Majority Of Americans: Marriage For Gays Is A Constitutional Right
In the wake of Judge Vaughn Walker’s Prop 8 decision, a just-released CNN poll shows that 52% of Americans think marriage equality is a constitutional right. 46% of Americans disagreed. This is the first time a majority of Americans have said same-sex couples should have the constitutional right to be married.
As with any poll, there is a margin of error and there are different ways of asking questions. The highly-respected Nate Silver, founder of fivethirthyeight.com weighs in:
CNN also asked the question in a slightly different way to half its respondents, omitting the term “should” from the question above, i.e. “Do you think gays and lesbians have a constitutional right to get married and have their marriage recognized by law as valid?”. Using that phrasing, 49 percent said yes and 51 percent said no.
Combining the two subsamples has 50.5 percent of Americans in support of gay marriage and 47.5 percent opposed: just about the barest possible majority. But a majority nevertheless, something that no previous poll had shown. An ABC/Washington Post poll from April 2009 had come the closest, showing a 49/46 plurality in support of gay marriage rights; a few other polls had also shown gay marriage to the plurality position when respondents were given a three-way choice of marriage, civil unions, and no legal recognition. But no national poll, save for one debatable case with highly unorthodox phrasing, had shown it to the the majority position.
The poll was started on Friday, August 6 — two days after the Prop 8 decision was announced and had filtered through the news cycle.
More good news: The poll showed a four percentage point increase from a year ago when the question, “Do you think gays and lesbians have a constitutional right to get married and have their marriage recognized by law as valid?” was asked, and a corresponding four point decrease in opposition.
Even more good news!
Those under age 50 who believe same sex couples have a “constitutional right to get married” grew to 58%, with 42% opposed. Support rises to 61% by those under age 50 who think gays and lesbians should have a constitutional right to get married.
It should come as no suprise that Conservatives and/or Republicans are the only political demographic that gave less than 50% support. 67% of Democrats and 55% of Independents believe “gays and lesbians should have a constitutional right to get married.”
Now, here’s where the numbers get a bit strange.
Remember, the question was asked two ways:
“Do you think gays and lesbians have a constitutional right to get married and have their marriage recognized by law as valid?”
and,
“Do you think gays and lesbians should have a constitutional right to get married and have their marriage recognized by law as valid?”
45% of men think gays and lesbians have a constitutional right to get married, but only 37% of men think gays and lesbians should have a constitutional right to get married.
67% of women think gays and lesbians should have a constitutional right to get married, and 52% of women think gays and lesbians have a constitutional right to get married.
While there is a great deal of good news here, the old news remains: support for marriage equality is slimmest with conservatives, Republicans, men, and those over age 50. We have our work cut out for us!
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A Republican senator who has almost daily has been demanding funding for the Transportation Security Administration on Wednesday blocked Democratic legislation that would fund the TSA — and other Homeland Security agencies such as FEMA and the Coast Guard — but not Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
“Daily reminder that Democrats blocked funding for HOMELAND SECURITY including the Coast Guard, Secret Service, and TSA,” U.S. Senator Katie Britt (R-AL) wrote on Wednesday morning, as she has done almost daily for the past several weeks.
In her posts, Britt notes that “ICE and CBP are still funded and will continue to deport criminal illegal aliens.”
But on the Senate floor on Wednesday afternoon, Senator Britt said that the Democrats’ bill she blocked would “defund” the two agencies she regularly notes are “still funded.”
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“We have political games being played by our Democratic colleagues instead of putting the people of this nation first,” Britt declared. She called the bill, by U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), legislation that “would effectively defund our law enforcement officers that are charged with keeping Americans safe.”
“It would also defund our border patrol, our customs protection,” she said — the very agencies she states are still funded.
“Look, we’re not going back to the era of ‘defund police,'” Britt insisted.
Senator Murray, lamenting her bill being stalled, wrote: “Senate Republicans just blocked my bill to fund TSA and FEMA… AGAIN. This isn’t complicated: if Republicans won’t agree to rein in ICE & CBP, they should AT MINIMUM work with us to fund TSA. But they won’t.”
According to The Hill, Murray called the idea that her bill would “defund” CBP or Homeland Security investigations “absurd.”
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“All the bill I just offered does is fund the rest of DHS while talks continue on ICE and Border Patrol, and the simple fact is Republicans have already funded these agencies when they gave them more money, than most militaries by the way, in their Big Ugly Bill,” she said.
