FiveThirtyEight.com’s Nate Silver digs into national polling questions on marriage equality and finds Americans far more inclined to support marriage for same-sex couples when they’re asked the right question.  Writes Silver:

When gay marriage is polled, it is almost always framed as a positive right, as in: “should the government permit Adam and Steve to get married?“.

But there is a different way to frame the question that is no less fair, and flips the issue on its head. Namely: “should the government be allowed to prohibit Adam and Steve from getting married?“. This is closer to the logic embodied by the court decisions in Iowa, California, Massachusetts, and other states. Those courts didn’t create gay marriage; they argued, rather, that it was already protected by their respective state constitutions.

Silver cites a recent USA TODAY/Gallup poll that found 63% of respondents believe marriage between same-sex adults is “strictly a private decision” that should not be prohibited by government.