Fox News Poll: Most Voters Say Allow Gays to Serve Openly

By a two-to-one margin, voters favor allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military.

A 61 percent majority is in favor of an open military, while 30 percent are opposed, according to a Fox News national poll.

In 2003, the margin of support for lifting the ban was slightly larger than it is today. At that time, 64 percent favored allowing gays to serve openly, and 25 percent disagreed. Ten years ago, 57 percent favored lifting the restrictions on gays and 30 percent were opposed (January 2000).

During President Obama's State of the Union address in January, the president called for a repeal of the 1993 "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" military policy.

Since then, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke before the Senate Armed Services Committee and said, "It is my personal and professional belief that allowing homosexuals to serve openly would be the right thing to do."

In addition, Defense Secretary Robert Gates pledged his support for the president's decision and announced a yearlong study would take place to decide the best plan of action toward changing the military ban.

Among groups, the poll finds 82 percent of Democrats, 44 percent of Republicans and 62 percent of independents favor a change in the military for gays and lesbians. Republicans are among those most likely to oppose allowing gays to serve openly, with 46 percent against the change, up from 31 percent in 2003.

By a 10-percentage-point margin, voters under the age of 30 (68 percent) are more likely to favor the change than are those age 65 and over (58 percent).

There is also a 13-percentage-point gender gap, as 69 percent of women favor ending the ban compared to 53 percent of men.

The national telephone poll was conducted for Fox News by Opinion Dynamics Corp. among 900 registered voters from February 2 to February 3. For the total sample, the poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.