USA TODAY POLL: Maggie Gallagher

[In today's WSJ, Andrew Sullivan misquotes yesterday's USA Today poll, claiming that 67 percent of young people think gay marriage will benefit society.

In fact USA Today carves up opinion into three categories: gay marriage threatens society, gay marriage has no effect, and gay marriage will benefit society. Only by mixing the last two categories can you get to 67 percent. Of course the actual poll is pretty interesting and significant too. What would happen to support for gay marriage if you could persuade the next generation that it would further erode a culture of marriage? The argument that has the most legs at this point is that gay marriage just won't matter. If you want to know why, by a three to one margin Americans are more likely to describe mainstream media as "too liberal" rather than "too conservative, below is also exhibit A.]

Full text of USA Today poll below:

"Public opinion is divided on gay marriages
By Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAY
The nation essentially is split in half over whether to accept gay and lesbian marriage, a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll finds.

While 48% of those surveyed say allowing gay unions "will change our society for the worse," 50% say they would be an improvement or have no effect.

Such views could affect the political push to define marriage in the U.S. Constitution as a bond strictly between one man and one woman and may be a wedge that drives apart the Episcopal Church in the USA.

Already, some Christian groups are alarmed by the legalization of gay unions in Vermont, a pending decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Court on a lawsuit by seven gay couples seeking marriage licenses and the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down laws that ban gay sex.

Today, 2,500 conservative members of the American Anglican Council meet in Dallas to consider whether they can remain in a denomination, the Episcopal Church USA, that not only accepts a newly confirmed gay bishop but also permits gay marriage blessings.

"Marriage has changed more in roles and function in the last 30 years than in the last 3,000," says historian Stephanie Coontz of the Evergreen State College-Olympia, Wash. She is writing a book on the history of marriage.

Driving the changes in marriage are changes in views on sex and spirituality.

American couples increasingly are choosing civil wedding ceremonies over clergy-performed ones, according to a USA TODAY analysis of marriage licenses, and that may affect the debate over gay marriage.

The trend reflects the loosening hold that traditional religion has on the most personal choices in people's lives, experts say. A society that increasingly sees God's blessing on marriage as optional may be more likely to accept same-sex unions.

Sex and spirituality are becoming a private matter to many people, "not something you have to announce to the world or require God's approval," Coontz says. "But there remains a significant minority who say, 'By God, we are going to defend against this relativism of personal choice.'"

Coontz says efforts to focus on traditional religious views of marriage are a "last-ditch attempt to say this is as far as we can go."

But "when I see the battle lines drawn around gay and lesbian unions, (opponents) are locking the barn door after the horses are gone," Coontz says.

That view is supported by the USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup numbers. They show that a benign view of the effect of gay unions on society is strongest among the young: 67% of those ages 18 to 29 and 53% of those ages 30 to 49 say gay unions would have no harmful effect or might make society better. This is the same age group that leans toward a secular or spiritual approach to life, rather than a religious one, other surveys have shown.

Sociologist Pepper Schwartz of the University of Washington-Seattle, says, "Once you think marriage isn't God's work, it's about the human heart, you think why is (a homosexual person's) heart any less loving or needy than mine? If you pull away from the Bible as authority, the right to marry becomes a matter of conscience, fair play and the higher morality of love."

According to the survey, a higher number of churchgoers are among the 48% of those surveyed who say "allowing two people of the same sex to legally marry will change our society for the worse." Of those who attend religious services weekly, 67% say they believe this, as do 51% of those who go at least once a month.

"I'm from the old school. It destroys the moral infrastructure this society was built on," says corporate executive Bruce Brown, 41, of Houston, whose views reflect the teachings of his denomination, the conservative Missouri Synod branch of the Lutheran Church.

But 47% of those who seldom attend services say allowing same-sex marriages would have "no effect" on society; 14% say it would change society for the better. Among those who never go to church, nearly three in four (72%) say there would be no ill effects.

"I am good friends with a gay couple who are wonderful, responsible, motivated people," says Heather Gravert, 25, a mother of two in Buffalo. "I hate to see our society punish people like them by not allowing them to enjoy the rewards and benefits of the longtime commitment that straight couples get through marriage. Our society lacks a sense of community and connection that couples like them can contribute."

The same survey also finds a three-way split in views about whether gay or lesbian couples should have legal parity with "traditional" male-female couples in every state.

While 35% oppose such a national policy, 32% approve and 32% shrug it off, saying the legal status of gay unions "doesn't matter" to them. Statistically, that's a three-way tie.

"I don't see much difference. I just figure the people who are sharing a life should be extended the same benefits my wife and I have," says Atress Harrison, 62, a retired phone company manager from Slinger, Wis.

Like churchgoers, people over 50 are most strongly opposed to legal parity for same-sex couples.

"It's just not the way God intended things to be," says James Montague, 55, of Uhrichsville, Ohio, who attends a Pentecostal church.

The retired steelworker says, "I wouldn't want to see anything like this go on."

The USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll of 1,003 adults, conducted Sept. 19-21, has a margin of error of +/-3 percentage points."

posted by maggie at 3:33 PM VOTE

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