Fifty-seven percent of the American public believe that another state will legalize same-sex marriage in 2007 according to a new poll.

The Associated Press-AOL survey asked Americans their predictions on a wide variety of issues.

On the issue of marriage, the prediction of another state legalizing gay weddings does not necessarily suggest 57 percent supported the idea, just that they believed it would occur.

Currently Massachusetts is the only state where same-sex couples can wed. Civil unions are available in Vermont and Connecticut.

In 2006 the Supreme Court of New Jersey declared it unconstitutional to deny same-sex couples rights and benefits of marriage but left it to the legislature to decide whether it should be called marriage or civil unions. Lawmakers opted for civil unions and the law will go into effect next month.

The only state where the issue of gay marriage will reach the Supreme Court this year is California, although lawsuits are underway in several other states at the lower court level.

In California, which already has the nation's strongest domestic partner law, the legislature will also consider a bill that would legalize gay marriage. A similar bill last year passed both the state Assembly and Senate only to be vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The telephone poll of 1,000 adults was conducted Dec. 12-14 by Ipsos, an international polling firm. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Labels: california, marriage, poll

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