Half of Americans believe that the U.S. Constitution gives gays and lesbians the right to marry, according to a new poll.
An ABC News/ Washington Post survey released Wednesday found that 50 percent of Americans said the equal protection clause of the Constitution guaranteed gays the right to marry, while 41 percent said it does not.
Support for gay marriage has also risen to 59 percent, a record high for the survey, while opposition to gay marriage has fallen to 34 percent.
In addition, the poll found that a large majority of Americans — 81 percent — said businesses shouldn’t be allowed to refuse service to gays. Sixty-five percent said they believe service still shouldn’t be refused to gays even if homosexuality violates the business owners’ religious beliefs.
That finding comes on the heels of Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer’s (R) veto of her state’s SB 1062 legislation, which would have allowed businesses to discriminate against LGBT individuals on the basis of their religious beliefs.
The poll surveyed 1,002 adults by phone from Feb. 27 to March 2 and had a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.
