GALLUP: U.S. Support For Marriage Hits 54% Nationwide

The latest polling from Gallup reaffirms the fact that support for marriage equality is a majority position in the United States. 54% of respondents say that they "think marriages between same-sex couples should be recognized by the law as valid,  with the same rights as traditional marriages." 43% of respondents still say that such marriages should not be valid.

Gallup tried to gauge support for marriage equality by asking a hypothetical question about whether people would vote for or against a national referendum on the question of marriage equality. The results were similar to the regular public opinion on gay marriage, with 52% saying they would vote for such a referendum while 43% say they would vote against it.

Interestingly, there are wide variations between how sub-groups of Americans feel about marriage equality:

Across the nation's major demographic, political, and religious groups, support for the proposed law ranges from as high as 77% among self-described liberal Americans, and 76% among those with no religious affiliation, to as low as 23% among weekly churchgoers, and 30% among Republicans and conservatives.

Other groups showing at least 60% support for legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide include Democrats, adults aged 18 to 34, those who rarely or never attend a church or other place of worship, moderates, Easterners, and Catholics. Others showing less than 50% support include Protestants, adults 55 and older, Southerners, and men.

Gallup has also continued its history of tracking public opinion on interracial marriage as well. The latest results show that currently 87% of Americans "approve of marriages between blacks and whites."

The interesting fact of this graph is that interracial marriage was legalized nationwide by judicial fiat of the United States Supreme Court in 1967, when popular support for the concept was below 20%. Even though marriage equality now has majority support the U.S. Supreme Court has declined to play a similar role and declare that marriage is a fundamental right for same-sex couples.