Maggie Gallagher: Marriage Poll Dropped Because Of Phil Robertson & Brandon Eich

According to Maggie Gallagher, the recent five-point drop in marriage equality polling can be sourced to public outrage over the treatment of Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson and former Mozilla CEO Brandon Eich. She writes at National Review:

Salon may be right — this polling result may well be temporary or an outlier. But if my analysis is right, the future depends on two things: whether gay-marriage advocates continue to press the idea that supporters of the Christian and traditional understanding of marriage should be treated as bigots in the public square — and whether stories of the oppression of opponents of gay marriage “break through” the media blockade. That will in turn depend in part on whether political champions of supporters of classic marriage emerge to make oppression visible. I am not necessarily either optimistic or pessimistic, but I would say this: In previous articles and essays I have discussed the political effects of the GOP’s decision to silence itself on so-called “social issues.” If your goal is simply winning elections, this mute strategy, while I think it demonstrably unwise, could be arguable. What is not arguable is that if you are one of the people who actually care about these issues — for whom protecting life, marriage, and religious liberty is not a political strategy but a reason for being in politics — the candidates’ silence will hurt your cause. You donate to or otherwise support candidates who adopt a mute strategy at your own peril. In a culture war, the single most effective thing you can do is persuade your opponents to stop talking. When only one side speaks, the polls will move, and its victory will become inevitable.

Most Straights Subconsciously Believe Gay Men are Dirty

New research shows that straight people still consider gay men to be ’dirty,’ even if it is subconsciously. 

Gay Star News reports that a study of more than 200 participants in the UK, Portugal and Poland showed that they felt the need to physically cleanse themselves after just imagining contact with a gay.

"Labeling people as impure is a culturally universal way of expressing prejudice," said lead researcher Agnieszka Golec de Zavala. "Physical cleansing is used as a way to euphemize through actions such as excluding from social life, depriving of human rights, imprisoning of, and finally exterminating."

Researchers, who described the results as "shocking" and "alarming," believe that it proves that some think that gay men will contaminate them in their mind.

In four experiments, the same outcome was reached: if the study participant self-identified as socially conservative, then they were far more likely to consider gay men to be dirty. 

In an experiment in Portugal, 55 participants were asked to do a word completion task with a mix of cleanness-related words, neutral words and words around cleansing. Those who imagined borrowing a phone from a gay man generated significantly more words around cleansing that those who imagined borrowing a straight man’s phone.

After the experiment, participants were offered either a yellow pencil or a yellow disinfecting wipe. Those who borrowed the phone from a gay man chose the wipe much more often. 

"It’s alarming that prejudice can still be found on a subconscious level. It may be difficult to reduce the prejudice people are unaware they hold," said Zavala. "Therefore there is still hope that more can be changed with education to limit and eradicate prejudice."

Gallup: Nationwide Support for Gay Marriage at All-Time High

According to a new poll from Gallup, support for gay marriage is at an all-time high:

Americans' support for the law recognizing same-sex marriages as legally valid has increased yet again, now at 55%. Marriage equality advocates have had a string of legal successes over the past year, most recently this week in Pennsylvania and Oregon where federal judges struck down bans on gay marriage.

And the demographic differences continue:

Among the most dramatic divisions in opinion on the issue are between age groups. As has been the case in the past, support for marriage equality is higher among younger Americans; the older an American is, the less likely he or she is to support marriage for same-sex couples. Currently, adults between the ages of 18 and 29 are nearly twice as likely to support marriage equality as adults aged of 65 and older. 

Opinions also differ dramatically along party lines. Democrats (74%) are far more likely to support gay marriage as Republicans are (30%), while independents (58%) are more in line with the national average. Though Republicans still lag behind in their support of same-sex marriage, they have nearly doubled their support for it since Gallup began polling on the question in 1996.

More details HERE.

House GOP Tanking: Dems Surge Ahead Six Points in Latest Poll

A new poll reveals that the Democrats have an edge in the upcoming 2014 mid-terms.

