Those are pretty good numbers and show what huge cultural change is occurring in the U.S. generationally.

Fortunately like other advanced democracies, America is becoming more secular. The more people embrace evidence-based approaches to understanding the world, the less bigotry, ignorance, and stupidity we will have to deal with, e.g., the war on non-heterosexuals.

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with the big D & indy numbers for equity, this becomes a matter of turnout in 2012 when this is on the ballot. the more we get Ds & D-leaning indies to vote, not only do we re-elect Obama (that's another discussion) and get Bruce Hanna out of the co-speakership, we can then win this crucial civil rights fight.

This poll is exciting news. It shows how much progress we've made over the past couple years. Every day more and more Oregonians are embracing the freedom to marry.

But it's also a reminder of the education work we still need to do. Blue Oregon readers especially should note that the poll indicates that one in three Democrats are still unsure or don't yet support marriage equality. These are our friends and family - and they need to hear from us.

To get some ideas about how to start a conversation about the freedom to marry, check out the tips at www.lovecommitmentmarriage.org.

48% say "yes" and 11% are unsure. Plus, given the rate at which public opinion is changing (typically just under 1% per year, given that it was 42% "yes" in November 2004), it'll likely be around 49-50% "yes" by next year's election. That's a pretty good baseline; it shouldn't be all that hard to get just a small number of the fence-sitters to the "yes" side.

As T.A. Barnhart points out, this will be about turnout. (Assuming, of course, that Measure 36 repeal is on next year's ballot, as it should be.)

Sadly, the whole issue hangs on one word. "Marriage".

In other countries, they have a separation of a secular wedding and the bringing of the blessings of the deity of your choice upon a union. This would have been resolved long ago had we done the same in this country. Instead, we have to wade through horror stories about good, upstanding, powerless ministers being forced, FORCED, by jackbooted thugs into performing a ceremony upon in-progress orgies that may or may not involve guns, vegetables, steam pistons, pornography, a horse, or Pro Wrestling.

Wonder what percentage of Oregonian's believe the state should get out of the marriage business. Do we really need government to ratify our personal relationships?

What if we just removed the word "marriage" from all laws and statutes, and replaced it with the words "civil union"?

The government should have nothing to do with "marriage". Let that be a religious word with no legal meaning. In the eyes of the law, everyone should just have a "civil union."

Joshua, The Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life expects the world's Muslim population to grow by about 35 percent in the next 20 years. What is Islam's view of same sex marriage