Wisconsinites still narrowly oppose same-sex marriage

While New York now provides full marriage equality for gays and lesbians and public opinion polls show acceptance of same-sex marriage is growing nationwide, Wisconsin lags behind.

A Public Policy Polling survey of Wisconsin last month found that citizens of the Badger State still oppose same-sex nuptials by a slight margin. Forty-two percent of Wisconsinites favor legal gay marriage, while 46 percent oppose it.

Support for legal gay marriage is lower in Wisconsin than in neighboring Minnesota, where 46 percent of the population approves it and 45 percent oppose it.

Still, the narrow margin of disapproval in Wisconsin represents a great improvement compared with results from 2006, when the state voted to ban both gay marriage and civil unions by a solid 19-point majority.

In Wisconsin, as elsewhere, there is a strong age and gender gap on the same-sex marriage issue. Young people aged18 to 29 support legal gay marriage by a 21-percent majority, while those older than 65 are in opposition by a 25-percent majority.

Women in Wisconsin support legal gay marriage 49 to 37 percent, while men oppose it 55 to 34 percent.