UOG students polled a total of 182 people, asking the simple question: “Do you support gay marriage?”
Guam – A surprising amount of residents support gay marriage, according to a poll conducted by University of Guam students.
UOG Professor Dr. Ron McNinch says his Public Administration students conducted the poll between April 18 to April 20 and asked just one question: “Do you support gay marriage?”
McNinch says a total of 182 people were polled, made up of about half men, half women and half under the age of 40, half over the age of 40.
McNinch says 55% say they support same-sex marriage while 29% oppose it. About 16% had no opinion.
McNinch says the numbers could mean that more people identify with the issue because they know someone who is gay.
“Almost everybody you talk to on Guam has an uncle or an aunt or a cousin or a sister ror brother who is gay, and so this is a readily understandable sort of issue. So one of the things, when we focus group people on this particular topic, having gay people in stable relationships is preferable to having them in unstable relationships, so this may be an extension of that kind of view,” says McNinch.
McNinch also says the figures could also indicate that, because the answers are concealed through an anonymous poll, people are more open to disclose their honest opinions versus what they might state publicly.
McNinch notes that his polls are often based on hot topics around the island and the topic of gay marriage has been at the forefront of conversations as a result of the first same-sex couple to challenge Guam’s marriage laws.
Loretta Pangelinan and Kathleen Aguero have filed suit in District Court for violation of constitutional rights. Attorney General Elizabeth Barrett-Anderson issued an opinion last week agreeing that Guam’s marriage laws are unconstitutional. However, Governor Eddie Calvo remains undecided on the issue and is waiting for his legal team to review the laws before making a decision whether to allow same-sex couples to apply for marriage certificates or to continue to deny them.
Any poll put out by Ron McNinch should be subject to some scrutiny. His polls are usually wrong but if this one isn’t, then let’s put it to a referendum. That’s the only poll that will really count.
Funny how McNinch seems so interested in the question of gay marriages. What’s the fascination with the topic Ron?
Gay Marriage turns a moral wrong into a civil right. Homosexual activists argue that same-sex “marriage” is a civil rights issue similar to the struggle for racial equality in the 1960s. This is false. First of all, sexual behavior and race are essentially different realities. A man and a woman wanting to marry may be different in their characteristics: one may be black, the other white; one rich, the other poor; or one tall, the other short. None of these differences are insurmountable obstacles to marriage. The two individuals are still man and woman, and thus the requirements of nature are respected. Same-sex “marriage” opposes nature. Two individuals of the same sex, regardless of their race, wealth, stature, erudition or fame, will never be able to marry because of an insurmountable biological impossibility. Secondly, inherited and unchangeable racial traits cannot be compared with non-genetic and changeable behavior. There is simply no analogy between the interracial marriage of a man and a woman and the “marriage” between two individuals of the same sex.