Opposition to gay marriage in Kentucky
has dropped 22 percentage points since voters approved a
constitutional amendment banning such unions in 2004.
According to a Bluegrass Poll released
this week, 37 percent of voters surveyed support allowing gay and
lesbian couples to marry, while 50 percent remain opposed.
Seventy-two percent of voters in 2004
voted in favor of a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a
heterosexual union.
Responding to the poll, Chris Hartman,
director of the Fairness Campaign, said Kentucky has hit “a bit of
a threshold,” adding that a tipping point “is soon to follow.”
“The opposition has been teetering on
the edge of having a majority for a long time, and that ground is
rapidly slipping out from under them,” he said.
Martin Cothran with the Family
Foundation disagreed.
“I think the movement is not going to
continue at the same pace,” he told The
Courier-Journal.
“I think what you are seeing now is a reshuffling of public
opinion on this because people are sort of in the gray area and are
not committed to one side or the other.”
A federal lawsuit challenging the
state's ban is currently before the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in
Cincinnati, which will hear arguments next week.
(Related: Opponents
call for 4 days of prayer to ask 6th
Circuit to uphold marriage bans in 4 states.)