Poll finds gay marriage support in Va.

By: Times-Dispatch Staff | Times-Dispatch
Published: May 10, 2011

Five years after constitutionally banning gay marriage, Virginians are now closely divided over whether such unions should be legal, a new poll shows.

Forty-seven percent of Virginians say gay couples should be allowed to legally marry, and 43 percent are opposed, according to the Washington Post poll. Fifty-five percent of Virginians said gay couples should be able to legally adopt children.

The Post reported that while the results mirror a national shift, advocates do not believe that a repeal of the 2006 constitutional amendment is soon likely. Two General Assembly votes and a ballot question are required before the constitution can be changed.

Virginians' evolving opinions on the issue could cause problems for politicians in both parties: Republicans are generally opposed to gay marriage and Democrats support it in numbers lower than those of their counterparts nationally, the Post reported.

"We knew that public opinion was evolving," Claire Guthrie Gastanaga, a spokeswoman for the gay rights group Equality Virginia told the Post. "You end up leaving us in a posture where the public has moved and the policymakers haven't and won't."

Victoria Cobb, president of the Family Foundation of Virginia, countered that Virginians have spoken through their support of Republicans at the polls.

"Typically, people elect the officials they want to implement the policy they believe in," she said.

In 2006, the Post reported, nearly six in 10 Americans opposed same-sex marriage. But amid-March Post-ABC News poll found support for gay marriage at 53 percent nationally.

The survey also reflects strong regional differences on same-sex marriage. In the Washington suburbs, 64 percent support gay marriage. Elsewhere in the state, that number falls to 43 percent.