Texas: For First Time, Support For Same-Sex Marriage Outweighs Opposition

The official motto of the state of Texas is “friendship,” and for the majority of its citizens, that’s how they’d prefer to think about same-sex couples. Last month, when the bodies of a Houston same-sex couple were found tossed behind a convenience store dumpster, some local news reports referred to the women as “friends.” They had been together for two years, were raising a daughter together, and were murdered — possibly by one of their fathers — in a possible anti-gay hate crime, but even then, the only designation they had earned from some Texas media was — just like the state motto — “friendship.”

Today, a new poll finds a small but significant change in Texans’ views on marriage equality. For the first time ever, more Texas residents support the right of same-sex couples to marry than oppose it — by a one-percent margin.

48 percent of 454 registered Texas residents support same-sex marriage, while 47 percent do not, according to the poll conducted by Texas Tech University.

“Democrats and Independents strongly support gay marriage, while Republicans are strongly opposed to it,” Texas Tech’s Mark McKenzie, associate professor of political science, said. Unfortunately for marriage equality supporters, “Texas remains a conservative state, and the overwhelming majority of citizens consider themselves Republicans,” McKenzie noted.

Prof. McKenzie also pointed to previous surveys, which pegged support for marriage at only 40 percent, although he did not state when they were conducted.

A January, 2013 poll conducted by the Glengariff Group for Equality Texas (PDF) also found 48 percent support, and 48 percent opposition. That poll was of a far broader sample, 1000 registered Texas voters.

“A University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll in June 2013 found that 39 percent of Texans supported same-sex marriage — only a slight increase from polls over the previous four years,” Lone Star Q reports, adding the important note that “no poll has been conducted since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down part of the Defense of Marriage Act last year — or since a federal judge in San Antonio struck down the state’s marriage bans in February.”

Texas has an estimated 26.5 million residents.

 

Image: Participants at the 2009 Great Nationwide Kiss-In. Photo by Bill Taroli via Flickr