Michael Reagan claimed “the country probably voted” for a U.S. amendment banning gay marriage on Nov. 2

Nationally syndicated conservative radio host Michael Reagan claimed that on November 2, Americans voted in favor of an amendment to the U.S. Constitution banning gay marriage. On the November 15 edition of FOX News Channel's Hannity & Colmes, when co-host Alan Colmes asked, "[S]hould we be wasting time to try to get an amendment to certify that marriage is between a man and woman? Do you want to spend our time doing this?" Reagan replied, “Well, I think the country probably voted for that on November 2nd.” While President George W. Bush supports a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, recent polling shows that a majority of Americans oppose such an amendment.

The most recent survey by the Annenberg Public Policy Center found that 51 percent of registered voters strongly or somewhat oppose the amendment, while 41 percent are strongly or somewhat in favor. Two other polls conducted in July found the country more closely divided on the issue: a CNN/Gallup/USA Today poll found 46 percent of adults opposed to the amendment while 48 percent favored it, and a Los Angeles Times poll found 47 percent of registered voters to be strongly or somewhat opposed with 48 percent strongly or somewhat in favor.

Further, Los Angeles Times national exit poll data from the 2004 national election showed that 26 percent of the electorate support same-sex marriage and another 35 percent back civil unions, indicating that 61 percent of the voters favor some form of legal recognition of same-sex unions.