The majority of voters in Vermont
support the state's 2-year-old gay marriage law.
Vermont was the first state in the
nation to legalize civil unions in 2000, and in 2009 lawmakers
upgraded gay and lesbian couples to full marriage. Vermont was the
first state to legalize gay marriage without being required to do so
by a court order.
A
Public Polling Policy survey released on Thursday found a
majority (58%) of Vermont voters say gay marriage should be legal,
while 33 percent disagree, and 9 percent don't know.
When pollsters added in civil unions,
support for government recognition of gay unions increased to a 79
percent supermajority. Only 18 percent of respondents said there
should be no legal recognition of a gay couple's relationship, and 3
percent said they didn't know.
The survey also found a supermajority
of respondents (82%) said the legalization of gay marriage in Vermont
has had either a positive impact (22%) or no impact (60%) on their
lives. Eighteen percent said the law had impacted their lives
negatively.
(Related: Majority
of New Yorkers support gay marriage law.)