Poll: Widest Partisan Gap on Same-sex Marriage in 29 Years

The partisan gap on the issue of same-sex marriage is wider today than it has been in 29 years, according to a new Gallup Poll.

The survey found a 47-point gap between the two main political parties, with 88% of Democrats and 41% of Republicans saying that same-sex marriages should be legally recognized with the same rights as traditional marriages.

Last year, there was a 37-point gap between the two parties, while they were separated by 35 points in 2023. In 2022, the divide was 32 points and in 2021, there was a 28-point gap between Republicans and Democrats. The two groups were split by 34 points in 2020, according to the poll.

The latest survey shows that GOP support for same-sex marriage fell to its lowest point since 2016 following the Supreme Court's landmark 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges that declared same-sex marriage a national right.

Republican support peaked at 55% in 2021 and 2022 and has been on the decline ever since, falling to 49% in 2023, 46% in 2024, and to 41% this year.

Meanwhile, Democrats' support jumped 5 points since last year, hitting its highest level of support since 1996 when Gallup began tracking the issue.

Support for same-sex marriage among Democrats hit a previous high of 87% in 2022 and has been relatively stable in the past 10 years.

Independent voters have also grown more supportive of same-sex marriage since 2015. According to the most recent survey, 76% of independents say they support same-sex marriage, just 1 point shy of the group's peak of 77% in 2023.

Overall, the poll found that 68% of American adults said they support same-sex marriage, a level that has been more or less consistent for the past five years. Peak support of 71% was recorded in 2022 and 2023.

The poll of 1,003 U.S. adults was conducted May 1-18. The margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.

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