SALT LAKE CITY, Jan. 21 (UPI) -- About 6-in-10 Utah residents favor a state law banning employment discrimination against gays and lesbians in the workplace, a poll indicates.
The Salt Lake Tribune conducted a poll that found 66 percent of those surveyed said they support anti-gay discrimination. The data comes shortly after a highly publicized federal court decision that overturned the state's ban on gay marriage.
The Salt Lake County Council and the City Council passed legislation in 2010 outlawing workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation. Another 16 municipalities in the state have done so, as well, the Tribune said.
The percentage of respondents who said discrimination should be banned had not changed from the last time it queried Utah residents in 2010, shortly after the bans were enacted in Salt Lake City. About 35 percent said they oppose anti-gay discrimination laws and another 6 percent said they were not sure how they felt about the issue.
The conservative First Freedoms Group is planning to run television ads throughout the state opposing such laws, arguing, "at first, non-discrimination laws sound reasonable, but they're not because they actually give special rights to some people at the expense of others," Co-chairwoman Laura Bunker said.
The poll has a margin of error of 4 percentage points. The newspaper did not specify how many people were included in the survey or the precise dates when it took place.
