Do we dare trust the latest public polling on marriage equality in Utah?
The numbers looks pretty positive: support for marriage has surged to 41 percent, up from the high 20s a year ago. Support for civil unions is up, too: 24 percent.
Only 31 percent oppose any form of relationship recognition.
But before you start celebrating, let’s take a step back and look at the source: David Baker, a gay organizer in Washington DC. He used a Google polling product to gather the data — the first time anyone’s done this in Utah.
That’s a little problematic, statistically speaking, since it’s hard to compare those numbers to the data from other polling outfits. For a more definitive comparison, we’ll need to wait for a survey from one of the organizations that did polling in the past, such as Public Policy Polling or Utah Voter Poll.
And for now, public opinion isn’t helping the couples who want to get married. The US Supreme Court has put licensing on hold while the case works its way through appeal. Utah officials have said that they won’t recognize the marriages that occurred during the window of legality. So for now, things are looking a little bleak in Utah.
But it’s not all bad news. The federal government will recognize those licenses, even if the state that issued them won’t. And there’s more encouraging news: the National Center for Lesbian Rights has joined the case as co-counsel. They have a long track record of smart litigation, so their involvement can only help.
krystalkleer
mormons are morphin’…it’s about time!
Cam
Still 16 or so points below the rest of the country and far off of a majority.
But it sounds like some of the folks in Utah have started to realize that if they don’t want another situation like the one with African Americans where people who met them and found out they were Mormon automatically assumed they were rac-ist, they had better change a few things.
2eo
@Cam: They still have an enormous way to go here in Europe where they’re just laughed at… in their faces…. by me.
hyhybt
“And for now, public opinion isn’t helping the couples who want to get married.”
Hurting them, in fact. Elected officials want to stay that way; if Utah public opinion were strongly in favor of marriage, the governor would at least interpret the stay differently and most likely have the appeal dropped entirely.
Dakotahgeo
This is INDEED good news. Inch by inch …, mile by mile, heh heh heh. We win!
Billysees
@Dakotahgeo:
“Inch by inch…, mile by mile,….. We win!”
That’s a good way of putting it.
I would say that all great works are subject to the “three steps forward, one or two steps backward rule”.
Harley
@Billysees: so true but the avalanche has started, and it’s hard to stop an avalanche until it reaches it’s goal. We shall overcome one day.
Billysees
@Harley:
An avalanche is one way of describing what’s happening with LGBT issues in the USA. I’m concerned about this “speed” though. I think that “slow-but-sure” is better than too-far-too-fast. Things need to “sink-in” so they become more lasting and so will resist reversal.
With the political and social climate more or less in our favor, it’s necessary to “strike while the iron is hot” when it comes to any and all efforts to generate acceptance and respect for all LGBT folks.
EGO
All good comments. I keep thinking that there ought to be a way to fine or tax the state governments that oppose equal rights for their citizens. Often, these governments start to fold quickly when they have to pay more money.
hyhybt
An avalanche is a bad metaphor. Avalanches are disasters that happen without warning and almost instantaneously, burying or destroying anything in their path. The disaster part, especially, makes it a bad comparison; that’s already how the other side wants to see it.