About 65% of U.S. adults believe same-sex marriage should be legal, down from 71% in 2022 and 2023.
Most of the change is due to dropping acceptance among Republicans. In the new survey, which was conducted in May, only 37% of Republicans say same-sex marriage should be legally valid, while 35% say gay and lesbian relations are “morally acceptable.”
Same-sex marriage has been recognized nationally since a 2015 Supreme Court ruling. That case capped a 12-year run in which court rulings and state laws recognized it in most states.
But the pushback against that ruling has never stopped.
A call to overturn the 2015 reached the Supreme Court last year, invoking the words of Justice Clarence Thomas, who has called for undoing it. The court turned away the appeal without comment.
Last year, the Southern Baptist Convention overwhelmingly called for reversing the ruling that led to nationwide marriage recognition and imposing a ban.
Lawmakers in at least 11 states introduced legislation for their current or most recent sessions calling on a ban on same-sex marriage, according to an Associated Press analysis of bills compiled by the legislation tracking service Plural. Most didn't pick up momentum. But the Tennessee House passed a measure to allow private citizens and organizations not to recognize the unions; Idaho's House passed a resolution calling on the Supreme Court to undo the 2015 decision.
There has also been strong backlash against the push to accept transgenderism, patticularly when it comes to allowing biological males in females sports and allowing males cllaiming to be females to use female bathrooms and changing rooms.
The new Gallup poll found that about 4 in 10 Americans view changing one’s gender as morally acceptable, down from nearly half in 2021.
Most Republican-controlled states have adopted laws in the last five years to bar gender mutilation procedures on minors, restricting which school bathrooms can be used by boys claiming to be girls, and barring biological boys from competing in female sports competition.
