Americans Split on Same-Sex Marriage, Angus-Reid Poll shows

A new poll by Angus-Reid shows Americans split on same-sex marriage. The split 43%-47% in favor of traditional marriage shows a correlation between those that have family or friends that are LGBT, in that those that do seem to favor more equality in granting some legal protections to same-sex unions. Those polled that are single, divorced or split also tend to favor equality higher than married participants. The poll also suggest a correlation between the percentage of folks that believe being gay is a choice(47% answered yes) and those opposed to same-sex marriage(47% answered yes).

So for those of you that are LGBT and want equal rights, it looks as those you may want to speak out and tell your stories!

*Online interviews with 1,001 American adults, conducted on Dec. 8 and Dec. 9, 2009. Margin of error is 3.1 per cent.

New Liberal / Progressive Direction of the American Medical Association (AMA)

The American Medical Association (AMA) has lately been showing a progressive direction. We first started noticing it when the group openly expressed support for the House's efforts for Health Insurance Reform that passed last Saturday.

Then on Tuesday the group made two new bold stands. One calling for the end of Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT) in the military, also stating "A law which makes people lie to their physicians is a bad law," , and that "Same-sex families lack other benefits afforded married couples, including tax breaks, spouse benefits under retirement plans and Social Security survivor benefits – all of which can put their health at risk", in reference to the harmful Defence Of Marriage Act (DOMA)

In another statement that was presented by AMA was a reversal on their position on Medical Marijuana stating "Our American Medical Association (AMA) urges that marijuana's status as a federal Schedule I controlled substance be reviewed with the goal of facilitating the conduct of clinical research and development of cannabinoid-based medicines,"

For some reason this reminds us of a statement we caught while eating out, and that was "Marijuana use will be legal and taxed before gays and lesbians are allowed to marry". As much as we thought this sounded reasonable, this new stance by the AMA makes us wonder if parts of our nation are becoming ready to live a little more progressively and maybe both are not too far off.