LOS ANGELES — By bare majorities, Californians reject the state Supreme Court’s decision to allow same-sex marriages and back a proposed constitutional amendment aimed at the November ballot that would outlaw such unions, a new Los Angeles Times/KTLA Poll has found.
But the survey also suggested that the state is moving closer to accepting non-traditional marriages, which could create openings for supporters of same-sex marriage as the campaign unfolds.
More than half of Californians said that gay relationships were not morally wrong, that they would not degrade traditional heterosexual marriages and that all that mattered was that a relationship be loving and committed, regardless of gender.
Overall the proportion of Californians who back either gay marriage or civil unions for same-sex couples has remained fairly constant over the years. But a generational schism is pronounced. Those under 45 were less likely to favor a constitutional amendment than their elders and were more supportive of the court’s decision to overturn the state’s ban on gay marriage. They also disagreed more strongly than their elders with the notion that gay relationships threatened traditional marriage.
The results of the survey set up an intriguing question for the fall campaign: Will the younger, more live-and-let-live voters mobilized by likely Democratic nominee Barack Obama doom the gay marriage ban? Or will conservatives drawn to the polls by the amendment boost the odds for the presumptive Republican nominee, John McCain?
Either way, the poll suggests the outcome of the proposed constitutional amendment is far from certain. Overall, it was leading 54 percent to 36 percent among registered voters. But because ballot measures on controversial topics often lose support during a campaign, strategists typically want to start out well above the 50 percent support level.
Before the court’s 4-3 ruling on May 15, opponents of same-sex marriage already had submitted more than 1 million signatures to the secretary of state’s office to put the proposed constitutional amendment on the November ballot. Secretary of State Debra Bowen has said she will determine its fate by mid-June, but the backers are believed to have collected enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.
On Thursday, backers of the proposed amendment asked the court to place its decision on hold. Failure to do so “risks legal havoc and uncertainty,” lawyers for the Proposition 22 Legal Defense and Education Fund argued, noting that same-sex marriages entered into between now and November would be under a legal cloud if the ban is approved.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has vetoed two bills sanctioning gay marriage, has said he respects the court’s decision and that he will not support a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
The poll interviewed 834 Californians, including 705 registered voters, on May 20-21. The margin of sampling error is 3 percentage points in either direction overall, and 4 points for registered voters.
