Same-Sex Marriage Backed by 54% of New Yorkers, Quinnipiac Says

A law allowing same-sex couples to marry is backed by 54 percent of New Yorkers in a poll taken the week Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill making New York the sixth and most populous U.S. state to legalize gay nuptials.

Forty percent of registered voters surveyed said they were opposed to same-sex marriage, according the survey by Quinnipiac University. Most support came from voters under age 35, who backed the law 70 percent to 26 percent. Those over 65 opposed it 57 percent to 37 percent.

The poll, conducted by telephone June 20-26, showed support remained at the same level before and after the state enacted the measure late on June 24. Cuomo signed the bill after the Republican-controlled Senate voted 33-29 to approve it.

“Throughout the down-to-the-wire drama and the narrow margin in the state Senate, voter support for same-sex marriage has been consistent,” said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute in Hamden, Connecticut, in a statement.

Opposition from religious leaders to same-sex marriage doesn’t affect their attitudes on the issue, 70 percent of voters said. Catholic Archbishop Timothy Dolan opposed the New York bill.

New York joined Iowa, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut in allowing gay couples to wed.

Democratic state Senators Shirley Huntley and Joseph Addabbo Jr. of Queens, who voted against a similar bill in 2009, each said they switched their position to reflect shifts in support among their constituents.

The survey interviewed 1,317 registered voters for a margin of error of 2.7 percentage points, the poll said in a news release.