Bare Majority Of Americans Believe Stronger LGBT Civil Rights Laws Are Needed

From Gallup:

Americans are about evenly divided on whether new civil rights laws are needed to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Fifty-one percent of U.S. adults say such laws are needed, while 46% say they are not.

These data, from Gallup's annual Values and Beliefs poll conducted May 3-7, come as Democratic members of Congress plan to reintroduce a bill that would provide protections for LGBT people from housing, employment and other forms of discrimination. The bill's potential for passage is unclear, as few in the majority Republican caucus have given their support.

Gallup is being generous with that last line. The Equality Act currently has no chance in hell in passing with both the House and Senate in Republican control.

And certainly President Babyhands isn't going to go to bat for us.

Gallup Poll: President Obama And Hillary Clinton Named "Most Admired"

President Barack Obama was again named the man most Americans admire in Gallup's annual poll. He has been on the top of the list every year since 2008.

Obama also currently enjoys an unusually high approval rating, 56%, for an outgoing president.

Hillary Clinton was the woman Americans most admired for the 15th year in a row.

From Politico:

In second place was his successor, Donald Trump, favored by 15 percent.

Others in the top 10 included Pope Francis in third place and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in fourth, followed by the Rev. Billy Graham in fifth. Bill Clinton tied for sixth place with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Dalai Lama and Bill Gates, while Vice President-elect Mike Pence came in 10th.

Asked to name the woman they most admire, 12 percent of Americans polled by Gallup chose Hillary Clinton, who has come in first in the poll 21 times, a record. First lady Michelle Obama came in second, at 8 percent.

Gallup daily tracking poll: Mitt Romney leads President Obama 47%-45%

 

Gallup has begun it's presidential general election daily tracking poll for 2012.

At this point, at the start of the general election (now that Santorum has suspended his campaign Mitt Romney is the sure-to-be GOP candidate) Mitt Romney leads President Obama 47%-45%. Both candidates show 90% support from their respective parties.

From Gallup: "History shows that the candidates' positioning in the spring of an election year is not necessarily good at forecasting the election outcomes. For example, in an April 20-22, 1992, Gallup poll, incumbent President George H.W. Bush was ahead with 41% of the vote, compared with 26% for Bill Clinton and 25% for Ross Perot. And in an April 11-14, 1980, poll, incumbent President Jimmy Carter led Ronald Reagan by 42% to 34%, with John Anderson receiving 18% support. Both Bush and Carter, of course, ultimately lost their re-election bids."

Read more at Gallup.

UPDATE: President Barack Obama holds a nine-point lead over Romney in a new CNN/ORC International poll, thanks in part to the perception that the president is more likeable and more in touch with the problems facing women and middle class Americans.

According to the poll, 52% of registered voters say if the presidential election were held today, they would vote for the president, with 43% saying they would cast a ballot for Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who is making his second bid for the White House.

Perry leaps to the top of GOP 2012 pack of contenders

According to a new Gallup poll, shortly after announcing his official candidacy, Texas Gov. Rick Perry has emerged as rank-and-file Republicans' current favorite for their party's 2012 presidential nomination.

Twenty-nine percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents nationwide say they are most likely to support Perry, with Mitt Romney next, at 17%.

See the chart for results.

Americans estimate 25% of Americans are gay

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U.S. adults, on average, estimate that 25% of Americans are gay or lesbian. More specifically, over half of Americans (52%) estimate that at least one in five Americans are gay or lesbian, including 35% who estimate that more than one in four are. Thirty percent put the figure at less than 15%.

Americans with lower incomes and less education give the highest estimates, on average, of the U.S. gay and lesbian population, and far higher estimates than those with higher incomes and more education. Americans aged 18 to 29 give a higher average estimate than older Americans, and women give a far higher average estimate than men.

Democrats, liberals, and those who say they are socially liberal are also more likely to give higher estimates than those at the other end of the spectrum. However, the differences by political or ideological leanings are in most cases not as wide as those seen by demographic group.

Read more from Gallup