After a three-year campaign to build support for legalizing same-sex marriage, Oregon's largest gay rights group has decided against putting the issue up for a vote in 2012.

Feedback from an online survey of over 1,000 people, door-to-door canvassing, community meetings and

overwhelmingly say, "we must allow our education work to continue,"

announced Wednesday.

"As far as we have come, which as been significant, we don't yet have the kind of consensus that would indicate a reasonable expectation of success," said

Oregonians now appear about evenly divided on a proposed ballot initiative to legalize gay marriage and to overturn the constitutional ban against same-sex marriage approved by voters in 2004, Frazzini said.

The weak economy and high rates of unemployment and home foreclosures also create a tough climate for a political campaign over a social issue, she said.

Basic Rights members favor waiting at least until the next opportunity for an initiative ballot in 2014 before plunging into a politically difficult campaign that would cost $5 million to $10 million, she said.

National polls last spring showed support for same-sex marriage, which has climbed for the last seven years, hit the majority milestone. An ABC News/Washington Post poll in March and a Gallup Poll in May showed 53 percent of Americans in support. A Public Policy Polling survey of Oregon voters in June, however, found that 48 percent of voters support same-sex marriage. Basic Rights members want to see more support before they go to the ballot.

"There is just too much at stake here," Frazzini said. "Folks are up for the challenge but want to have a sense that it is winnable."

More than 3,000 gay and lesbian couples in Oregon have entered domestic partnerships, which were legalized by the Legislature in 2007. The partnerships give couples most of the benefits of marriage. But couples say they also make them feel like second-class citizens because the civil unions do not convey the same status and respect conferred by marriage.