America loves marriage equality

America loves marriage equality

[N]ational support for marriage for same-sex couples is broadening and diversifying while resistance to the freedom to marry is diminishing and becoming isolated to just a few narrow demographic groups.

In case you needed yet more evidence that Americans are embracing marriage equality, you're in luck. Freedom to Marry has released a new study confirming what most of us already knew:

Those narrow demographic groups, according to the study conducted by Democratic pollster Joel Benenson and Republican pollster Dr. Jan van Lohuizen, are just whom you'd expect: old white people who cling to their Bibles. But as for everyone else:



A majority of voters under the age of 65 support the freedom to marry by a margin of 8 points - 52 percent support and 44 percent opposed.

There is also widespread consensus among racial groups of voters under the age of 65 that it's Time for Marriage. 60% of Latinos, 51% of African-Americans, and 50% of white voters under the age of 65 support the freedom to marry.

Support has also swelled for young conservatives and mainstream Republicans. 47% of voters who oppose the Tea Party support marriage for same-sex couples, while 51% of Republicans under the age of 30 support the freedom to marry. [...]

Even more dramatically, exit polls show that all voters besides white evangelical

Christians support the freedom to marry (58% support, just 36% oppose). By

contrast, white evangelical Christians reject the freedom to marry by overwhelming margins (24% support/73% oppose).

The pro-bigotry movement, like the Republican Party, cannot sustain itself on bitter old white people alone. So even while groups like National Organization for Marriage and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops are organizing marches and protests to affirm their opposition to equality, as Benenson notes, "It's clear now that support for the freedom to marry has a broad base of support from a diverse cross-section of America."

Nine states have legalized marriage equality, and Illinois may well be next. The circuit court in Michigan may overturn the state's constitutional ban on marriage equality. The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on California's Proposition 8, with almost everyone, including the Obama administration, filing briefs in support of overturning the ban. And in Oregon, activists are collecting signatures to put marriage equality on the 2014 ballot.

You can help make marriage equality a reality in Oregon by donating here.