A plurality of Washington state voters
would vote to keep the state's recently approved gay marriage law.
Governor Chris Gregoire earlier this
month signed into law a gay marriage bill approved by lawmakers. Gay
and lesbian couples may wed in the state starting on June 7.
That is, provided opponents do not
gather sufficient signatures to put the law up for a vote. In which
case marriage equality would be put on hold pending the outcome of a
November election.
Referendum 74 supporters insist the
public will vote to end gay marriage in the state. But in 2009,
voters rejected an effort to repeal a domestic partnership law dubbed
“everything but marriage” which gave gay couples all the
protections of married heterosexual couples.
According to a Public
Policy Polling survey of 1,264 Washington voters released
Wednesday, supporters of the marriage law outnumber opponents.
Fifty percent of voters say they'll
vote to uphold the law, while 46 percent say they would vote to
repeal it.
A large majority of voters (78%) also
support either marriage (46%) or civil unions (32%) for gay couples.
Only 20 percent of respondents said there should be no legal
recognition of a gay couple's relationship.
“Even 59% of Republicans at least
support civil unions,” the survey's authors noted in announcing
their results. “That may bode well if there's a repeal vote this
fall – almost all voters in the state are at least somewhat
accepting of same-sex relationships.”