Support for same-sex marriage has skyrocketed in the last quarter century – even among Republicans.
According to a new public opinion poll from Gallup, 70% of Americans support same-sex marriage. That’s an all-time high, up from 27% in 1996.
A recent surge in approval – 10% since 2015 – comes largely from the shifting attitudes on LGBT rights among the GOP. Twenty-five years ago, only 16% of Republicans supported same-sex marriage. But now, for the first time ever, approval for same-sex marriage represent a majority opinion within the GOP (55%). That’s compared with 83% of Democrats and 73% of independents.
“Gallup’s trend illustrates that Americans’ views can shift in a relatively short time span, creating a new consensus — even as polarization on other measures intensifies,” reads a summary of the poll.
Gallup found that younger Americans are particularly supportive of same-sex marriage – 84% of young adults approve. But 60% of older adults also express support.
A 2015 Supreme Court ruling legalized same-sex marriage. The decision read:
“No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were. As some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death. It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.”