Support for same-sex marriage in US dipping as Republicans turn against it
Support for same-sex marriage in the US is dipping (Getty Images)
Support for same-sex marriage in the US has dipped from its recent peak, with new Gallup poll results suggesting the shift is being driven by falling acceptance among Republicans.
About 65% of US adults now believe same-sex marriage should be legal, a drop from 71% in 2022 and 2023. The decline is concentrated among Republicans: 37% said same-sex marriage should be legally valid, while 35% said gay and lesbian relations are “morally acceptable”.
The same polling suggests a broader cooling in attitudes to LGBTQ+ issues. Gallup found 62% of US adults see gay and lesbian relations as “morally acceptable”, down almost 10% since 2022. It also found about 40% of people in America think “changing one’s gender” is “morally acceptable”, down from closer to 50% five years ago.
The poll was conducted May 1-17 via telephone interviews with 1,001 US adults and has around a 4% point margin of sampling error.
Support for same-sex marriage over time
Gallup’s long-running trend data shows support for legal same-sex marriage was 27% in 1996, before rising steadily for more than two decades.
Same-sex marriage has been recognised nationally in the US since a 2015 Supreme Court ruling, and as of 2025 there were over 800,000 married same-sex couples, according to Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law data.
Republican shift and state-level pushback
The new figures land as marriage equality faces renewed political pressure, including calls from GOP lawmakers to overturn same-sex marriage and ongoing questions about what could happen if nationwide marriage recognition was undone.
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