Attorney and immigration policy expert Andrea R. Flores wrote, “The defund argument just doesn’t make sense after Congress already gave ICE and Border Patrol $170 billion, which means they are at zero risk of stopping any of their core security functions any time soon.”
Pablo Manríquez, editor of Migrant Insider, mocked the Alabama GOP lawmaker: “Britt blocked TSA funding after complaining all month that TSA needs funding,” he wrote.
.@SenKatieBritt objects to Sen. Murray’s push for unanimous consent to fund DHS without ICE or CBP: “We’re not going back to the era of defund police…We’re going to secure our border. We’re going to enforce our laws. And we are going to stand with the people of this country.” pic.twitter.com/GoLMAnvTOO
— CSPAN (@cspan) March 11, 2026
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Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump is coming under fire for traveling to Kentucky on Wednesday, where he has endorsed a primary challenger against the Republican congressman who co-sponsored legislation to release the Epstein files.
“The Republican Party’s Worst ‘Congressman,’ EVER, Thomas Massie, is attacking GREAT Navy Seal Hero, Ed Gallrein, who is running against him in the Primary,” Trump wrote on Wednesday before heading off to the Bluegrass State.
He called Rep. Massie a “misfit” and a “complete and total disaster as a Congressman, and a Human Being,” who is “disloyal to the Republican Party, the People of Kentucky and, most importantly, he is disloyal to the United States of America!”
The Lincoln Project blasted the president, writing: “Trump’s rushing to Kentucky today. He’s not there to honor the soldier from KY lost in his foolish war, nor address Kentuckians concerns on affordability. He’s there to help primary a Republican who pushed for the Epstein Files’ release.”
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The New York Post characterized Trump’s trip as the president taking “his war” against his “congressional nemesis” straight to Kentucky.
On Tuesday, Massie charged: “They’re paying to bus people to the Trump event in my Congressional District. What they’ll discover is Trump fans in KY-4 and across the entire Commonwealth also support my work on the Epstein files, reigning in spending, ending forever wars, draining the swamp, and food freedom!”
Also on Tuesday, former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) mocked Trump’s endorsement of Gallrein.
“This is honestly one of the worst things I have ever seen,” she wrote, calling Gallrein, “one of the biggest Trump haters in Kentucky.”
“Boy I bet Ed Gallrein really hates all the sweet people that wore MAGA hats all these years,” Greene added. She also said that Trump’s supporters are “so freaking brainwashed by all the 24-7 BS propaganda on Fox News that they aren’t capable of seeing how much these people hate them.”
READ MORE: How Trump Fumbled What Should Be a ‘Rally Around the Flag’ Time in America: Columnist
The nation is at war. It’s our 250th anniversary. We just had historic performances at the Olympics.
“In normal times, each would summon national pride and unity,” writes The Washington Post‘s Theodore R. Johnson.
That “they’re happening together — the rally-around-the-flag effect should be supercharged,” he says. “It’s not.”
While President Donald Trump calls this “the golden age of America,” Americans aren’t feeling it.
But “when the crisis isn’t presented to the public; there’s little bipartisan support; the White House spins the events poorly,” the rally-around-the-flag effect lessens.
“The effect was Trump’s for the taking, and the administration fumbled it,” Johnson observes.
“American optimism has slumped to a record low, and 60 percent of the country thinks we’re on the wrong track,” he writes. “A Pew study published March 5 found that the U.S. is the only country among 25 surveyed where more adults view their fellow citizens as morally bad than good. And the military strikes against Venezuela and Iran have produced no customary bump in approval ratings for the president.”
Why?
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Trump has put his name — and imprint — on “many of the nation’s institutions and symbols,” including the Kennedy Center and the Institute of Peace. He’s planning a 250th anniversary celebration with a UFC fight night at the White House on his birthday. And MAGA has changed what “patriot” used to mean.
“Meanwhile, the president has called Democratic lawmakers ‘traitors’ and labeled them adversaries in a ‘war from within.”
Johnson says that these are “not accidents of polarization. They are products of a president who uses the bully pulpit to keep the country at odds.”
He concludes, “The United States can win wars, celebrate gold and commemorate the nation’s founding, but if its president and politics reap rewards by sowing division, Americans are more likely to rally to the party’s pennant than around the nation’s flag.”
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Image via Reuters
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