Support for Same-Sex Marriage Reaches New High
Support for redefining marriage to include same-sex couples has reached a new high, according to a Washington Post/ABC News poll released Wednesday.
Fifty-nine percent of American adults answered that they support "allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally" while 34 percent said they oppose the change.
On both sides of the issue, those who strongly held their position outnumbered those who expressed ambivalence. Thirty-nine percent said they strongly support and 20 percent said they somewhat support, while 24 percent said they strongly oppose and only 10 percent said they somewhat oppose.
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The only demographic groups that had a majority in opposition to redefining marriage to include same-sex couples were Republicans (54 percent), conservatives (54 percent) and white evangelical Protestants (66 percent). (Results for non-white evangelicals were not included.)
Combining party identification with ideology, the strongest support came from liberal Democrats (90 percent) and the strongest opposition came from conservative Republicans (67 percent).
In previous polls, opposition to same-sex marriage came from the oldest age group and Southerners. In this recent poll, those 65 and older were about equally divided (47 percent support and 43 percent oppose), and half of Southerners (50 percent) support same-sex marriage and 42 percent oppose.
When asked if the right to marry for same-sex couples comes from the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution, respondents were more divided than they were for the general support/oppose question. Fifty percent said it does while 41 percent said it does not.
There was also majority support, 61 percent, for allowing gay and lesbian couples to adopt a child. And 78 percent answered that gay people can be as good parents as straight people.
The random national sample of 1,002 adults was conducted from Feb. 27 to Mar. 2. The margin of error for the full sample is 3.5 percentage points.
