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Gallup Poll: 52 percent of Americans Say Homosexuality Should Be Legal

Aired June 13, 2001 - 07:41   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN ANCHOR: Recently, Gallup surveyed America's attitudes about homosexuality.

Frank Newport is editor-in-chief of the Gallup Poll.

Frank, tell us what you found.

FRANK NEWPORT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, GALLUP POLL: Indeed, Colleen. We just updated our longstanding series. And what I would say we find is a lot of resistance still on the part of the average American to gay and lesbian relations. But generally speaking, we see a continuation of a liberalization of those attitudes.

Look at this, this is a question that Gallup first starting asking about 25 years ago: "Should homosexual relations between consenting adults be legal?" And you notice that it started down there, that red line, at 43 percent. But in the Reagan years, it actually became a little more hostile, probably because of the AIDS epidemic, which first became highly publicized at that point. Then that red line started to go down, back to 1999. And then -- look here -- in our most recent asking, just a few weeks ago, we're up to 54 percent of the Americans who say yes -- not an overwhelming majority, but that's the first time we've really had a clear majority saying yes to this very basic question.

Now, another question that Gallup started asking a long time ago was "Is homosexuality an acceptable lifestyle or not?" It's controversial wording, but we've kept that wording all this time, because we think the trend is important. And here you can see this trend is fairly straightforward. Starting way down there at 34 percent in the early '80s, it's gradually gone up. Now, in our most recent trend, again, the first time we've actually had a majority, 52 percent of Americans saying yes to that question.

A very interesting question that we've been asking about is homosexuality in terms of its genetic origin versus being a life-style choice or environment. It's a really crucial issue to gay and lesbian leaders. Of course, they argue it's a genetic factor, something people don't have control over; conservatives say, no, it's just a choice. Way back in 1982, Americans fairly strongly said it's a choice, it's the environment. That's been changing, and for the first time, in our recent poll, Americans split even, thinking it's genetic versus something to do with the environment. Finally, Colleen, this whole issue that you just mentioned in Vermont, legal -- not married, but a legal union with the same benefits as marriage. What do Americans say about that? Still a little conservative: 52 percent say no to that, about 40 percent of Americans said they approve of that concept.

So still, all in all, some conservatism out there, but we are seeing that change gradually over time.

Colleen, Carol, back to you.

MCEDWARDS: That's fascinating, Frank. Thanks very much. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com