A large majority of voters in Utah
support some form of legal recognition of the relationships of gay
and lesbian couples.
According to a new survey released from
the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy at Brigham Young
University, seventy-one percent of Utah voters say gay couples should
be recognized with either marriage (28%) or civil unions (43%).
The percentage of Utah voters opposed
to any form of legal recognition for gay couples has decreased
sharply in the last eight years. In 2004, 54 percent of voters were
opposed. That number dropped to 37 percent in 2009, and 35 percent
in 2010. Currently, 29 percent are opposed.
“Utah is seeing the same kind of
movement that we see in the United States generally,” Chris
Karpowitz, a BYU political science professor and fellow at the
center, told Deseret
News.
“What makes Utah voters different,”
Karpowitz said, is that they are moving “not toward full support of
marriage equality but toward civil unions.”
According to the survey, 72 percent of
Utah voters oppose gay marriage.