American support for same-sex marriage just hit a new high

Sixty-four percent of Americans now support same-sex marriage, a Gallup poll released Monday revealed. That marks an all-time high level of support since Gallup started tracking the issue back in 1996. Just over 20 years ago, only 27 percent of Americans were in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage. A majority of Americans did not support same-sex marriage until May 2011.

This year's level of support marks a 3-point jump from last year, when 61 percent of Americans were in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage, and a continuation of the overall upward trend in support. While Democrats are still overwhelmingly more likely to support same-sex marriage, Gallup reported that 47 percent of Republicans now favor it — the "highest for this group in the more than two-decade trend." In yet another first in this year's poll, a majority of Protestants now support same-sex unions.

The poll was conducted by phone from May 3-7 among 1,011 adults. Its margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.

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