Women march down 5th avenue in New York City to support the LGBTQ Pride March. A new survey says that more than half of Americans favor legal protections for same-sex marriages. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI |
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Sept. 16 (UPI) -- Most Americans nationwide say they support the legal right for same-sex couples to marry in the United States and favor legislative efforts to codify it into federal law, according to a new survey.
The Economist/YouGov survey found that about 51% of respondents from a sampling of Americans nationwide want to enshrine federal protections for same-sex marriage into law. Such an action would reinforce the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in Obergefell vs. Hodges in 2015.
Congressional Democrats have said codifying legal same-sex marriage is a top priority. The issue came about when the high court struck down the abortion case Roe vs. Wade in June -- when Justice Clarence Thomas indicated that Obergefell vs. Hodges could also be superseded.
Since then, calls for the Supreme Court to overturn the case have only grown in conservative and Republican circles.
According to the new survey, support to codify same-sex marriage was split along political lines -- 72% of Democrats, 50% of independents and 30% of Republicans support the effort.
As for gender, 55% of women and 47% of men said they support a law protecting same-sex marriage.
Like legalized abortion, the issue of same-sex marriage is supported by most of the American public, according to current and previous poll data. But also like abortion, the conservative-majority Supreme Court might also ultimately reject Obergefell vs. Hodges if relevant cases came before the court allowing them to do so.
The Supreme Court's conservative majority and its decision to scrap Roe vs. Wade are what's pushing Democrats to protect same-sex marriages under federal law.
Democrats are attempting to codify same-sex unions through the Respect for Marriage Act, which overwhelmingly passed the House in July but has yet to receive a vote in the Senate. To pass, at least 10 Republicans would have to vote for the bill.
The Senate has said the floor vote on the proposal won't happen until after the midterm elections in November.
The Economist/YouGov survey polled about 1,500 U.S. adults earlier this month.
