By 51-42 percent, registered voters said they believed same-sex marriage should be legal in California. Only 28 percent favored gay marriage in 1977, when the Field Poll first asked that question, said Mark DiCamillo, the poll's director.
"This is a milestone in California," he said. "You can't downplay the importance of a change in an issue we've been tracking for 30 years."
This is good news and indicates that public opinion is shifting on this civil rights issue. The article also notes that the recent California Supreme Court ruling striking down Prop 22 may have helped some folks sitting on the fence change their minds about equal rights for gays and lesbians.
Many of the comments on this SF Chron story are from crazed, right-wing hate-mongers who are moaning about "the will of the people." Well, if it was the up to the people we would still be a segregated country and blacks would still be sitting at the back of the bus. Some times the courts have to lead, as they did in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.
It is not fashionable these days to wear racism on your sleeve and profess your desire to oppress a certain segment of our population based on the color of their skin, but for some people it is OK to hate gays and lesbians and try to oppress them. These poll results, although not in complete agreement with other polls taken on the same subject, seems to show that attitudes are changing towards the oppression of certain segments of the American populace. Let's hope the trend continues.
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