Poll: Utahns favor fairness in housing and jobs, oppose gay marriage and adoption

SALT LAKE CITY — A majority of Utahns favor legal protection statewide for gay and transgender individuals when it comes to employment and housing.

However, results from a recently released poll also showed that most Utahns do not support marriage or adoption rights for gay or transgender couples.

The poll, commissioned by Equality Utah — a Salt Lake-based civil rights organization focusing on equal rights and protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Utahns and their families — was conducted by research firm Dan Jones and Associates. The survey polled 801 households across the state and contained a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percent.

Among the findings was that 73 percent of respondents somewhat or strongly favor a statewide nondiscrimination law that would make it illegal for someone to be fired from a job solely because they are gay or transgender. The same 73 percent also somewhat or strongly favor a statewide nondiscrimination law that would make it illegal for someone to be evicted from housing solely because they are gay or transgender.

More than 80 percent of respondents believed such laws already existed in Utah.

Meanwhile, the poll showed that most respondents oppose adoption and marriage for gay and transgender couples.

According to survey data, 55 percent of respondents somewhat or strongly oppose gay or transgender couples becoming foster parents and 52 percent oppose gay or transgender couples being allowed to adopt children whom they have no biological ties to — in other words, traditional adoption.

While 64 percent of those polled somewhat or strongly favor allowing legally recognized forms of partnerships — short of marriage — for gay and transgender couples, such as domestic partnerships or civil unions, 57 percent somewhat or strongly oppose Utah recognizing marriages of gay and transgender couples who move here from other states.

Additionally, 65 percent of respondents somewhat or strongly oppose allowing gay and transgender couples to marry in Utah.

"Utahns showed some interest in antidiscrimination laws in some areas and not in other areas," said Trent Kaufman, researcher and executive vice president of the Cicero Group, parent company of Dan Jones and Associates.

"The data suggests the marriage or adoption issues relate to the family, while the other (data) aren't as related to family," Kaufman said. "These findings held true all across the state with respondents representing every county."