1 of 3 in California Favor Gay Marriage

Slightly less than a third of Californians believe same-sex couples should be allowed to marry, and more than half say gay and lesbian relationships between consenting adults are not a moral issue, according to a new Los Angeles Times poll.

The findings confirm that California is decidedly more open to the notion of same-sex marriage and generally more tolerant of same-sex relationships than the country as a whole.

In a national poll conducted by The Times late last month, a fourth of respondents said they favored same-sex marriages. Forty-eight percent of respondents called same-sex relationships “morally wrong,” compared with 40% of Californians.

Although support for same-sex marriage still falls short of a majority here, the new poll shows that 51% of Californians oppose a proposed U.S. constitutional amendment that would legally define marriage as between a man and a woman and prevent states from recognizing gay and lesbian marriages, while 43% favor such a move. Nationally, the numbers are reversed, with 51% supporting an amendment.

Typical of California respondents is Laura Bradley, a 44-year-old estate planner and probate attorney from Carlsbad in northern San Diego County.

“To me, those are civil issues,” Bradley said. “It’s the same as being able to create a corporation or a partnership. Gender doesn’t have anything to do with that.”

Bradley said she has seen the additional steps that gay and lesbian clients must take to obtain the types of legal protections bestowed by marriage -- and the bitter fights with extended family that can result if one partner is incapacitated. She called a constitutional amendment “ridiculous to even think about” and said she was convinced morality was irrelevant.

“To say because you choose to love someone of your own gender is morally wrong doesn’t make any sense,” said Bradley, who is married and has four grown stepchildren. “From what I am aware of, it’s not a choice.... You either are or you aren’t. It doesn’t hurt anybody. Who is being harmed by it?”

The Times Poll, supervised by polling director Susan Pinkus, surveyed 1,571 California adults from April 17 to 21. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

In contrast to opinions on marriage, tolerance for civil unions held more or less steady across the country: Two out of five Californians said same-sex couples should be able to form such unions, but not marry, only slightly more than the national average. One-fourth of Californians said neither option should be available to gays and lesbians, compared with 34% of national respondents.

Whites in California were most likely to support same-sex marriage, with blacks most opposed and Latinos somewhere in between. However, 51% of Latinos supported a federal constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage -- more than any other group, including African Americans, who were divided on the issue.

As was the case nationwide, young adults between the ages of 18 and 29 were much more likely to favor same-sex marriage, indicating that the issue’s fierce divisiveness could fade in the future. In California, nearly half of respondents in that age group favored gay and lesbian marriages, and 44% did so nationwide.

However, California’s senior citizens were more tolerant of same-sex marriage than respondents 65 and over nationwide: Here, one-fifth said they favored gay and lesbian marriage, with slightly over one-fourth rejecting both homosexual marriage and civil unions. Nationwide, only one-tenth of seniors favored same-sex marriage, and nearly half said gay couples should be allowed neither form of union.

Party affiliation also played out differently in California from the rest of the nation: Respondents who identify as Republicans both nationwide and in California were overwhelmingly opposed to same-sex marriage: Only 6% nationwide said they supported it, while 8% in California favored the idea. But California Republicans took a more lenient approach toward civil unions: About half said they supported such unions, compared with just 38% nationwide.

Meredith Ashworth, a 60-year-old artist who lives in Redding and refurbishes furniture, said she “goes back and forth” on whether same-sex relationships are morally wrong. However, the Republican mother and grandmother who attends a Protestant church weekly said she supported civil unions.

“I think they should have benefits. I’m not against them having a union of some sort, but not a marriage contract,” said Ashworth. “I think that’s sacred -- a man and woman uniting.... If they want something else they can call it by a different name.”

California respondents who identified themselves as Democrats, however, differed from nationwide respondents on the question of same-sex marriage: Whereas about a third of those who identify as Democrats nationwide supported such marriages, 44% in California did so.

California’s Democrats were also more likely to oppose a constitutional amendment: Nationwide, about half of those identified as Democrats said they opposed a federal amendment, but in California, nearly two-thirds said they were against the idea. Republicans were more unified across the country: Nationwide, 73% said they favored such an amendment, compared with 67% in California.

Key to strong feelings on same-sex issues was religious belief. Of those Christians -- Catholics and non-Catholics -- who attend religious services once a week or more, such as Ashworth, only 13% said they supported same-sex marriage, 41% endorsed civil unions and 41% backed neither.

Jews were more likely to support same-sex marriage, but sample numbers were too small to draw definitive conclusions.

Katrina Barkley, an Anaheim sixth-grade teacher, said she thought the issue disturbed only the most religious segment of society. A Republican who was raised Mormon but no longer practices, Barkley said she doesn’t “have any gay friends. I honestly don’t.” But she nevertheless believes same-sex relationships are “a lifestyle choice” that should not be judged by government, which should make marriage an available option.

“I just don’t have a problem with it,” said Barkley, adding that children of same-sex couples should not suffer for their parents’ sexual orientation through the denial of marriage benefits.

Despite her support, she expressed irritation with the center-stage standing the issue has received: “I think there are so many other things that are more important than this that we could be dealing with.”