Acceptance of same-sex marriage and relationships in the U.S. has flattened after more than two decades of steadily increasing support, with an ongoing decline among Republicans, according to a new Gallup poll.
About 65% of U.S. adults believe same-sex marriage should be legal, down slightly from 71% in 2022 and 2023.
Most of the change is due to dropping acceptance among Republicans. Inthe new survey, which was conducted in May, only 37% of Republicans say same-sex marriage should be legally valid, while 35% say gay and lesbian relations are “morally acceptable.”
The views of Democrats and independents are largely stable in the findings released Wednesday, with most in both groups saying same-sex marriage should be legal and that gay or lesbian relations are moral.
The widening partisan divide is also reflected in policy around LGBTQ+ issues across the U.S., particularly regarding transgender people, and a rising push in some states to ban same-sex marriage.
The downtick in support for same-sex marriage, while slight, is still striking because of how dramatically American views on the issue have shifted over the past few decades.
According to Gallup’s trend data, only 27% of U.S. adults supported legal same-sex marriage in 1996. Since then, support for same-sex marriage rose steadily until a few years ago, when it peaked with around 7 in 10 U.S. adults saying same-sex marriage should be legal.
Opinion about the morality of same-sex relationships followed the same pattern. About 4 in 10 U.S. adults said same-sex relations were morally acceptable in 2001. That increased nearly 30 percentage points over the next two decades.
Over the past few years, Gallup’s data has shown signs of a shift in the other direction. In addition to the slight decline on same-sex marriage, the new poll also found that 62% of U.S. adults view gay and lesbian relations as morally acceptable, down from 71% in 2022.
Same-sex marriage has beenrecognized nationallysince a 2015 Supreme Court ruling. That case capped a 12-year run in which court rulings and state laws recognized it in most states.
Source: Drudge Report
