"You really have to take away the issue of adoption and marriage. These are family matters and people have long-held beliefs," said Rand Hoch, president of Palm Beach County Human Rights Council. "But people also feel it's wrong to discriminate against people."

Seven counties do have laws prohibiting discrimination against gay people, including Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties. Twenty states have similar laws.

The Florida results line up with a 2007 national Gallup poll, which showed 89 percent approval of equal rights.

Gay rights activists hope the Florida survey will encourage the Legislature to add sexual orientation to the state's civil rights law, which bans discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, handicap and marital status.

The results of the Florida poll are based on telephone interviews conducted between May 28 and June 3 by Virginia-based pollsters Keith Frederick and Tony Fabrizio. The poll, which was released last week, has a margin of error of 3.1 percent.

Whether the poll results will help sway the Legislature to take action remains to be seen. A Senate Commerce Committee voted 7-1 in spring 2008 to move forward on a bill that amends the civil rights law. But the House of Representatives took no action and the bill died.

"It's a controversial kind of bill, because legislators tend to line up on either side of the issue," said Kelly Skidmore, D- Boca Raton, who sponsored the bill. "As you can tell by the polling results, Floridians are generally lined up on one side, that we should not be promoting discrimination. But the landscape in the Legislature hasn't changed much."

Democrats favor the bill more than Republicans, and the number of Democrats in the state House increased only one, from 43 to 44. There are 76 Republicans.

Jill Chamberlain, spokeswoman for incoming House Speaker Ray Sansom, R-Destin, wouldn't speculate on the fate of the bill.

Scott Travis can be reached at stravis@SunSentinel.com or 561-243-6637.