Young Voters Backing Gay Rights 69% Is Republican Hurdle

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-27/young-voters-backing-gay-rights-69-is-republican-hurdle.html

Fifty-five percent of Americans and 7 out of 10 young people support allowing gay couples to marry. A majority of Republicans, 52 percent, oppose it.

Forty percent of Republicans say state legislatures should continue pushing for laws curbing abortion rights. That’s almost double the 22 percent among all Americans who hold that position, according to a Bloomberg National Poll conducted Sept. 20-23.

The findings reflect challenges for the Republican Party at a time when it’s working to boost its appeal with young people, women and minority voters to improve its national electoral prospects after 2012 losses.

The April reaffirmation of the party’s opposition to gay marriage, passage of more than 200 anti-abortion-rights state bills in recent years, and the imposition of voter-identification rules by Republican-controlled legislatures may create even deeper wedges with those coveted constituencies.