Poll: 22% View Gay Court Nominee as Negative

A new Washington Post/ABC News poll of American sentiments on the Supreme Court nominee found that 22% of respondents said they would view a gay nominee negatively, with a majority of white Evangelicals saying they would be opposed. Seven out of 10 respondents said a nominee’s being gay would not be a factor in their opinion, but sexual orientation is still a more divisive issue than the nominee’s sex, race or religion.

According to the Post, “In the Post-ABC poll, the question of a gay nominee is more divisive. While only 4 percent consider it a positive, 22 percent say it would be a strongly negative factor. Senior citizens are more likely to consider a gay nominee a negative (34 percent, compared with 26 percent among those ages 40 to 64 and 19 percent among those younger than 40), as are Republicans (44 percent say it is a factor against) and white evangelicals (51 percent). Seven in 10 say it would not be a factor if the nominee were gay.”

In contrast, the poll found that “eight in 10 say it is not important to them whether the nominee is a woman, an African American or a Protestant.”

The poll was conducted from April 22 to 25 among a random sample of 1,001 adults, with a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.