State poll: 29% back same-sex marriage

FAYETTEVILLE — About four months after a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling, a statewide poll shows a majority of Arkansans continue to oppose same-sex marriage.

Only 29 percent of respondents said they think same-sex marriages should be recognized, according to the Arkansas Poll, sponsored by the Diane D. Blair Center of Southern Politics and Society at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.

Another 63 percent of respondents said they did not think such marriages should be recognized, while 8 percent said they did not know or declined to respond.

The poll, released Wednesday, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

A U.S. Supreme Court decision in June stated that samesex couples have a right to marriage under the U.S. Constitution.

Last year, when the issue of same-sex marriage was pending before the Arkansas Supreme Court, 48 percent of respondents stated there should be no legal recognition of a gay couple’s relationship, while 21 percent said gay couples should be allowed to legally marry and 21 percent favored civil unions for gay couples. Another 10 percent said they did not know or declined to answer.

“I think mostly what we see is consistency, even in light of the Supreme Court June 2015 ruling,” said Janine Parry, a UA political science professor and designer of the poll. “We see that Arkansans aren’t particularly persuaded by the national court ruling on that.”

The survey describes a change in attitudes on medical marijuana, however. Among respondents, 68 percent said they favored allowing patients to use marijuana if it was supported by their medical doctor. Another 26 percent said they opposed medical marijuana, while 6 percent said they didn’t know or declined to answer.

In 2012, when there was a ballot measure that would have allowed medical marijuana, only 44 percent of respondents said they favored marijuana for medical purposes, while 52 percent opposed the measure and 5 percent said they did not know or declined to answer.

The 2012 Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act failed after receiving 49 percent of the vote. Another ballot measure, the Arkansas Medical Cannabis Act, could be on the ballot next year.

Parry said policy changes elsewhere may be influencing Arkansans.

“Medical marijuana has become the middle position, rather than the radical position,” Parry said.