Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Majority for Marriage (Equality)?

I missed this a little earlier, but it's really intriguing me now.

In the [new CNN] poll, 51% of adult Americans said they thought same sex marriages should be recognized by law, while 47% said they should not. That's a significant reversal from the same poll two years ago when Americans opposed same sex marriage by a 10-point spread, with 44% in favor and 54% against.

It's the second time in as many months that a pollster has for the first time found majority support for legalizing same sex marriage. In March, a Washington Post/ABC News poll showed that 53% of adults supported legalizing same sex marriage, while 44% opposed it.

The finding comes just months after the Obama administration announced that it would no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) -- the law that prohibits the federal government from recognizing same sex marriages -- in court. Republicans, including some potential presidential candidates like Mike Huckabee, decried that decision, saying Obama was going against public opinion. But recent polls show Americans are steadily growing more supportive of legal recognition for same sex couples.

Wow. Just wow. This seems to echo what's been happening in other countries as legal, civil marriage equality has become more common.

But even as more and more Americans express support for marriage equality, House Republicans want to waste up to $500,000 of our tax dollars to pay George Bush's last Solicitor General (and his legal firm) $520 per hour to defend DOMA in court! How further out of touch can they get? DOMA denies many thousands of legally married couples the federal rights and responsibilities afforded to other spouses simply because they're gay and lesbian couples.

It seems as more Americans become more familiar with their fellow Americans who happen to be LGBTQ, they understand that we are indeed all created equal, and that we all deserve equal rights under the law. But even though "we the people" may get it, many in Congress don't. John Boehner and fellow House Republicans would rather waste our tax dollars to defend unconstitutional discrimination in court than do anything sane or relevant.

Hopefully, this groundswell of support for fuller LGBTQ equality will better materialize next year at the polls.

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