"Seismic Shift" in Michigan's Public Opinion for Marriage Equality

Freep.com reports that Glengariff Group pollster Richard Czuba describes a "seismic shift"
in public opinion, whose new poll indicates that support for gay marriage has nearly doubled in Michigan since a similar poll in 2004, the year an amendment to the state's constitution was passed banning same-sex marriage.

The October 2004 poll showed only 24% supported marriage equality with this year's poll indicating support increasing to 46.5%, almost doubling. A slight majority of 48% said they opposed, but it was the only LGBT rights issue out of nine that failed to get the majority.

When it came to civil unions, only 42% had supported the legal recognition in 2004, but less than five years later, support jumped up to 63.7%.

"Gay marriage is now where civil unions were five years ago," Czuba said.

Glengariff also measured support for: adoption rights (57.5%), same-sex partner benefits for government employees (65.5%), inheritance rights for gay and lesbian partners (70.9%) and recognition of same-sex marriages from other states (53.5%).

Freep went on to report, "Czuba said a shift in opinion was evident in almost every demographic group, including self-identified Republicans. He attributed much of the change to the sharply higher number of poll respondents who said they know a gay or lesbian person in 2009 (80.2%) compared with in 2004 (56%)."

Read the rest of the encouraging article on Freep.com.