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News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbySeptember 6th, 2012
The National Organization for Marriage is thrilled. They’ve found a Zogby poll to promote using Zogby’s own headline: “Voters disagree with Obama’s plans marriage.”
Riiiiiiight. Time to check out the poll. Zogby asked respondents: Which of the following statements comes closer to your opinion?
Statement B: The family is the basis of a strong community and culture. The ideal family is built around a stable marriage between a man and a woman.
Statement A: Many socio-economic and demographic factors have caused our society to redefine the structure and composition of family. A family can still be the stable unit of a good society if it is headed by a single adult, a same-sex relationship, or grandparents.
One problem should be obvious: These statements aren’t mutually exclusive. Respondents can believe both without any violations of logic or consistency. A good chunk of the 51.4% who chose B as “closer to your own opinion” could also be comfortable with A (40.3% chose A).
It’s like asking ice cream fans which flavor is closer to their taste: Triple Caramel Chunk or Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. Preferring one doesn’t make you opposed to the other. You won’t shock anyone by having both in your freezer. (I totally want both in my freezer.)
The poll’s other problem is more subtle — oh, hell, it’s obvious, too. Despite Zogby’s headline, the question doesn’t ask anything about Obama’s plans or what the law should say about same-sex marriage. Think about those hypothetical people who like Statement A and hate Statement B (hypothetical, because the survey never identifies them). Can you be sure these people, even these people, oppose legalizing same-sex marriage?
No. Because in the immortal words of NOM president Brian Brown (and trust me, we’ll be keeping those words alive!):
Just because you believe something is wrong, it doesn’t mean that you make it illegal.
It’s nearly enough to make you feel bad for our opponents. As their position erodes, as they see multiple states poised to vote for marriage equality, as they try desperately to prove their relevance, what are their options?
Take a poll? No, that doesn’t work anymore.
Rig the poll with false alternatives? Evidently that’s not reliable, either.
Take a poll, rigged with false alternatives, that doesn’t ask people whether same-sex marriage should be legal? Yes! This, apparently, is the best of getting a bare majority of people to say something that you can twist as opposition to legalizing same-sex marriage.
This is what our opponents are reduced to. It would piss me off if it weren’t so delightful.
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PhilDC
September 6th, 2012
You’ve failed to pick some low hanging fruit Rob :)
Option B also lumps same-sex parents in with single parents and grandparents.
Now, I don’t mean to disparage either of these types of families but there are some solid reasons why a reasonable person would not prefer these arrangements.
There is ample research suggesting single parents have lesser outcomes as a group then married couples. Of course this group contains both people who intended to become single parents and have adequate resources with unintentionally single parents.
As for grandparents, I’m sure they make wonderful parents, but the situation by definition implies that something went wrong, no? The parents most likely died or were unfit, right? There’s reason to hesitate calling the situation ideal.
There is also the problematic word “stable” married with straight people while gay couples are automatically grouped with the (arguably problematic) situations above.
Basically, this question was severely framed towards NOM’s position and still produced middling (for them) results.
Steve
September 6th, 2012
The whole wording is also very biased, what with the “redefine family” crap
james
September 6th, 2012
How about the way the second statement is qualified by the way it starts our with “demographic factors,” putting relationships at arms length.
Male-female marriage families are formed from deeply loving commitments. Other families are merely “demographic factors” that don’t involve love or commitment.
Male-female marriage partners are human subjects. Same-gender marriage partners are less-than-human objects.
Besides, if 51.4% agreed with Statement B, how does the poll show people disagree with same-gender marriage?
I bet that sociology professor in Texas helped write the questions!
AlexND
September 6th, 2012
I just tried following the links to read the report, and got a “Page Not Found”. Went to JZAnalytics home page, and couldn’t find a link to the report. Anybody have a link to a copy somewhere? That already seems awfully suspicious to me, considering who jumped on the ‘study’ right off the bat . . .
(I will eat those above words if the report still exists, just moved :-)).
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