For the first time since Gallup began polling the issue in 1996, a majority of Republicans in the U.S. are supportive of legalized gay marriage.
55% of Republicans said that same-sex marriages should be recognized as valid by law, according to the poll conducted this May. Legal gay marriage is supported by 83% of Democrats, 73% of independents and 70% of Americans as a whole.
Record 70% back gay marriage in Gallup, *including a majority of Republicans* for the first time.
55% of GOP back
Note for future: ***84%*** 18-34 year-olds
Remarkable change from ’96, when just 27% supported, and 2005, when Bush led failed effort to ban in U.S. Constitution.
— Steven Dennis (@StevenTDennis) June 8, 2021
Only 27% of Americans supported same-sex marriage in 1996, and Republicans have been the least supportive political group since then. Just 16% of Republicans supported gay marriage at that time, and the GOP has been about 40 points less supportive than Democrats for most of recent history. (RELATED: Laurel Hubbard Could Become First Biological Male To Compete In A Women’s Sport At Tokyo Olympics)
Support has ticked up among Republicans around 15 points since Donald Trump became the party’s presidential nominee in 2016. Trump was the first American president to openly support legal same-sex marriage upon entering the White House, and he went as far as to hold up an LGBT pride flag on stage during a 2016 campaign rally.
Support is highest among young people, with 84% of 18-34 years old in favor of gay marriage, according to Gallup. Americans 55 years of age and older are slightly supportive as well, though, with a record high of 60% expressing agreement with legalization.
The sharp increase in support among Republicans also coincides with the Obergefell Supreme Court decision in 2015, which effectively legalized gay marriage in all fifty states. (RELATED: ‘You Can’t Be Cowed’: Ron DeSantis Drops The Hammer On ‘Woke Corporations’ After Banning Biological Men From Women’s Sports)
The battleground in LGBT politics has seemingly shifted largely from gay marriage to issues centering on transgender individuals, with Republican leaders passing a number of new laws across the country to outlaw biological males from competing in women’s sports and to maintain sex-based separation in places like bathrooms and locker rooms.
