COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohioans are warming up to the idea of allowing same-sex couples to get married, but don’t think Buckeye players should belong to a union.
According to a Quinnipiac University poll released Friday morning, 50 percent of Ohio voters support allowing same-sex couples to marry while 43 percent say they are opposed. The strongest support comes from women, younger voters and Democrats.
While the majority of voters think labor unions are good for the country, they oppose allowing college athletes to form unions to negotiate rights and working conditions by a 55–38 percent margin. An even larger majority — 62 percent – is opposed to paying salaries to college athletes, while only 32 percent say they support the idea.
The National Labor Relations Board has ruled that scholarship athletes at Northwestern University are employees of the school and can form a union.
Support and opposition for same-sex marriage fell along gender, age and party lines. While the idea enjoys a 56-39 percent approval margin among women voters, 48 percent of men polled are opposed and only 44 percent were in favor.
Voters 18 to 34 years old support same-sex marriage 72 – 24 percent while the support drops to 52 percent among voters 35 to 54 years old and 52 percent of voters over 55 oppose it.
Among Democrats, support is at 74 percent while 66 percent of Republicans are against it. Independent voters are split nearly down the middle, 49–43 percent in favor.
While 68 percent of men and 60 percent of women say they are college sports fans, most of them — 55 percent — say “colleges are losing sight of their academic mission because of sports,” while only 37 percent say schools are doing a good job balancing academics and sports.
Men are more opposed to idea of unionizing college athletes — 58–37 percent — with 52 of women are opposed. The only groups who said they supported the idea are Democrats (56–37 percent) and voters 18 to 34 years old (63–35 percent).
The poll of registered voters, conducted from May 7-12, has a margin of error of 2.9 percent.