中國網站品牌欄目（頻道）
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 A marriage equality supporter holds gay pride and American flags at a demonstration outside the appeals hearing on California's Proposition 8 at the 9th District Court of Appeals in San Francisco in December 6, 2010. |
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Fifty-three percent of Americans support making gay marriage legal, a Gallup poll showed on Friday, a marked reversal from just a year ago when an equal majority opposed same-sex matrimony. The latest Gallup findings are in line with two earlier national polls this spring that show support for legally recognized gay marriage has, in recent months, gained a newfound majority among Americans. Gallup said Democrats and political independents accounted for the entire shift in its survey compared to last year, when only 44 percent of all respondents favored gay marriage, while 53 percent were opposed. The percentage of Republicans favoring same-sex matrimony held steady at 28 percent. Same-sex marriage remains a highly contested issue in U.S. politics, but homosexual couples have won the right to legally wed in five states -- Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire and Iowa -- and the District of Columbia. Gay couples have faced setbacks elsewhere, and no statewide initiative to legalize gay marriage has ever won a majority vote. The growing support for gay marriage comes after President Barack Obama signed into law legislation in December to repeal the ban on openly gay men and women serving in the military under a 17-year-old law known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Gallup noted the policy change, but said it was unclear if that influenced Americans' attitudes about same-sex unions. "The trend toward marriage equality is undeniable -- and irreversible," Joe Solmonese, president of the gay rights group Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement. Maggie Gallagher, chairman of the National Organization for Marriage, said the poll shows her fellow opponents of gay matrimony have been "shamed" into silence. "Polls are becoming very sensitive to wording, and the wording being used in the media are not predicting accurately what happens at the actual polls when people vote," she said. In a sign of a generation gap, Gallup found 70 percent of respondents between the ages of 18 and 34 support gay marriage, compared to only 39 percent among those 55 and older. (Read by Renee Haines. Renee Haines is a journalist at the China Daily Website.) (Agencies) |
上周五發布的一項蓋洛普民意調查顯示，53%的美國人支持同性婚姻合法化，而在一年之前，有同樣多的人對同性婚姻表示反對，形勢發生了明顯的逆轉。 最新的蓋洛普民意調查結果和今春的兩項全國性民意調查結果一致，這表明支持同性婚姻合法化的美國人在近幾個月來占據了絕大多數，這是前所未有的。 蓋洛普稱，和去年的調查相比，民主黨人和無黨派人士的態度轉變是造成這一逆轉的主要原因。去年受訪者中只有44%支持同性婚姻，而有53%反對同性婚姻。支持同性婚姻的共和黨人比例穩定地保持在28%。 同性婚姻依然是美國政壇備受爭議的問題之一，但是同性戀情侶已經在五個州贏得結成合法夫妻的權利，這些州分別是馬薩諸塞州、康涅狄格州、佛蒙特州、新罕布什爾州和衣阿華州，準許同性婚姻的還有哥倫比亞特區。同性婚姻在美國其他地方則遭到了排斥，而且目前將同性婚姻在全國范圍內合法化的提案還未能獲得多數票。 同性婚姻的支持率是在貝拉克?奧巴馬總統去年12月簽署法案廢除 “不問不說”禁令后開始上升的。這項17年前訂立的禁令禁止在軍中服役的同性戀男性和女性公開自己的性取向，否則將被軍方開除。 蓋洛普指出了這一政策變動，但稱其并不清楚該政策是否影響了美國人對同性婚姻的態度。 同性戀權利保護組織“人權運動”主席喬?索爾蒙內賽在一項聲明中說：“婚姻平等化的趨勢是不可否認的，也是不可逆轉的。” 全國保護婚姻組織的主席瑪姬?蓋拉格爾說，從民意調查結果來看，和她一樣反對同性婚姻的盟友們在壓力下羞于表達觀點，只好保持沉默。 她說：“民意調查在措辭上變得十分謹慎，單憑媒體所用的措辭并不能準確地知道人們實際投票時發生的情況。” 蓋洛普的調查結果反映出在同性婚姻觀點上的代溝。調查發現，年齡在18歲至34歲之間的受訪者中有70%支持同性婚姻，而55歲及以上的受訪者只有39%支持同性婚姻。 相關閱讀 （中國日報網英語點津 陳丹妮 編輯：許雅寧） |
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Vocabulary: repeal: if a government or other group or person with authority repeals a law, that law is no longer valid 廢除，撤銷，廢止（法規） irreversible: that cannot be changed back to what it was before 無法復原（或挽回）的；不能倒轉的 |
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