A slight majority of Florida voters support civil unions for gay and lesbian couples, but most oppose same-sex marriage, a new poll has found.
Yet Florida voters are divided over President Bush's call for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, with more voters opposed to an amendment than supporting it, a poll by the St. Petersburg Times and The Miami Herald found.
The poll, conducted March 3-4, found that 65 percent of voters oppose same-sex marriage. Opposition was most intense in the Tampa Bay area, where 72 percent are opposed.
Still, 53 percent said gays and lesbians should be allowed to form civil unions.
Civil unions could allow same-sex couples to have the same benefits as married couples on matters such as health insurance, inheritance and pensions.
"What's significant about these numbers is that Florida voters continue to be willing to compromise. They have no problem with civil unions," said Rob Schroth, a Democratic pollster who conducted the poll last week with Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway.
Only 41 percent of those polled said they would support President Bush's push to ban same-sex marriages. Eleven percent of voters are undecided on the constitutional amendment question.
The poll was conducted by the Washington polling firms of Schroth & Associates, whose political clients are Democrats, and the Polling Co., whose political clients are Republicans. The statewide phone survey of 800 registered Florida voters has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
Same-sex marriage is illegal in every state. Four years ago, Vermont approved civil unions, which extend rights to same-sex couples. No other state recognizes a civil union from Vermont. California, Hawaii and New Jersey also grant some rights to same-sex couples registered as domestic partners.
In November, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the state's ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. The Massachusetts Legislature has not yet passed legislation that complies with the court's ruling.
Since then, San Francisco and a few other cities have granted marriage licenses to same-sex couples, while other states, such as Wisconsin, have rushed to prohibit same-sex marriages.
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