New Yorkers favor gay marriage, support Bloomberg's challenge

A majority of New York City voters would support a law allowing gay marriage, according to a poll released Thursday. But by a slim margin they also back Mayor Michael Bloomberg's decision to appeal a recent court ruling supporting same-sex unions, the Quinnipiac University poll found. In the poll, 51% of respondents said they favored legalizing gay marriage, while 40% were opposed. White voters were much more likely to back the law than black voters--61% of whites wanted the law, compared with just 36% of blacks. "There's a big split between black and white voters over gay marriage," said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. By a margin of 49% to 44%, voters said they agreed with Bloomberg's strategy of appealing a state supreme court decision last month that the state's refusal to grant marriage licenses to gay couples was unconstitutional. Bloomberg has said he personally supports gay marriage but wants to test the court ruling to avoid the "chaos" San Francisco experienced last year when it issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Those marriages were later ruled invalid. The poll surveyed 1,435 New York City registered voters between February 22 and March 1. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.6 percentage points. (AP)