April 22, 2014
Poll: Majority of Texans Back Gay Marriage
Jason St. Amand READ TIME: 1 MIN.
A new poll reveals that, for the first time ever, the majority of Texans are in favor of same-sex marriage, according to Texas' LGBT news site Lone Star Q.
The independent poll was conducted by grad students from Texas Tech University's Earl Survey Research Lab and found that 48 percent of voters from Texas backed marriage rights for same-sex couples, while 47 percent opposed it.
"In the past, support for gay marriage in this state was below 40 percent," associate professor Mark McKenzie, who oversaw the poll, said, according to Lone Star Q. "Now, we're closely divided on the issue. ... Democrats and Independents strongly support gay marriage, while Republicans are strongly opposed to it."
A 2013 poll by the University of Texas and the Texas Tribune found that just 39 percent of Texans supported gay marriage.
The TTU poll, which surveyed 454 registered voters in Texas, is the first of its kind in Texas since the Supreme Court ruled against part of the Defense of Marriage Act and struck down California's Proposition 8 last summer.
In February, a federal judge in San Antonio said that Texas' ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. The state's attorney general, Greg Abbot, however, a Republican nominee for governor, appealed the ruling.
