Legalize same-sex marriages?

Legalize same-sex marriages?

A majority of Americans are against legalizing same-sex marriages. In a Poll Position national scientific telephone survey we asked, do you believe same-sex marriages should be permitted by law. A majority of respondents, 56% said no, 32% said yes, 12% did not have an opinion.

Democrats and Republicans differed greatly on the question. Among Republicans, 82% said same-sex marriages should not be permitted by law, 12% said they should be, 7% offered no opinion. Democrats countered with 47% said yes to legalizing same-sex marriages, 37% said no, 16% had no opinion. Independents were more even on the question with 46% against, 38% in favor, 15% had no opinion.

African-Americans and whites also differed with 65% of African-Americans against permitting same-sex marriage by law, 18% said it was OK, 17% did not have an opinion. Among whites, 37% said yes to permitting same-sex marriages by law, 54% said no, 9% did not have an opinion.

Poll Position’s scientific telephone survey of 1,367 registered voters nationwide was conducted January 08, 2012 and has a margin of error of ±3%. Poll results are weighted to be a representative sampling of all American adults.

What do you think?  Vote in our online companion poll and comment below.

The online companion poll in which you can vote provides unscientific results, meaning it’s a tally of participating Poll Position users, not a nationally representative sampling.

Poll Position is committed to transparency and upholding the highest professional standards in its polling, explaining why we provide you with the crosstabs of our scientific polls. Crosstabs provide a breakdown of survey participants by age, race, gender, and political affiliation. Here are the crosstabs for this poll: Poll Position Crosstabs-Same-sex marriages

You can learn more about our polling methodology here.