Although voters have approved bans on same-sex marriage in Utah and 29 other states, most Americans favor other legal protections for gay and transgender people, according to a survey released this week by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD).

That's timely news for Equality Utah, a gay-advocacy organization pushing a series of six bills aimed at delivering domestic-partner benefits along with fair-housing and employment safeguards to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people.

"There are issues beyond marriage equality that need to be looked at," said Mike Thompson, Equality Utah's executive director. "There really is common ground around these issues. By recognizing that, and working together, we can provide the basic protections necessary for gay and transgender Utahns."

The GLAAD poll -- conducted the week after voters outlawed gay marriage in California, Arizona and Florida -- shows that majorities of U.S. adults support expanding hate-crime laws to include gay people (63 percent), offering some type of legal recognition to same-sex couples (75 percent) and extending rights to fair housing and employment to gay and transgender people (51 percent). Nearly 70 percent oppose laws -- Utah has one -- that prevent gay and lesbian couples from adopting children.

"In spite of the setback we had in recent elections in California, Arizona and Florida, this is welcome news for advancing toward full equality," said GLAAD President Neil Giuliano.

Still, public-opinion polls don't necessarily reflect likely shifts in public policy, said University of Utah political science professor Matthew Burbank.

"Polls get a pretty good cross section of people," he said, noting that the international firm Harris Interactive -- which GLAAD hired to conduct its Pulse of Equality survey -- is respected. "But not all [of those surveyed] are people who have clear opinions, strong opinions or are people who are politically active."

He also questioned GLAAD's finding that 47 percent of U.S. adults back gay marriage -- with 49 percent opposed (within the poll's 2 percent margin of error).

"That sounds a lot higher than I would have expected," given what has happened in 30 states where the issue has landed on ballots, he said. "I suspect there's nowhere near half of the American population that says, yes, they would endorse gay marriage."

In Utah, especially, he said, Equality Utah's tactic of pursuing legal protections short of marriage is a "much better political strategy." The group has taken its cue from the LDS Church, which backed California's recently approved gay-marriage ban, Proposition 8, but said it did not oppose other rights for same-sex couples, including hospitalization and fair housing.

"Mormons are more likely than evangelicals to be OK with civil unions, while also, of course, opposing gay marriage," said David Campbell, a political science professor at University of Notre Dame, where he has analyzed LDS opinions in national polls.

"There's kind of a wrinkle in their opinions that makes them a little different than others in the social conservative coalition."

Giuliano sees signs of growing support for gay rights, across demographics, in this finding from GLAAD's survey: 19 percent of those surveyed said their feelings toward gays and lesbians have improved the past five years. Knowing someone who is gay was the most common contributing factor.

"The visibility of the gay and lesbian community, having those conversations with co-workers, friends and clergy," Giuliano said, "that is what is really changing the hearts and minds of people."

rwinters@sltrib.com