According to a poll released last week,
a majority of Arkansans remain opposed to marriage equality.
The Arkansas Poll, which is sponsored
by the Diane D. Blair Center of Southern Politics and Society at the
University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, found that 29 percent of
Arkansans think that such unions should be recognized, while 63
percent remain opposed. Eight percent refused to answer or said that
they did not know.
In June, the Supreme Court ruled that
gay and lesbian couples have a constitutional right to marry. The
ruling cleared the way for marriages to begin in all 50 states.
The Arkansas
Democrat-Gazette reported similar results from a poll taken
last year. In that survey, 21 percent of respondents said that gay
couples should be allowed to marry, while 21 percent favored civil
unions for gay couples. Forty-eight percent of respondents said that
such marriages should not be recognized.
“I think mostly what we see is
consistency, even in light of the Supreme Court June 2015 ruling,”
Janine Parry, a UA political science professor and designer of the
poll, is quoted as saying by the paper. “We see that Arkansans
aren't particularly persuaded by the national court ruling on that.”