A new Gallup poll shows that Republican voters are growing increasingly anti-gay. While the nation continues to embrace same-sex marriage, support among Republican voters is greatly decreasing — and affecting the national average. The poll, released today, finds 50% of Americans support civil same-sex marriage, down from 53% last year. This year, only 22% of Republicans support gay marriage, while last year 28% did — a substantial decrease.
By comparison, this year 65% of Democrats support the right of same-sex couples to marry, down slightly from 69% last year, but still up dramatically from 2010, when it was 56%.
In 2010, only 44% of Americans supported the freedom to marry, according to Gallup, despite several other polls putting the number at or over 50%. In 2011, Gallup found 53% support, and this year, 50% support. Gallup noted when they “first asked about the legality of gay marriage in a 1996 poll, 68% of Americans were opposed and 27% in favor,” and today adds that at 51%, “Catholics are right at the overall average in their views on same-sex marriage. The Catholic Church officially opposes same-sex marriage and Biden himself is Catholic,” and that at 38%, “[s]ignificantly less than half of Protestants approve, while those who identify with no religion overwhelmingly approve.”
But support is drastically higher among those religious groups than Republicans overall, which speaks volumes.
Gay former conservative writer Andrew Sullivan today comments:
What you’re seeing is the slow beaching of the elderly, white GOP on the shore of a multi-cultural and increasingly tolerant America. The difference between Dems and Indies is small; between those two groups and the Christianist party, there’s a gulf. To be honest, I don’t much care of Obama or Biden or any presidential candidate feels about this subject. What I care about is what they can do. And all they can do is stop defending DOMA in federal courts, and, er, that’s it. The rest is for the Congress, to repeal DOMA, and let the federal government return to its long pre-1996 position of recognizing all marriages that are legal in any state, and applying full federal benefits to them.
Can we please stop this absurd game of wanting presidential candidates or presidents to solve this problem? They cannot. It is not within their constitutional powers. And we do not need their approval. History will provide the judgment.
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