A new report from Gallup, an analytics firm, has found 70% of Americans are now in favour of same-sex marriage, including a record number of Republicans and older people. The survey, which interviewed 1,016 adults living in the US, found the percentage of those who support same-sex marriage has increased by 10% since the last poll was conducted in 2015. When the firm first started tracking this data in 1996, only 27% were in favour of same-sex marriage.
Support from adults aged 55+ increased from 51% in 2019 to 60% now, with researchers suggesting older people “who were once holdouts in support for gay marriage”, have now “come down on the same side of the issue as young adults”. For the first time, a small majority (55%) of Republicans showed support for same-sex marriage, in addition to 83% of Democrats and 73% of political independents.
In 2015, the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage was a constitutional right, and must be legally recognised, with the study stating: “Court and legislative challenges to the legal status of same-sex marriage have simmered down since the Supreme Court issued its decision”. Gallup suggested that the data “illustrates that Americans’ views can shift in a relatively short time span, creating a new consensus – even as polarization on other measures intensifies.”