Eleven years ago, a majority of Nebraskans roundly rejected the idea of gay marriage.

Today, a slim majority of Nebraskans statewide still oppose gay nuptials, but a majority in Omaha say they support the legalization of gay marriage.

Overall, Nebraskans' position on all things gay appears to be softening, as strong majorities told a polling firm this month that they would accept a gay grandson, embrace a lesbian friend and support allowing gay couples to adopt children.

The poll of 616 Nebraska adults was conducted by the Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research group. The survey was commissioned by the Washington-based Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay rights group, and the Omaha-based group Citizens for Equal Protection.

A key reason for conducting the poll is the effort by the Omaha gay community to push for an anti-discrimination ordinance, said Fred Sainz, a spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign.

Sainz said the group realizes that Nebraskans may not be ready to overturn the state constitution's gay marriage ban, approved by voters in 2000. But he said the survey results show that Omahans favor an ordinance that would prohibit firing people because of their sexual orientation.

Gay-rights supporters say the poll results reflect the public's growing acceptance of the gay community, a development they say is an outgrowth of more homosexuals being out in public and becoming a natural part of a community's fabric.

"When people know us, it's definitely harder for them to discriminate against us. ... They realize we lead the same dull and boring lives as they do," Sainz said.

Opponents of gay marriage expressed skepticism over the survey results, saying they doubted that Nebraskans' opinions have changed that much in a decade.

Seventy percent of Nebraskans who voted on the issue supported a gay marriage ban in 2000. According to the new survey, about 51 percent of Nebraskans oppose gay marriage.

"While there no doubt has been some sort of change in attitude, I would be skeptical of such a wholehearted reversal," said Dave Bydalek, executive director of Family First, a group that supported the gay marriage ban in 2000.

The poll findings come as the "Equality Bus" rolled into Nebraska, sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign. The bus is on an 11-state tour, trying to spread the "message of equality" in some of the nation's most conservative states.

The bus will be open Saturday at the ConAgra campus in downtown Omaha and Sunday near Memorial Stadium at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Nebraska is one of 41 states that expressly prohibit gay marriage.

Since Nebraska's constitutional ban was adopted, however, the gay rights movement has scored several victories. Six states have legalized same-sex marriage, including Iowa. And, more recently, the ban on gays and lesbians openly serving in the U.S. military was lifted.

It's all part of a massive' shift in public attitudes on gay and lesbian issues since the mid-1980s, said Anna Greenberg, a pollster at Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, a Democratic-leaning polling company.

In the mid-1980s, about 15�percent of Americans said they supported gay marriage. Today, several polls have found that about half of Americans support gay nuptials — a dramatic shift in less than three decades, said Greenberg.

"The country is moving in a certain direction," she said.

The statewide poll indicated that most Nebraskans believed those trends would continue. In fact, 76 percent of those surveyed said Nebraska would one day recognize same-sex "I do's."

Of the 616 surveyed statewide, about 95 percent were registered voters.

The poll included a heavy sampling — 305 people — from Omaha. Results were weighted to ensure that the state's three congressional districts were equally represented. The survey was taken Aug. 2 through Aug. 4 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Key poll results:

>>A majority of voters in Omaha — 54 percent — said they supported gay marriage, while 40 percent opposed the idea. (In 2000, 59 percent of voters in Douglas County voted for the gay marriage ban. A World-Herald survey in 2009 found that 66�percent in Omaha favored legal recognition of gay couples, including 34 percent who supported gay marriage.)

>>Statewide, 51 percent opposed gay marriage, with 42�percent in favor.

>>56 percent said they would not be bothered a "great deal" if a child or grandchild turned out to be gay, while 38 percent said they would be bothered and 6�percent were undecided.

>>76 percent said they could be close friends with a gay man, and 76 percent said they could be close friends with a lesbian.

>>56 percent said they supported allowing gay and lesbian couples to adopt children.

>>68 percent said they opposed using therapy to try to turn gay people straight.

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