Support for gay marriage among
African-American voters in Nevada has increased 26 percentage points
since President Barack Obama announced in May that he supports such
unions.
According to Public Policy Polling,
only 21 percent of black voters in the state previously favored
legalizing gay marriage. Forty-seven percent of respondents to a
poll released Tuesday said they approve of such unions; 42 percent
said they remain opposed.
The pollster previously found similar
increases among black voters in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and
Ohio.
“We've now found in both North
Carolina and Pennsylvania
that black voters have moved more toward support of gay marriage in
the wake of Barack Obama's announcement,” said Dean Debnam,
president of Public Policy Polling. “The media's been asking the
wrong question – the big issues isn't how Obama's stance will
affect his reelection hopes. It's how Obama's stance will move
public opinion on gay marriage.”
Overall,
47 percent of Nevada voters think gay marriage should be legal to 42
percent who think it should be illegal. Eighty percent support
either marriage (40%) or civil unions (40%) for gay and lesbian
couples. Seventeen percent say there should be no legal recognition
of a gay couple's relationship.