{"id":16556,"date":"2012-02-07T00:00:01","date_gmt":"2012-02-07T05:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/growing-public-support-for-same-sex-marriage\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:42:31","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:42:31","slug":"growing-public-support-for-same-sex-marriage","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2012\/02\/07\/growing-public-support-for-same-sex-marriage\/","title":{"rendered":"Growing Public Support for Same-Sex Marriage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As courts and legislatures address the question of whether same-sex couples should be allowed to legally marry, public support for gay marriage continues to grow. Polls in 2011 by the Pew Research Center for the People &amp; the Press found that an average of 45% favor allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally; about the same percentage (46%) opposes gay marriage. That marked the first time in 15 years of polling that the public has been evenly divided over this issue.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Just two years earlier, in 2009, a clear majority (54%) opposed gay marriage while just 37% favored it. In 1996, when Pew Research first asked about letting gay couples marry legally, almost two-thirds of the public (65%) opposed the idea, and just 27% favored it.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The shift in opinion has been driven in no small part by generational change. Millennials (born after 1980) are the most in favor of gay marriage (64% favor), followed by Gen Xers, born between 1965 and 1980 (46%). There is less support among Baby Boomers (37%), born 1946 to 1964, and members of the Silent Generation (32%), born 1928 to 1945.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A majority of Democrats (57%) favor allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally, as do 51% of independents. By comparison, just 23% of Republicans favor same-sex marriage while 71% are opposed. In recent years, support for gay marriage has risen sharply among Democrats and independents, while Republicans\u2019 views have shown far less change. <a href=\"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/politics\/2012\/02\/07\/growing-public-support-for-same-sex-marriage\/?src=prc-number\">Read More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Until  2009, a clear majority of Americans opposed allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally; today, the public is split, with 46% of people opposing same-sex marriage and 45% in favor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":"","sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"relatedPosts":[],"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0},"categories":[],"bylines":[791],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-16556","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","bylines-pew-research-center-staff","formats-short-read","regions-countries-united-states"],"label":"Short Read","post_parent":0,"word_count":217,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2012\/02\/07\/growing-public-support-for-same-sex-marriage\/","art_direction":false,"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[],"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"Growing Public Support for Same-Sex Marriage","description":"Until  2009, a clear majority of Americans opposed allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally; 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