Poll: 61 percent support gay marriages

LONDON, June 27 (UPI) -- Some 61 percent of the British public believes gay couples should be allowed to marry, and not just have civil partnerships, a new poll indicates.

The poll, commissioned by The Times of London and conducted by Populus, also found that nearly half said gay couples should have equal adoption rights, the newspaper reported Saturday.

Poll results indicated that 68 percent of the British public supports "full equal rights" for gay men and lesbians. Analysts said that finding suggested that the final bastion of formal anti-gay discrimination, the Church of England, is out of touch with public opinion.

The Times said the church has not put forth a practicing homosexual as a candidate for bishop since Geoffrey John was rejected as Bishop of Reading, noting that clergy can only be openly gay if they affirm to their bishop that the relationship is celibate.

The newspaper did not provide methodology for the poll, which was conducted to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York's Greenwich Village, sparked by discrimination against gays and lesbians.