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As you can see from the table, only 13% of Mississippians supported gay marriage as of November 2011. But is that really telling the whole story?
The Williams Institute at UCLA conducted a study of public opinion across the states. According to their data, 34% of Mississipians supported gay marriage by the end of 2012. In Georgia, that figure was 37%. In Tennessee, only 32% of respondents supported gay marriage by the end of 2012, but in the link above, it shows 49% of Tennesseans supporting gay marriage, which if true would represent a 17 percentage point increase in less than six months.
Perhaps Tennessee is an outlier, but it makes you wonder whether the southern states would look better as a whole if more recent data were included (SC, WV and MS for example, are ranked based on a 2011 poll whereas NJ, IL, PA and MI are based on 2013 polls). So is the South not getting credit for its rapid change in public opinion?
Eventually, either through state action or federal action, gay marriage will be a reality in the South.
If the polling is accurate, and the current trend continues, then nearly all southern states will be in support of gay marriage within a few years. Why would federal action be required?
Eventually, either through state action or federal action, gay marriage will be a reality in the South.
I don't see this happening for a long time at best. You are talking about Bible belt states here. The only states that have legalized gay marriage have been highly liberal states where religion isn't that important.
The headline of your link notwithstanding (in the recent DOMA case, whether or not states may prohibit same-sex marriage was not litigated; in the recent Prop 8 case, the Supremes avoiding addressing the issue by deciding the appellants had no standing), since then the USSC has not addressed the issue of a federal question as to whether or not states allow same-sex marriage.
Good luck thinking they'll do the same in 2014 or 2015, when they finally have to consider the question.
I live in the South and I clearly support gay marriage. I am not alone with that opinion.
It is clear to me, however, that there is a stark contrast between areas that are more gentrified and those that remain large rural. Even my much more conservative neighbors have essentially stepped back from arguments against gay marriage as the general public opinion in the US has shifted. They still regard homosexuals with suspicion and are not quite sure what to make of them - but I have heard over and over again how it's not up to them to preclude others from finding happiness. In other words, they are more and more embracing the live-and-let-live mantra they have been espousing for years.
The South will never allow gay marriage. Ever. Anyone who thinks otherwise is living in a liberal fantasy land.
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