Poll: A slim
majority of Americans favor civil unions for gays

A national poll released Thursday shows that despite media coverage focused on the nation's polarization, most Americans' views on gay rights issues are actually somewhere in the middle. The poll, conducted by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, was intended to shed some light on what the center called "talk of 'culture wars'--and the high visibility of activist groups on both sides of the cultural divide."

The poll studied Americans' views on the most divisive issues of the day: stem cell research, abortion, and gay rights. And while voters did lean liberally on the stem cell issue and hovered around the middle on abortion, the poll found that 56% of respondents oppose same-sex marriage and 52% oppose adoption rights for gays.

But interestingly, almost the same number--54%--said they are in favor of the idea of civil unions. The poll also found no consensus among either supporters or opponents over how far to go to press their positions. Just a slight majority of same-sex marriage opponents actually favor amending the U.S. Constitution to ban it. Similarly, only 51% of those who favor equal marriage rights say supporters should "push hard" to make it legal as soon as possible, with almost 4 in 10 urging caution to avoid animosity.

All of the poll numbers were relatively consistent with polls taken recent years--except in the area of the nature of homosexuality. In 2003, 42% of respondents said that they felt homosexuality cannot be changed. Just three years later, that number has climbed a full seven points to 49%. (Sirius/OutQ News)