Americans' approval of same-sex marriage isn't growing anymore
The portion of Americans who favor allowing same-sex couples to marry seems to have stalled out.
A new survey from Pew Research Center shows that 61 percent of Americans now say they favor letting gays and lesbians marry legally. That's a big shift from 2004, when 60 percent said they opposed same-sex marriage, but actually a downgrade from the 62 percent measured two years ago.
Same-sex marriage approval has generally pulled a 180 in America over the past 15 years, with its approval soaring in both political parties and among "nearly all demographic groups," Pew says. That includes Catholics and Gen Xers, which both reported majority support for same-sex marriage, while 51 percent of Baby Boomers said the same. Approval is highest in the youngest Millennial generation and among liberal Democrats, the survey shows.
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Overall, same-sex marriage approval peaked in 2017, a few years after the landmark Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. Yet since then, things haven't changed, with approval actually falling from 47 to 44 percent among Republicans in the past two years.
Pew Research Center surveyed 1,503 adults from March 20-25, with 300 interviewed via landline and the rest surveyed by cell phone. The survey had a 3 percent margin of error. Find the whole poll here.
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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.
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