Gallup Finds Support for Same-Sex Marriage Slipping After Decades of Gains

WASHINGTON, June 4 (TodayViralUSA) – Public support for legal same-sex marriage in the United States has fallen back from its record high, according to new Gallup data. The survey firm’s researchers describe a plateau and modest reversal after two decades of steadily growing acceptance of LGBTQ+ people.

The poll, released on Wednesday, found that 65% of American adults believe same-sex marriages should be recognized as legally valid. That is six percentage points below the 71% peak recorded in 2022 and 2023.

A long climb, then a dip

When Gallup first asked the question in 1996, just 27% of Americans supported legal same-sex marriage. Support rose 44 points over the following 26 years, a period that included the Supreme Court’s 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision establishing a nationwide right to marry. The figure slipped to 69% in 2024 and has edged lower each year since.

Other measures in the survey followed the same pattern. The share of Americans who consider gay or lesbian relations morally acceptable stands at 62%, the lowest since 2016. Acceptance had peaked at 71% in 2022 before dropping sharply to 64% in 2023.

Views on gender transition have shifted more. Thirty-eight percent of adults now say changing one’s gender is morally acceptable, compared with 46% when Gallup first asked in 2021. Fifty-seven percent now call it morally wrong.

A partisan shift

Gallup’s analysis shows that most of the change comes from Republicans. In 2021 and 2022, 55% of Republicans supported legal same-sex marriage. Today the figure is 37%. Support among independents fell six points to 67%, while Democrats’ support is unchanged from 2022 at 87%.

The partisan pattern is similar on the morality of same-sex relations. Republican acceptance has dropped 21 points since 2022 to 35%, which Gallup notes is roughly where Republican opinion stood between 2005 and 2014. Independents fell eight points to 64%, and Democrats were essentially unchanged at 81%.

On gender transition, only 5% of Republicans now call it morally acceptable, down from 22% in 2021. Independents (42%) and Democrats (60%) had held fairly steady until a drop in this year’s survey.

How researchers read the trend

Gallup’s researchers link the shift to a broader political context. They note that it has coincided with conservative leaders’ pushback against diversity, equity and inclusion programs meant to promote acceptance of LGBTQ+ people and other historically disadvantaged groups.

Public opinion analysts generally caution against reading too much into a single year’s results. The survey’s margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points. Still, the multi-year pattern across several related questions suggests a real change in direction rather than random fluctuation.

Even after the decline, a clear majority of Americans still favor legal same-sex marriage, and support remains far above where it stood at the turn of the century. Analysts say the main shift is a widening gap between the parties, with Democrats holding steady while Republicans move toward views last common a decade or more ago.

About the survey

The results come from Gallup’s annual Values and Beliefs survey, based on telephone interviews with a random sample of 1,001 U.S. adults in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, conducted May 1-17, 2026.