioneer Press-MPR poll to 39 percent now.

Opposition to gay marriage also has dropped from 63 percent two years ago, when resistance peaked after the Massachusetts court decision, to 54 percent now.

A state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage will not be on the Nov. 7 Minnesota ballot. The Republican-controlled Minnesota House has twice passed the amendment, but it has died in the Senate, where Democrats are in the majority.

That partisan split was reflected in the latest poll. It found 52 percent of Republicans, but only 30 percent of Democrats, favored a constitutional ban on same-sex marriages.

Tom Prichard, executive director of the Minnesota Family Council, which backs the constitutional amendment, said it’s likely the poll underestimates public support for the proposed ban.

The wording of the question — “Do you support or oppose amending the Minnesota state Constitution so that same-sex marriages, including those performed in other states, could never be legalized or recognized?” — is misleading, Prichard said.

By saying “never,” the question implies that the constitutional amendment could not be changed or repealed in the future, he said. That’s not true; voters could change it.

He noted that Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, the firm that conducted the Pioneer Press-MPR survey, got far different results in a 2005 poll for the Family Council when it asked the question: “Would you vote for or against an amendment to the Minnesota Constitution that defined marriage as the union of one man and one woman?” Sixty-one percent of the respondents said they were for the amendment, while 29 percent were against.

“I think if people understood that the only way you can protect the traditional definition of marriage from an activist court is a constitutional amendment, the result would be closer to the (Family Council’s poll) number,” Prichard said.

But Ann DeGroot, the executive director of OutFront Minnesota, an organization representing gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, said the latest poll results indicate that more Minnesotans support some legal recognition for same-sex relationships and oppose infringing on the rights of one group of people.

“They don’t want same-sex couples to have a legal recognition called marriage, but they don’t want them to be discriminated against either,” DeGroot said.

The results of the latest state poll reflect a national trend. A Pew Research Center survey in March found that public acceptance of homosexuality has increased in recent years, even though it remains a deeply divisive issue. It showed that half of Americans opposed legalizing gay marriage, but that number declined from 63 percent in 2004 following the Massachusetts court ruling.

About the poll

This poll of registered Minnesota voters was conducted for the St. Paul Pioneer Press and Minnesota Public Radio from Sept. 18 through Sept. 20. The polling was done by telephone by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc. of Washington, D.C.

The survey included 625 Minnesotans chosen through a random variation of the last four digits of telephone numbers.

Quotas were assigned to reflect voter turnout by county.

The margin of error is 4 percentage points.