Shifting numbers in the Buckeye state on marriage equality, the Columbus Dispatch reports:
..just days before the U.S. Supreme Court considers a pair of landmark gay-marriage cases, a new Saperstein Poll for The Dispatch shows that 54 percent back a proposed new amendment to repeal the 2004 measure and “allow two consenting adults to marry, regardless of their gender.”
Just 40 percent oppose the proposal, which also would allow religious institutions to determine who they will or won't marry, and protect such institutions that refuse to perform a marriage.
The latter provisions are key because “they ameliorate the concerns that some people may have, like is this going to be forced on me, or forced on my church,” said Martin D. Saperstein, head of the Columbus firm that conducted the poll.
He said Ohio's electorate has transformed in the past nine years as younger people who favor gay marriage attain voting age.
Anti-gay activists just think the pollsters are being tricky:
Chris Long, president of the Ohio Christian Alliance, acknowledged the political savvy of addressing religious institutions in the same-sex marriage proposal.
“If they would ask the question alone to reverse the 2004 question to allow same-sex marriage, I think it would be different,” he said. “But when people understand clearly what is presented to them, I think Ohioans will again affirm their position on traditional marriage.”
Long said support for gay marriage has grown because “homosexual activists have been successful in a form of indoctrination in the public schools over the past 20 years, pushing that homosexuality is an acceptable lifestyle.”
What say, Congressman Boehner (R-OH)?
