Divide on gay marriage is biggest in 3 decades as GOP support craters, poll finds

Brendan Rascius, The Charlotte Observer on May 29, 2025

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The partisan divide on same-sex marriage has grown to an unprecedented degree — largely due to cratering GOP support, according to new polling.

In the latest Gallup survey, 88% of Democrats said they supported same-sex marriage, compared to just 41% of Republicans who said the same. This 47-point difference is the largest on record since Gallup first asked this question 29 years ago.

Still, though, 68% of overall respondents favor same-sex marriage — a figure that has held relatively steady over the past half-decade. Over the longer term, it has risen considerably, beginning at 27% in 1996 and passing the 50% threshold in 2011.

The unparalleled partisan gap comes as Republican backing for same-sex marriage has trended downward, falling 14 points in the past three years. It reached a high of 55% in 2021 and 2022 before dropping to 49% in 2023 and to 46% in 2024. It now stands at its lowest level since 2016.

At the same time, Democratic support has been more stable, though it now stands at its highest-ever level, up 5 points from 2024. Opinions among independents track closely with Democrats, with 76% now favoring same-sex marriage — down 1 point from a record-high in 2023.

The poll — which sampled 1,003 U.S. adults May 1-18 — comes 10 years after the Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges ruling, which held that the right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples.

It also comes as Republican lawmakers in several states have put forward resolutions calling on the Supreme Court to overturn the landmark decision, something Justice Clarence Thomas has said the court “should reconsider.”

Other findings

The poll — which has a margin of error of 4 percentage points — also asked respondents whether they believed same-sex relations are morally acceptable.

Overall, 64% of respondents said they are acceptable — a figure that has held steady for three years now.

However, as with same-sex marriage, the partisan divide on this question has grown to its largest level on record.

The vast majority of Democrats, 86%, said same-sex relations are morally acceptable, marking the highest such share ever recorded. In contrast, 38% of Republicans think they are acceptable — the lowest share on record. Meanwhile, 69% of independents said same-sex relations are acceptable, up 1 point from 2024.

Putting partisan differences aside, majorities of most other demographics said same-sex relations are acceptable and that they support same-sex marriage.

For example, 68% of women said gay and lesbian relations are acceptable, and 73% said same-sex marriage should be valid. For men, these figures were 58% and 62%, respectively.

Most college graduates also responded affirmatively to both questions as did most who did not graduate college.

The one group that bucked the trend was respondents who attend religious services weekly — 33% of whom said same-sex marriage should be valid and 24% of whom said same-sex relations are morally acceptable.

“Ten years after the Supreme Court established same-sex marriage as a constitutional right, national support remains strong and steady,” Gallup concluded. “However, this ostensible stability masks deepening partisan divides.”

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