A poll released by McClatchy/Marist on Tuesday shows the Democrats with a national lead, even in the South. According to the numbers, 48% of respondents said they would vote Democrat, while only 42% said they would vote Republican. 90% of Democrats polled said they would be willing to vote for a Democrat, while 94% of Republicans polled said they would be willing to vote for a Republican – remember this number, since this is after 50+ attempts to repeal Obamacare, the Ryan Budget, and the other insanities of the Kamikaze Caucus. What this means is that the people polled were knee-jerk Republicans, abjectly clueless, FOX viewers, or out playing terrorist in Nevada and stealing land from the American people (note the categories are not mutually exclusive).

The real boost for the Democrats is the number of Independents polled who said they would vote Democrat – 43% – verses the ones who said they would vote Republican – 40%. Democrats also have a solid lead with moderates as well; 53% of that population polled would vote Democrat, versus 35%, who favor the GOP.

The breakdown continues in the Democrats’ favor even on the regional level, especially in the South, where they hold a one point advantage. The only region where the Democrats are trailing is in the Midwest, and that’s not by much – the GOP only has a two point lead.

These poll numbers suggest that people are itching to show the Kamikaze Caucus the door. Naturally, this is the population polled, and these numbers are empty if people don’t get out to vote in November. The Democrats need 17 seats in the House – let’s get out there in November and make that happen, people!

POLL FINDS AMERICANS VIEW GAYS MORE FAVORABLY THAN EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANS

A new bipartisan study commissioned by the Human Rights Campaign and Americans for Marriage Equality found that 53 percent of Americans view gay people favorably, while only 42 percent of Americans view Evangelical Christians favorably. Gays do better on the other end of the spectrum as well, with just 18 percent of respondents viewing gays unfavorably compared to 28 percent for Evangelical Christians.

The survey of 1000 likely 2016 voters was conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research and TargetPoint Consulting. Among the survey’s other main findings:

• There has been a huge shift toward social equality, with favorability ratings for “gay and lesbian” people increasing and the number of people who knows a gay or lesbian person reaching 75 percent. Even in football, the crucible of American culture, voters (79%-16%) judge a player by his ability, not his orientation.

• A 55 percent majority support marriage equality. While young people are at the vanguard of change, this survey also shows increased support among older voters, Catholics, non-college educated voters, and Republicans. 

• Rather than uniform opposition, marriage equality now splits the political right, with younger conservatives disagreeing with older conservatives. 40 percent of conservatives age 18-29 support gay marriage, compared to only 21 percent aged 50+

• Regardless of position on the issue, nearly 8 in 10 voters believe there will be less discrimination, it will be easier to grow up gay, and same-sex families would have more protection if marriage equality were legal in all 50 states. 

A presentation of the poll's findings is available at the GQR site HERE.

61 Percent Of Young Republicans Support Same-Sex Marriage

Following last week's news that more Americans support same-sex marriage than ever before comes a new poll this week from the Pew Research Center which reports that the majority of young Republicans feel the same way.

Some data from the survey:

Today, 61% of Republicans and Republican leaners under 30 favor same-sex marriage while just 35% oppose it. By contrast, just 27% of Republicans ages 50 and older favor allowing gays and lesbians to marry.
This generation gap among Republicans comes against a backdrop of rapidly changing public opinion overall on the issue. More than half the public (54%) now favors allowing gays and lesbians to legally marry, a record high in Pew Research surveys, in keeping with findings from other recent polls. Democrats and Republicans remain on opposite sides of the issue, with 69% of Democrats and Democratic leaning independents favoring same-sex marriage compared with 39% Republicans and Republican leaners.

It isn't just marriage that younger members of the GOP feel differently about compared to their older counterparts:

Just 18% of Republicans under 30 say “more gay and lesbian couples raising children” is a bad thing for American society, while 26% say it is a good thing (56% either say it doesn’t make a difference or they don’t know). By comparison, majorities or pluralities of older Republicans say this trend is a bad thing for society.

Read all of the statistics of the Pew poll, conducted last month, here.

Freep This Utah Poll

Right here.