Poll: Gay Marriage Opposition Wanes

WASHINGTON - A new poll shows Virginia is narrowly divided on the question of legalizing homosexual marriages.

The Washington Post survey found 47 percent of state residents agreeable to legalizing same-sex marriages while 43 percent are opposed.

The newspaper said a similar poll conducted in 2006 found 57 percent of Virginia residents in favor of amending the state Constitution to ban both same-sex marriages and civil unions.

Gay rights advocates conceded they did not believe the poll results would stoke any new effort to have the ban revoked. "We knew that public opinion was evolving," said Claire Guthrie Gastanaga, a spokeswoman for Equality Virginia. "You end up leaving us in a posture where the public has moved and the policymakers haven't and won't."

The Washington Post poll was compiled from telephone interviews with 1,180 adults April 28-May 4. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.