Support for equal marriage in the US has hit a record high
It's almost three years since marriage equality was legalised across all 50 states.
By Will Stroude
The number of Americans who support marriage equality has reached a record high, a new poll has found.
Almost three years since the US Supreme Court legalised equal marriage in all 50 states, a poll for Gallup indicates that more than two-thirds of Americans (67%) believe same-sex marriages should be legally valid.
The figure demonstates a sea-change in attitudes compared with two decades ago, when just 27% of Americans expressed for support for same-sex marriage in Gallup’s first poll on the issue in 1996.
The latest annual Values and Morals poll, conducted between 1-10 May, found that Democrats are nearly twice as likely as Republicans to support marriage equality, with 83% expressing support compared with just 44% of Republicans.
Source: Gallup
Independent voters were closter to Democratic voters on the issue, with 71% expressing support.
The poll also found that more than 10.4% of LGBT adults are now married to a same-sex spouse three years after the US Supreme Court ruled in favour of equality.
The court’s ruling in June 2015 during the landmark Obergefell v. Hodges case legalised marriage equality nationwide, over a decade after Massachusetts became the first state to start holding same-sex marriages in 2004.
By the time of the ruling, marriage equality had been legalised in 36 states nationwide.