Majority in new poll says they are open voting for a gay man, but think country isn’t

The majority of Americans in a new poll said that they were personally supportive of the idea of America electing a gay president, but the country was not ready for such a candidate to be elected.

Of registered voters surveyed, 70 percent said that they are open to electing a gay president, according to a survey from Quinnipiac University Poll released Tuesday. Of those that who identified as Republicans, 46 percent said they were open to the idea.

{mosads}A smaller majority, 52 percent, however, added that they did not believe the country at large was ready to vote for a gay candidate.

The poll comes as South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D) has surged into the top tier of candidates in some polls of early primary states. Buttigieg and Chasten Glezman were married in 2018.

A Suffolk University-Boston Globe poll of New Hampshire primary voters released Tuesday found Buttigieg had moved into a second-place tie with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) with 12 percent of the vote. Both trailed former Vice President Joe Biden who registered support from 20 percent of voters.

A poll earlier this month from NBC News and The Wall Street Journal found that 54 percent of voters would be “comfortable” with a gay president, while an additional 14 percent would be “enthusiastic” about electing one.

The Quinnipiac poll surveyed 1,044 voters nationwide between April 26-29. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.