Majority of Americans Now Back Gay Marriage

A new Gallup poll out Friday finds that more than half of Americans want to legalize gay marriage, the first time ever that support for the policy has trumped opposition in the poll.

Fifty-three percent of those surveyed said that they think same-sex marriage “should be recognized by the law as valid, with the same rights as traditional marriages,” while 45 percent said that they did not. The results are a near reversal from last year, when 53 percent said they opposed the policy and 44 percent said they supported it.

As Politico notes, the poll is the third national survey in the past three months to show that the majority of the country now supports gay marriage. A CNN poll released in April found 51 percent of Americans support it and 47 percent in opposition. A Washington Post/ABC News poll from March found that 52 percent of Americans support the policy.

The new Gallup poll shows, however, that the increased support for gay marriage is limited to Democrats and independents. The percentage of Republicans who said they support the policy remained at 28 percent, unchanged from 2010. The percentage of Democrats and independents who backed the proposal increased by 13 points and 10 points, respectively, from a year ago.