Tolerance for Gay Rights at High-Water Mark

GALLUP NEWS SERVICE

PRINCETON, NJ -- Gallup's annual Values and Beliefs survey, conducted each May, finds current public tolerance for gay rights at the high-water mark of attitudes recorded over the past three decades. There is still considerable public opposition to complete equality for gays, particularly with respect to marriage. However, after several years of lower support for gay rights, support is now springing back to the relatively high levels seen in 2003, just before the Supreme Court's June 26, 2003, decision striking down a Texas sodomy law. (According to Gallup trends, that ruling appeared to produce a backlash of public opposition to gay rights.)

The clearest example of the recent renewal in pro-gay rights attitudes comes from a question asking Americans whether they believe homosexual relations should be legal. Public tolerance for this aspect of gay rights expanded from 43% at the inception of the question in 1977 to 60% in May 2003. Then in July 2003, it fell to 50% and remained at about that level through 2005. Last year, it jumped to 56% and this year it reached 59%, similar to the 2003 high point.

A similar pattern is seen with attitudes about whether homosexuality should be sanctioned as an acceptable alternative lifestyle. Only 34% in 1982 believed it should be considered acceptable. This expanded to 54% in May 2003, only to drop to 46% two months later. Today's 57% is the highest on record for this measure.

The trend in public support for gay marriage also shows a long-term increase in pro-gay rights attitudes, with the current result being the most affirming on record for gays, though still the minority view.

(It should be noted that this gay-marriage question follows a number of questions about homosexual rights in Gallup's Values and Beliefs survey. When the same question is asked in other Gallup surveys that do not include such questions, a lower level of support for gay marriage is usually found.)

More generally, Americans' tolerance for gay rights currently ranges from 89% believing gays should have equal rights in terms of job opportunities, down to 46% saying marriages between same-sex couples should be as legally valid as traditional marriages.

Morality Question Closely Divides Americans

Results on the perceived morality of homosexual relations present a glass half-full/half-empty analysis conundrum. On the one hand, the percentage saying such relations are morally acceptable has clearly grown over the last several years, from 40% in 2001, when the question was first asked, to 47% today. This is the first year that an outright majority of Americans have not said homosexual relations are morally wrong.

On the other hand, gay rights clearly remain one of a handful of highly controversial issues among the roster of social issues on the public's agenda -- about as divisive as doctor-assisted suicide and abortion. By contrast, a solid majority of Americans agree that the death penalty, divorce, embryonic stem-cell research, and premarital sex are morally acceptable, and even larger majorities agree that other actions, such as extramarital affairs, polygamy, cloning humans, and suicide, are morally unacceptable.

Generational, Political, and Religious Divides

Gallup has historically found that one's age, religiosity, and political party affiliation are all strong determinants of Americans' support for gay rights; gender also relates, but to a lesser degree. The vast majority of all of these groups believe gays should have equal job rights, but major differences are seen with respect to the perceived legality of homosexual relations, whether homosexuality should be an acceptable alternative lifestyle, whether it is morally acceptable, and whether same-sex marriages should be legally valid.

This table summarizes these demographic distinctions for the issue of whether homosexuality should be an acceptable alternative lifestyle.

Nature vs. Nurture

The nature vs. nurture argument about the origin of homosexuality has been an important element of the gay rights debate over the years, and it is clear why. Americans who believe homosexuals are born with their sexual orientation tend to be much more supportive of gay rights than are those who say homosexuality is due to upbringing and environment (and therefore, perhaps, more of a lifestyle choice).

Americans are closely divided today over which of the two explanations is correct: 42% say homosexuality is something a person is born with while 35% say it is due to factors such as upbringing and environment. The balance of public opinion on the question has shifted back and forth in recent years, but the long-term pattern shows a clear increase in the view that one's sexuality is determined at birth.

As noted, substantive attitudes about homosexual rights are closely related to views on this question. For example, nearly four in five of those who believe homosexuality is congenital think it should be an acceptable lifestyle. By contrast, only 30% of those who think homosexuality is caused by environmental factors agree.

Survey Methods

Results are based on telephone interviews with 1,003 national adults, aged 18 and older, conducted May 10-13, 2007. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±3 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

21. Do you think homosexual relations between consenting adults should or should not be legal?

25. Next, I'm going to read you a list of issues. Regardless of whether or not you think it should be legal, for each one, please tell me whether you personally believe that in general it is morally acceptable or morally wrong. How about -- [RANDOM ORDER]?

16. Homosexual relations

26. Do you think marriages between same-sex couples should or should not be recognized by the law as valid, with the same rights as traditional marriages?

Trends for Comparison : Polls in which gay marriage question NOT preceded by question(s) on homosexual rights and relations