The Liberty Daily 
(The Daily Signal)—While critics say the Greater Than coalition, aimed at overturning the Supreme Court decision codifying “gay marriage,” is dividing Republicans, the campaign conducted polling that suggests the opposite.
“We anticipated that we were going to be accused of dividing the Right ahead of the midterms,” Katy Faust, founder and president of Them Before Us, told the Daily Signal in an interview Thursday. She cited a New York Times article from Wednesday making that exact claim.
“We wanted to show that, if there was a divide, people were with us,” she explained. “The poll showed us that there was virtually no divide, and people were with us—especially for those that are likely Republican voters.”
While many on the Left have touted popular support for same-sex marriage, which the Supreme Court codified in the case Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), the public mood has cooled, particularly following contentious issues surrounding transgender ideology.
Working on behalf of Them Before Us, the Decision Co. surveyed 1,200 likely general election voters between June 14 and 16, screening out Democrats to obtain a sample of self-identified Republican and independent likely voters. The poll’s margin of error is plus/minus 2.83%.
Poll Results
When asked, “How important do you think it is for a child to be raised with both an involved mother and an involved father in the home,” most respondents (95.8%) said it was either “extremely important” (61.9%), “very important” (24.6%), or “somewhat important” (9.3%). Only 2.1% said it was “not too important,” while 1.6% said it was “not important at all,” and a mere 0.5% said they were unsure.
The pollsters asked whether respondents agreed that “Marriages between same-sex couples should be recognized by the law as valid, with the same rights as traditional marriages.” Only 33% of respondents agreed (18.4% “strongly” and 14.7% “somewhat”). Another 18% said they neither agreed nor disagreed, while 47.4% said they disagreed (10.8% “somewhat” and 36.6% “strongly”).
Most respondents (82.2%) said they agreed with the statement that “no child should be deliberately denied a mother or a father.” Most also agreed (77.9%) with the statement that “if a child’s needs conflict with an adult’s desires, the child’s needs should come first.” Most respondents also disagreed (66.2%) with the claim that “being raised by same-sex parents is no different for a child than being raised by an adoptive mother and father.”
Respondents proved less willing to agree that “children are harmed when separated from their natural parents through sperm or egg donation” (35.7% agree, 44.1% disagree).
Most respondents agreed (63.5%) with the statement, “I believe marriage should be defined ONLY as a union between one man and one woman.”
A ‘Gay Marriage’-Children’s Rights Message Test
The poll tested various messages for the campaign.
First, respondents answered whether they agreed with the statement “Every child should be legally recognized as having a mother and a father, not two parents of the same sex.” Most respondents agreed (58.8%), but the number increased (to 61.5%) after respondents heard arguments from the Greater Than campaign.
Pollsters asked whether each message would make them more likely to agree that children should be legally entitled to having a father and a mother.
“Children naturally want to know where they come from and who they take after,” the surveyors said. “A child deliberately cut off from their own mother or father grows up with at least half their story missing, and many spend their lives searching for the parent they were never allowed to know.” Most respondents (59.1%) said this message made them more likely to support the Greater Than cause.
“A child’s need for their own mother and father is greater than any adults desire to have a child on their own,” the survey stated. “For too long, our laws and our culture have put what adults want ahead of what children need.” Most respondents (56.3%) said this message would sway them.
“Two loving parents are a wonderful thing, but love alone cannot give a child what is missing,” the surveyors said. “A home with two men, however devoted, cannot replace a child’s mother, and a home with two women cannot replace a child’s father.” Most respondents (56.0%) said this message would sway them.
“Most Americans wanted to treat gay and lesbian people with dignity and fairness, and that instinct was a good one,” another message reads. “But ‘equality’ was never supposed to mean a child must lose their own mother or father in the name of gay rights.” This message resonated with 55.6% of respondents.
Most respondents (53.4%) also resonated with the idea that “adoption repairs a loss a child has already experienced,” but “that is very different from arrangements designed to leave a child without a mom or a dad from the start.”
Political Ramifications
“Republicans generally agree—we’re almost at the ceiling of agreement—as it relates to the importance of family structure, that children should not be deliberately deprived of their mother or father, and that children should not be made to sacrifice for adults,” Faust, the founder of Them Before Us, told the Daily Signal.
She reiterated the Greater Than campaign’s three-part strategy to overturn Obergefell and same-sex marriage: refocusing marriage policy on the parent-child relationship; changing public opinion by emphasizing how same-sex marriage and other forms of family breakdown harm children; and mobilizing Christian churches to take a stand for protecting children.
Faust noted that her campaign aims to “restate the natural rights of children in law,” which will “create an inhospitable environment for Obergefell,” making the Supreme Court reconsider the ruling.
“The legalization of gay marriage is erasing the natural rights of children to their mother and father,” she argued.
