A Monday Gallup poll revealed that almost half of Republicans currently support gay marriage.
Republican support for gay marriage is the highest it’s been in almost 20 years. Gallup’s annual Values and Beliefs poll showed that 47 percent of Republicans are in favor of gay marriage.
“In recent decades, many GOP leaders adamantly opposed gay marriage, but rank-and-file Republicans’ support has nearly tripled since 1996. The current 47% of Republicans favoring it, although not at the majority level, is the highest for this group in the more than two-decade trend,” Gallup’s Justin McCarthy wrote in the poll report.
The poll comes two years after the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage. Support for gay marriage has been slowly rising in recent years. Sixty-four percent of Americans believe that gay marriage should be legal, 71 percent of independents are in favor of gay marriage while Democrats come in at 74 percent.
“Majority support for gay marriage would not come until May 2011, about a month before New York became the sixth state to legalize it. Since then, support for legal same-sex marriage has steadily climbed, with consistent majorities in favor of it since late 2012,” McCarthy wrote.
Religious groups are also seeing increasing numbers in support of gay marriage. Fifty-five percent of Protestant and non-specific Christians are in favor of gay marriage, while Catholics come in at 65 percent.
The poll surveyed 1,011 adults 18 and older from May 3-7. The margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points, the poll states.
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