Poll finds Kentuckians oppose domestic partner benefits

Bad news for our public universities. It didn't get much attention beyond his blog, but Mark Hebert of WHAS-11 has reported survey results from Survey USA that show that a large majority of Kentuckians oppose benefits for the partners of unmarried gay state workers.

Should unmarried state workers be offered health insurance for their gay live in partner?
23% Yes
73% No

Not that that is unexpected. But it didn't stop the braintrust over at Page One Kentucky from reporting that only 9 percent of Kentuckians opposed such benefits. Where did they get that idea? They looked at Herald-Leader/Action News 36 Election Poll, which reported that only 9 percent of Kentuckians listed domestic partner benefits as one of their top 2 issues. And here is what they concluded:

Less gay hating. 9% of Kentuckians want to ban domestic partner benefits. Only 9%. But 34% say health insurance for children is their top priority. Ruh ro, Mitch. You may be on the wrong end of another issue. Oh, and the state legislature is crappy as always.

Huh?

First of all, there is the not so implicit assumption that just because you don't think unmarried relationships should be encouraged by state institutions that therefore you hate the people involved them. As I keep pointing out (am I blue in the face yet?), just because you disagree with someone doesn't mean you hate them.

But more importantly, by what logical procedure do you conclude from the fact that only 9 percent of Kentuckians listed domestic partner benefits as one of their top issues that only 9 percent of the people oppose these benefits at all? Who would expect the issue to be one of the top two for most people anyway, no matter how many people oppose it?

But I guess I should be careful. I wouldn't want to be accused of hating people who misinterpret statistics, would I?