Support for marriage equality has hit a
new high in the United States.
According to a Gallup survey released
this week, two in three Americans (67%) support marriage rights for
gay and lesbian couples, up 40 percentage points since 1996, the year
Gallup first polled on the question.
Gallup conducted its annual Values and
Morals poll May 1-10. Pollsters interviewed 1,024 adults living in
all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
According to Gallup, more than 10.4% of
LGBT adults are involved in a marriage with a same-sex spouse.
“Some of the increase in support may
be due to greater numbers of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
(LGBT) adults getting married in the U.S.,” Gallup wrote in
reporting its findings.
In its landmark 2015 Obergefell
decision, the Supreme Court found that gay and lesbian couples have a
constitutional right to marry, striking down state constitutional
amendments and laws that defined marriage as a heterosexual union.
(Related: NOM's
Brian Brown: Gay marriage bans may soon “come back to life.”)
While support for same-sex marriage has
increased among Democrats (83%) and independents (71%), less than
half of Republicans (44%) favor marriage equality, down 3 percentage
points since last year's survey.
“Reaching a national consensus on the
issue would depend more on greater acceptance among Republicans, who
remain mostly opposed to legally recognized same-sex marriages,”
Gallup
wrote.