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NJ Poll Finds 55% Support Gay Marriage
by Beth Shapiro
365Gay.com Newscenter
New York Bureau
May 5, 2003
11:36 a.m. ET/+5GMT/-3PT
(New York City) A survey take taken in a populous county of New Jersey shows 55.6 per cent of Hudson County residents support legalizing gay marriage. Only 34.2 percent were opposed.
Hudson county comprises the municipalities of Jersey City, Union City, Bayonne, and Hoboken.
The poll was conducted by New Jersey City University for The Jersey Journal newspaper.
"Hudson is a working-class, blue-collar and heavily Catholic county and we surmised that residents would be strongly against gay marriage," said poll supervisors Fran Moran, of the Political Science Department, and Bruce Chadwick, of the English Department.
They said even more surprising than the overall numbers were those among Catholics, with 60.4 percent in favor. Only 30 percent of Protestants agreed.
The pollsters found that the youngest age group questioned, those between 18 and 29, were most in favor of gay marriage, with 71 percent approving. Support was only 20 percent among those over 65.
When gender was examined, 61 percent of men were in favor, 10 percent higher than the approval rate among women.
The state Superior Court is currently hearing a challenge from 7 gay and lesbian couples that barring them from marrying is unconstitutional. One of the couples is from Hudson County.
Mark Lewis and Dennis Winslow, of Union City, said that he's not surprised by the results. Lewis said that a series of recent town hall meetings throughout the state organized by gay civil rights groups, has shown that people understand the issue.
"They get the point that this is not about religion," Lewis said. "We're not trying to change any church rules. (The poll) shows the message is clear that this is about civil rights."
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