Opposition to gay marriage in Nebraska
has lessened, a new study has found.
During an Omaha stop of the Human
Rights Campaign's (HRC) 17-city On the Road to Equality bus tour, the
group announced the results of a new survey conducted by the
Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research group.
A narrow majority (51%) of Nebraskan's
oppose marriage equality, while 42 percent said they support it. But
in Omaha, the state's largest city, supporters outnumber opponents.
Fifty-four percent of respondents said they support giving gay and
lesbian couples the right to marry, while 40 percent were opposed.
Nebraska voters in 2000 overwhelmingly
(70%) approved a constitutional amendment that bans such unions.
Pollsters contacted 616 Nebraska adults
for the survey, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 4
percentage points.
Dave Bydalek, executive director of
Family First, a group that campaigned for the gay marriage ban in
2000, told
the Omaha World-Herald that he was skeptical of the poll's
results.
“While there no doubt has been some
sort of change in attitude, I would be skeptical of such wholehearted
reversal,” he said.
The HRC bus will visit the ConAgra
campus in downtown Omaha on Saturday and the Memorial Stadium at the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln on Sunday.