Gay/Lesbian Marriage Gaining Support

With their new-found power in the House of Representatives the Republicans are not just trying to slash government programs and re-institute their failed "trickle down" economics. They have also resumed their attack on equality -- primarily by attacking the right of homosexuals to marry and women to have control over their own bodies. They want to impose their own fundamentalist beliefs on all Americans.

But a recent survey by the Pew Research Center (conducted between February 22nd and March 1st) shows that the bigoted positions of the Republicans are losing support. Each of the last three years has shown support growing for gays and lesbians to have the right to marry -- a right that all other Americans enjoy already. In fact, the support for this right is now virtually equal to the opposition to it for the first time. Here are the numbers for the last three years:

2011
approve...............45%
disapprove...............46%
don't know...............9%

2010
approve...............42%
disapprove...............48%
don't know...............10%

2009
approve...............37%
disapprove...............54%
don't know...............9%

It looks like Americans are starting to realize that giving equal rights to homosexuals is the right thing to do. And they are waking up to the fact that their own lives or marriages will not be affected in the least by this. Years ago this was a winning issue for Republicans -- not so much anymore.

The other issue regards the right of all women to control their own body and make all decisions regarding it. The Republicans have been in the minority in the choice/anti-chice argument for a long time, but back in 2009 the gap had begun to narrow. The Pew survey shows that gap is widening again as more people opt for believing in choice. Here are the numbers for the last three years (with approval being those believing in choice):

2011
approve...............54%
disapprove...............42%
don't know...............4%

2010
approve...............50%
disapprove...............44%
don't know...............7%

2009
approve...............47%
disapprove...............44%
don't know...............9%

The Republican positions on these two issues are becoming more unpopular with the general public with each passing year -- and that's a good thing.