Same-Sex "Marriage":
NJ Poll on Gay Unions is Highly Questionable

view the .pdf | note: all footnotes are included within the .pdf

By Toni Meyer, Sr. Research Analyst, New Jersey Family Policy Council

A few weeks ago, the results of a New Jersey poll on homosexual unions, commissioned by groups who support such unions, was widely reported by the news media. While this poll claims that 55% of “likely NJ voters” support gay “marriage”, virtually all other major polls have shown that the majority of the general public does not support legalizing homosexual unions. In fact, a USA Today/CNN/Gallop Poll conducted nationally, just one week later, showed that 57% would oppose a law allowing homosexual unions and only 40% would favor it. Even in early July, prior to the negative backlash of public opinion following the Supreme Court decision to strike down the remaining 13 state laws prohibiting sodomy, Pew Research Center for People and the Press found that 54% of registered voters opposed legalizing such unions, and only 37% favored it.

So, why are the results of the NJ poll so skewed? Because the questions were designed with the help of a representative from Lambda Legal Defense “to test acceptable public messages” – rather than obtain truly unbiased voter opinions. For example, in the Pew Research poll voters were simply asked, “Do you strongly favor, favor, oppose, or strongly oppose allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally?” In the NJ poll, likely voters were told a series of messages from the homosexual activist point of view, which included slanted information like: taxpayer dollars are being wasted to stop homosexuals from being “married”, homosexual couples need a domestic partner bill to visit their sick partner in the hospital, and a presumptuous future prediction that no religion can be forced to marry a gay couple. I suspect the question “Do you agree or disagree that gay couples should be allowed to marry” was not asked first. A single course in Market Research 101 clearly teaches that such misleading information will bias the survey and skew the results to their favor. Even the question itself is phrased in a softer tone; gay “couples” vs. gays and lesbians, and no mention of “legality” or legal benefits of marriage. (The list of results from the New Jersey poll, given to the media, did not specify by number what order the questions were posed to the people and neither Zogby nor those who commissioned the study, would grant my request to specify the order in which the questions were asked).

Another factor is that only the opinions of those people who indicated they would be “likely to vote” in the next election were included in the New Jersey poll results. I wonder how many more citizens would have indicated they would be likely to vote, had they known their vote would make a difference as to whether or not marriage would be preserved as being between one man and one woman only in our state? How many people would actually vote to preserve marriage between one man and one woman once they know ALL the facts and ramifications of the NJ lawsuit asking the state to legalize homosexual “marriage”?

A look at the polling results before and after the citizens of California voted on Proposition 22, is a clear illustration of the difference it can make once citizens know all the facts. Proposition 22 was a ballot question placed before the citizens of California asking if the state should bar same-sex “marriages”. For months, polls of potential California voters showed that only slightly over 50% of voters backed the measure, and slightly less than 40% opposed it. Yet, when all the votes were counted in November of 2000, Californians passed the pro-marriage legislation with 61% in favor and only 38% opposed . Hopefully our NJ legislators will find out what New Jerseyans really think and not be swayed by this single poll.

 

 

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