A proposed constitutional amendment
that would bar North Carolina from recognizing the unions of gay
couples with marriage, civil unions and possibly domestic
partnerships has lost support three months in a row.
According to a Public
Policy Polling survey released on Thursday, 56 percent of voters
support the amendment.
However, support has steadily declined
since October, when 61 percent of voters said they would support it.
A November survey found support had
dropped 2 percent. Another 1 percent was lost in December.
“The decrease in support for the
amendment may reflect voters in the state becoming more aware about
just how far reaching it would be,” Tom Jensen wrote in reporting
the poll's results. “There are a lot of voters who are fine with
civil unions but not with gay marriage who are planning right now to
vote for the amendment, not realizing that it would ban civil unions
too. But some of those folks are starting to move out of the 'yes'
column, and getting a bunch more of them to will be the key to
defeating the proposal.”
A majority (57%) of respondents support
either giving gay couples full marriage (25%) or civil unions (32%).
Forty percent say there should be no legal recognition of gay
couples' unions.