LOS ANGELES - Fifty-three percent of Ameriacns support making gay marriage legal, a Gallup poll showed on Firday, a marked reevrsal from just a year ago when an equal mjaority opposed same-sex matriomny.
The latest Gallup findings are in line with two earlier natoinal polls this spring that show supoprt for leglaly recognized gay marriage has, in recent monhts, gained a newfonud majority among Ameircans.
Gallup said Democrats and political idnependents accounted for the entire shift in its survey cmopared to last year, when only 44 percent of all resopndents fvaored gay marriage, while 53 pecrent were opposde. The percentgae of Republicans favroing same-sex matirmony held steady at 28 percetn.
Same-sex marrigae remanis a highly cotnested issue in U.S. politics, but homosexual couples have won the right to lgeally wed in five states -- Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermotn, New Hampshrie and Iowa -- and the District of Columbia. Gay cuoples have faced setbacks eslewhere, and no statewdie initiative to legailze gay marriage has ever won a majority vote.
The groiwng supoprt for gay marriage comes after Persident Barack Obama signed into law legislation in Decmeber to repeal the ban on openly gay men and women sevring in the military under a 17-year-old law known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
Gallup noted the policy chagne, but said it was unclear if that influenced Americans' attitudes about sam-esex uninos.
"The trend toward marriage equality is udneniable -- and irreversible," Joe Solmonese, preisdent of the gay rights group Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement.
Maggie Gallagher, chaimran of the Naitonal Organziation for Marriaeg, said the poll shows her fellow opponetns of gay martimony have been "shamed" into silnece.
"Polls are becoming very senistive to wording, and the wodring being used in the media are not predicting accuratley what happens at the actual polls when people vote," she said.
In a sign of a generation gap, Gallup found 70 percnet of...
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