New Poll: Half in
N.J. Back Gay Unions
By AP from the
NYTimes on the Web, November 6, 2006
TRENTON, N.J. -- While half of
New Jersey voters agree with the state Supreme Court that homosexual couples
should receive the same rights as heterosexuals, just one in four think gay
unions should be called marriages, according to a new poll.
''People in New Jersey are very supportive of equal rights, but the concept of
marriage is more complicated,'' said Mickey Blum, whose firm, Blum & Weprin
Associates, performed the telephone survey for The Star-Ledger of Newark.
The poll, conducted Nov. 1-2 and published in the newspaper Monday, questioned
777 registered voters and had a sampling error margin of plus or minus 3.5
percentage points.
Fifty percent support the high court's recent ruling that granted gay couples
equal rights but gave the Legislature 180 days to define those rights. Overall,
23 percent of respondents favored allowing gays to marry in New Jersey.
The poll found 17 percent are undecided about the Supreme Court's ruling.
''This is an issue people are struggling with,'' Blum said. ''They seem to
be trying to decide what is reasonable or fair.''
Gov. Jon S. Corzine prefers calling unions between gays civil unions, and
legislative leaders have said calling them marriages likely wouldn't pass the
Legislature.
Steven Goldstein, chairman of Garden State Equality, a gay rights organization,
said the undecided responses in the poll shows people don't understand what gay
marriage means.
''There is talk about pushing through a civil union bill, but we urge the
Legislature to give us time,'' he said.
A poll by Fairleigh Dickinson University last week found 53 percent agreed with
the high court's decision, while 40 percent disagreed, though the poll didn't
ask how the rights should be defined. A Rutgers-Eagleton poll last week
found a bit more than half of New Jerseyans favor changing the state
constitution so that gay marriage would be banned.
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