Sixty percent of Americans now support same-sex marriage, as the Supreme Court prepares to rule on its constitutionality next month. This is up from 55% last year and is the highest Gallup has found on the question since it was first asked in 1996.
Though same-sex marriage continues to be politically divisive, support for its legal status has reached new highs among Americans of all political stripes -- with Democrats at 76% support, independents at 64% and Republicans at 37%.
Last month, Gallup estimated that about 780,000 Americans are in same-sex marriages.
Today, Gallup also released poll results on the morality of gayness:
In addition to their changing views on the origins of being gay or lesbian, Americans' views on the morality of same-sex relations have also shifted in recent years. Currently, a record-high 63% of Americans describe gay or lesbian relations as "morally acceptable." That became the majority view in 2010. Only a decade ago, a majority thought same-sex relations were morally wrong.
Since 2001, increasing percentages of both Republicans and Democrats say gay or lesbian relations are morally acceptable, though Democrats continue to be much more likely to express that view. Notably, for the first time, a majority of Republicans believe that same-sex relations are morally acceptable. Democrats crossed the majority threshold more than a decade ago.
2 comments:
Somehow the very question about whether our relationships (or whether WE) are morally acceptable is problematic for me but it's too early in the morning for me to be articulate.
Hmm, I wonder what the results would be if they asked about the "acceptability" of straight couples doing the deed. But nobody in this day and time seems to worry about that one bit, do they?
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