This afternoon some members of the Equal Marriage NI campaign team carried out a small poll of random people in South Belfast on same-sex marriage. The survey, although small in number, showed overwhelming support for marriage equality in Northern Ireland, which is about giving the right to all people to marry, no matter their race, gender or sexual orientation.
The results were:
220 polled in total between 10:30am and 12:30pm 20th July 2012
164 polled in favour of full marriage equality
70 of those in favour were male
94 of those in favour were female3 polled as undecided on the issue
2 of those undedicded were male
1 of those undecided were female53 polled against full marriage equality
20 of those against were male
33 of those against were female
All those polled were randomly selected out on the street or within various coffee shops in the areas of Botanic, Queen’s University Belfast, Stranmillis, Lisburn Road, Sandy Row and the Holylands area.
This data, though small in number, and taken from a very small area of the city, show that a large majority, 74.5% are for, while 24.1% are against same-sex marriage. While only 1% are undecided.
Equal Marriage NI said that the majority of those who are against marriage equality do so on “religious grounds due to the doctrine that a marriage before God is between a Man and Woman.” This reasoning is unexpected, though undoubtedly saddening that it is still such a widely held opinion.
Equal Marriage NI plan to conduct a more comprehensive survey in the future.