Poll: High school
seniors favor gay rights

The latest in a series of youth opinion polls conducted by Hamilton College students and faculty reveals overwhelming support for same-sex marriage and other rights for gay people among the nation's high school seniors. According to the poll, the results of which were released on Thursday in Washington, D.C., members of the high school class of 2006 are twice as likely as adults to support legal recognition of same-sex marriages.

Hamilton College sociology professor Dennis Gilbert and his students collaborated with the polling firm Zogby International to conduct the national Youth Hot Button Issues Poll. High school seniors were selected for this eighth in the Hamilton Youth Poll series as representatives of a rising generation of Americans and potential voters in November 2006. One thousand high school seniors from across the United States were contacted by phone for the study.

Among the poll's findings: Three quarters of this year's high school seniors favor legal recognition of same-sex relationships, either as marriage or civil union; three in four seniors oppose a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage; and 63% support adoptions by gay couples.

The poll also revealed that this year's graduating class has strong reservations about abortion. Two thirds of high school seniors would require parental consent before a woman under the age of 18 could legally obtain an abortion, and the majority of high school seniors do not believe that a woman who is poor and unable to afford another child should have a legal right to an abortion. Seventy percent of females in the class of 2006 say they would not consider abortion if they became pregnant while in high school. Yet more than 60% of high school seniors want the U.S. Supreme Court to preserve the Roe v. Wade abortion decision. (Advocate.com)