Why I don’t believe polls on same-sex marriage

Disney’s recent movie Strange World and the summer’s Lightyear both bombed at the box office. The Wall Street Journal recently called this “an unusual record for a company long considered a guaranteed hitmaker in children’s entertainment.”

It was more than that. The Wall Street Journal won’t tell you one of the big reasons the two films bombed. It’s the same reason Bros — the movie whose poster showed two men grabbing each other’s buttocks — bombed. Few Americans go to the theatre to see same-sex relationships promoted.

And this is why I don’t believe the polls showing such a huge shift in support of same-sex marriage in the seven years since Obergefell. The practice has gained support from a solid majority of our political class, as the passage of the Respect for Marriage Act shows. But it doesn’t have so much support from everyone else.

What People Don’t Tell Pollsters

Because same-sex marriage is unlike any other issue in our public life. There is no other issue — not even a controversial one, like abortion or gun control — where you will be punished for not supporting it. If you register any sort of dissent on same-sex marriage, it could cost you your job. If not your promotion or your next pay raise.

It could cost you your standing in the community. Old friends may denounce you. Members of your own family may turn on you. And if they don’t, you will find some friends less friendly, some family members less interested in being with you. You will have marked yourself as one of “them.”

There is no other issue in American public life like it.

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