New Poll Shows Dramatic Shift Towards Marriage Equality

A new poll from the ABC/Washington Post poll shows a dramatic shift towards marriage equality following President Obama's declaration that he thinks same-sex couples should be allowed to get married. The top line number is that an astonishing 53% of respondents say they support legal same-sex marriage while only 39% say they think it should not be legal.

Overall, 53 percent of Americans say gay marriage should be legal, hitting a high mark in support while showing a dramatic turnaround from just six years ago, when just 36 percent thought it should be legal. Thirty-nine percent, a new low, say gay marriage should be illegal. 

The poll also finds that 59 percent of African Americans say they support same-sex marriage, up from an average of 41 percent in polls leading up to Obama’s announcement of his new position on the matter. Though statistically significant, it is a tentative result because of the relatively small sample of black voters in the poll. 

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Americans divide about evenly — 49 to 46 percent — on whether gay-marriage laws should be made at the state or federal level. Most backers of same-sex marriage support a federal approach, while opponents prefer letting states decide. That is a stark shift from 2004, when a CBS News-New York Times poll found widespread support for federal authority over gay marriage among its opponents, not its supporters.

Amusingly, now that they are losing the war for public opinion heterosexual supremacists are arguing that polls on marriage equality are not important (and that the polls are wrong). The only polls that matter, they say, is the results at the ballot box. It will be interesting to see what they say once they start losing at the ballot box as well.

We shall see this November!