A new Washington Post / ABC News Poll (released just yesterday) shows that 59% of the general public now supports the legalization of same-sex marriages. This is the largest percentage of support ever recorded in this particular poll -- and shows that support for same-sex continues to grow in the United States.It is also interesting that much of this growth in support has come in the last decade. Back in 2003, this same poll showed that only 37% of the public supported legalizing same-sex marriages, while 55% opposed it. Those numbers have now flipped, and about 6 out of every 10 Americans now support it (while only slightly more than one out of three oppose it).
The demographic breakdown of the support is also telling. Only two groups show a majority opposing same-sex marriage -- Republicans and those over 65 years old (and both of those groups have significant support for it, with 40% of Republicans and 47% of seniors saying they support it). Even people in the South are starting to come around -- with 50% now supporting same-sex marriage and only 42% now opposing it. All other groups and regions show significant majority support.
Although the radical religious right continues to fight against same-sex marriage, they are fighting a battle that has already been lost. There is no longer any question of whether same-sex marriage will one day be legal across this nation. The only question now is when this will happen, and I believe it will be sooner rather than later.
Here are the results of some other questions about LGBT rights asked in this poll:
The Washington Post / ABC News Poll was conducted between February 27th and March 2nd of a random national sample of 1,002 adults, and has a margin of error of 3.5 points.
