LGBT activists have long argued that a majority of Americans should not be allowed to vote on minority rights, but new polling data may prove that vote expedient when it comes to equal marriage.
According to Gallup, Inc., most Americans would vote in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage throughout the country if given the opportunity.
The poll, released July 29, harkens to November elections, when LGBTs won four state votes on equal marriage, the first time in the country's history that popular votes on gay marriage favored LGBTs.
The Gallup poll sampled 2,027 adults over age 18 in all 50 states and Washington D.C.
According to its findings, 52 percent of Americans would back a single referendum to legalize same-sex marriage in all 50 states, compared with 43 percent who would oppose it.
Support for the hypothetical referendum was highest among liberals, at 77 percent. Non-religious people backed referendum at 76 percent. Weekly churchgoers reported the lowest level of support at 23 percent, with conservatives close behind at 30 percent. But those who attended church "nearly" weekly or monthly supported legalization at 51 percent, the study found.
Whites and nonwhites reported relatively close numbers. Fifty-one percent of nonwhites favored 50-state legalization compared to 54 percent of whites.
Support for same-sex marriage was higher among young people with 69 percent of respondents age 18-34 supporting legalization compared to 38 percent of people 55 and older.
Perhaps most significantly, the poll found jumps in support for same-sex marriage recognition over just a few years. Fifty-four percent of Americans favored recognition of same-sex marriages, a leap from 27 percent found in 1996 and the 44 percent recorded in 2010.
"This adds to the body of evidence in Gallup trends that public opinion on gay marriage has reached a tipping point, whereby the majority now clearly supports it," writes Gallup's Lydia Saad, in a report on the study. "Nevertheless, the issue remains highly divisive, as large majorities of left-leaning, nonreligious, and younger Americans endorse it, while right-leaning, religious, and older Americans still oppose it."
The margin of error for study was three percent.
More on the study is available at www.gallup.com/poll/163730/back-law-legalize-gay-marriage-states.aspx.