Latinos Support Legalizing Gay Marriage, Exit Polls Show
By Roque Planas, Huffington Post Latino Voices
Conservatives may have another problem wooing Hispanic voters.
Latino voters are more likely than the electorate in general to support gay marriage, according to exit polls reported by ABC News. The change, which other polling hastracked over the last year, indicates that the fast-growing Latino population may play a pivotal role in expanding gay marriage across the country.
According to ABC:
Nearly six-in-ten Latino voters (59%) said their state should legally recognize same-sex marriage while 32% said their state should not. But among all voters, about half (48%) favored legalization of gay marriage while nearly the same share said they would oppose it (47%).
Non-Hispanic whites were the most opposed to states legally sanctioning same-sex marriage (47% favored but 50% were opposed).
The news poses a problem for conservative opponents of gay marriage who hadhoped their view would resonate with Latinos because of the community’s often talked about love for, “traditional family values.” While opposition to gay marriage remains dominant among Latino evangelicals, the mainstream opinion among…
This article was first published in Huffington Post Latino Voices.
[Photo by Jamison Wieser]