New research: Californians agree with court's decision on Prop 8 gaymarriage

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WASHINGTON DC - Religious News Service - Green Heritage News - Research shows that most Californians, if the voting
were held today on same-sex marriage, would turn down Prop.8.  In other
words they agree with the Court's decision.

In the wake of U.S. District Court Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker's ruling

that California's Proposition 8 violates the U.S. Constitution, new
research finds that a similar ballot measure would not pass today, and
only one-in-five say the Proposition 8 was a "good thing" for the state.

The statewide
public opinion survey, conducted in June and released last month by
Public Religion Research Institute, also examined the role religion
plays in structuring attitudes toward same-sex marriage and a range of
other issues related to rights for gay and lesbian people.

"Our research
shows a significant percentage of Californians, including people of
faith across the California religious landscape, say they have become
increasingly supportive of gay rights over the last five years," said Dr. Robert P. Jones, CEO of Public Religion Research Institute.
"If another vote similar to Proposition 8 were held now, a majority (51
percent) of Californians say they would vote to allow gay and lesbian
couples to marry."

Highlights of the PRRI research include:

• If another vote similar to Proposition 8 were held tomorrow, a
majority (51 percent) say they would vote to allow gay and lesbian
couples to marry, compared to 45 percent who say they would vote to keep
same-sex marriage illegal.

• There are major religious groups on both sides of the debate over
same-sex marriage in California. Solid majorities of Latino Catholics
and white mainline Protestants, along with a majority of white
Catholics, say they would vote to allow gay and lesbian couples to
marry; while solid majorities of white evangelical Protestants, Latino
Protestants, and African American Protestants say they would vote to
keep same-sex marriage illegal.

• One factor in the growing support for same-sex marriage is the
entrance of younger Californians into the voting age population. Nearly
two-thirds (64%) of Californians under the age of 30 say they would vote
to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry, compared to only 36% of
Californians age 65 and older. These patterns persist across all major
religious groups.

• Only one-in-five (22 percent) Californians believe the passage of
Proposition 8 was a "good thing" for the state. Most Californians
believe Proposition 8 was either a bad thing for California (29 percent)
or believe it has not made any difference (45 percent).

• One-in-four Californians report that their views on rights for gay
and lesbian people have become more supportive over the last five years,
compared to only 8 percent who say they have become more opposed. Among
religious groups, ethnic minority groups showed slightly more overall
movement than white religious groups. Among black Protestants, twice as
many report becoming more supportive as report becoming more opposed (27
percent vs. 13 percent); among Latino Catholics, that ratio is 3-to-1
(31 percent more supportive vs. 9 percent more opposed) over this
period.

• An overwhelming majority of Californians, and majorities of all major
religious groups except Latino Protestants, say they both favor laws
that would protect gay and lesbian people from job discrimination and
favor allowing gay and lesbian people to serve openly in the military
(75 percent and 69 percent respectively). A majority (56 percent) of
Californians favor adoption rights for same-sex couples.

• There is a striking Catholic-Protestant divide within the California
Latino community on public policy issues related to gay and lesbian
people. A majority of Latino Catholics (57 percent) say they would vote
to allow gay and lesbian couple to marry, compared to just 22 percent of
Latino Protestants.

• Mainline Protestants are the only major religious group that is more
likely to hear positive than negative messages about homosexuality from
their clergy.

• The messages about homosexuality that Californians hear at their
place of worship are correlated with their views on same-sex marriage.
Among Californians who report hearing negative messages from their
clergy, few (19 percent) support same-sex marriage. In contrast, among
Californians who report hearing positive messages from their clergy,
fully 6-in-10 say gay and lesbian people should be allowed to marry, an
additional 22 percent support civil unions, and less than 1-in-5 (18
percent) say there should be no legal recognition for same-sex
relationships.

"Our
research confirms clergy and religious groups continue to play an
influential role in policy debates about the rights of gay and lesbian
people," said Daniel Cox, Director of Research for Public Religion Research Institute.
"But one of the most interesting findings in this survey was the
significant number of respondents who report they would support allowing
gay and lesbian couples to marry if the laws offer reassurances about
their religious freedom concerns."

The bilingual (Spanish
and English) poll of 3,351 adults in California, including oversamples
of 350 African Americans and 200 Latino Protestants, represents the most
comprehensive portrait of religion and attitudes on same sex marriage
and other gay and lesbian issues since Proposition 8 was approved. The
survey was conducted among a random sample of Californians by telephone
between June 14 and June 30, 2010, by Public Religion Research Institute
and was funded by the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund with additional
support provided by the Ford Foundation.