A growing number of Texas voters support the freedom to marry for gays and lesbians, according to new polls released this week by Equality Texas and the University of Texas/Texas Tribune.
The Equality Texas telephone poll was similar to one commissioned by the organization in 2010 and asked about 11 key issues, including discrimination, domestic partner benefits and relationship recognition. The highest change found that 47.9 percent of voters support marriage equality compared to 47.5 percent who oppose it. In 2010, 42.7 percent of voters supported marriage equality.
The poll also found that 64.7 percent of voters support civil unions, compared to the 63.1 percent who favored it three years ago.
The poll was conducted by Glengariff Group, Inc. and surveyed 1,000 voters between Jan. 24-27. It has a margin of error of 3.1 percent.
Other areas with a high increase in support was making medical decisions for a partner, inheriting possessions without a will, extending domestic partnership benefits to government and public university employees and recognizing the same-sex marriages from other states.
A University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll also released this week found that 37 percent think gay and lesbian Texans should be able to marry, 28 percent think they should have civil unions and 28 percent said they shouldn’t have either.
As for the most important issue facing Texas, 0 percent answered gay marriage, compared to the 1 percent who answered that gay marriage was the most important problem facing America today.
The results are close to a similar October 2012 poll that found 36 percent support marriage equality, 33 percent support civil unions and 25 percent don’t support either.
That Web poll questioned 1,200 respondents between Feb. 15-25, with a 3.3 percent margin or error. The poll was conducted by YouGov, which has residents who agree to participate in surveys.
Equality Texas Executive Director Chuck Smith said the organization’s poll used a different methodology than the UT/Texas Tribune one. He said the random sampling was done geographically based on population and broken down into nine different regions.
Even though the polls used a different sampling and method, Smith said they “continue to show positive improvement” in public opinion. Smith said the poll results don’t indicate a ballot measure repealing the marriage amendment that prohibits same-sex marriage would pass anytime soon, especially with such a minor plurality in the Equality Texas poll of those who support and oppose same-sex marriage.
“We’re not ready for a ballot measure yet,” Smith said. “It’s going to take time and energy and money to win at the ballot box because time, energy and money are going to be spent against a ballot measure.”
Until then, he said the attention should focus on changing state laws to protect LGBT citizens, which are increasingly supported by Texas voters.
“The effort now needs to continue to have those views reflected in public policy because right now they’re not,” Smith said.
For full results from the Equality Texas poll, go to TinyUrl.com/EQTXpoll.
— Anna Waugh
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition March 8, 2013,