64% don't support gay marriage new poll says

SANTA ANA, Calif. — When it comes to polls about same-sex marriage, it's all about how you ask the question. A new national poll by Lawrence Research found that 64 percent of Americans feel that marriage should only be between one man and one woman. Thirty-three percent feel marriage should be redefined to include any two people.

The poll results may seem to contradict a Gallup poll in May that found 53 percent of Americans thought "marriage between same-sex couples should … be recognized by the law as valid, with the same rights as traditional marriage."

But the results, like the issue itself, are open to debate.

Gary Lawrence is the president of Lawrence Research in Santa Ana, Calif., and is very familiar with both the topic and the polling. His company conducted polls in 2008 for the "Yes on 8" campaign, which successfully pushed for the passage of Proposition 8 in California to define marriage as between a man and a woman.

Now, as several states such as North Carolina and Minnesota are gearing up to vote on same-sex marriage and as the Defense of Marriage Act is poised to be challenged both in the Supreme Court and in Congress, the question of where people stand on the issue of same-sex marriage rights is being explored by more politicians, prelates, pundits and pollsters.

And understanding the poll results becomes more important.

Lawrence conducted a national poll about religion and politics to 1,000 randomly chosen adults in all 50 states in July. He is very conscious of how his questions are different than those of many national polls.

The Rev. Dr. Cindi Love thinks this is the problem with Lawrence's poll. Love is the executive director for Soulforce, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the rights of gays and lesbians — particularly among religious people. "Having been involved in a lot of polling, I can create questions that create the type of responses that I want. And so I think this survey comes across as being very affirming of a family structure based on a heteronormative relationship between a man and a woman."

Lawrence, however, thinks the wording problems are in the other polls.

For example, he said the Gallup question assumes same-sex relationships are already marriages. He said it was like asking, "These relationships are already valid marriages. Do you think the law should validate them?"