A poll conducted by the University of Texas shows Texans view on legalizing same-sex marriage remains narrowly divided, even in the wake of a US Supreme Court decision that could reverse the state ban on gay marriage.
The study, conducted by UT-Austin and the Texas Tribune suggests that peoples view on gay marriage is changing but just at a much slower pace when compared to other states with similar bans. Professor Jim Henson heads up UT’s Texas Politics Project.
Cut/ “44 percent in favor, 41 percent opposed. Now that’s very close to a result we got last time that was slightly skewed in the negative direction. But it does seem to me that Texas is moving more in the direction of being accepting of gay marriage and we’ve seen that in the last few years of polling,” Henson explained.
The study shows 66 percent of Democrats are in favor of gay marriage and 60 percent of Republicans oppose the idea.
Those polled were also asked whether or not businesses should be allowed to refuse services to gays and lesbians for religious reasons?
“And what we found was, 41 percent thought that businesses should be able to refuse services and 45 percent should be required to provide services. Now that tracked pretty closely to the gay marriage numbers. And I think what we are seeing here is public accommodation and rights to public accommodations,” Henson stressed.
At the end of this week or beginning of next week, legal experts believe the US Supreme Court will release an opinion on whether states can ban same-sex marriage. That decision is being closely watched in Texas by both those for and against the idea of gay marriage. Texans are also eagerly waiting on what will be the state’s response when a decision is reached.
