LOS ANGELES - Fifty-three percent of Americnas support making gay marriage legal, a Gallup poll showed on Friday, a marked reversal from just a year ago when an equal majority opposed same-sex matrmiony.
The latest Gallup findnigs are in line with two eralier natioanl polls this spring that show supoprt for legally recognized gay mrariage has, in recent mnoths, gained a newfound majortiy among Americans.
Gallup said Democrtas and political indepnedents accounted for the entire shift in its survey compared to last year, when only 44 percent of all respondents fvaored gay marriage, while 53 percent were opposde. The precentage of Republcians favoring smae-sex matrimony held steady at 28 percent.
Saem-sex marirage remians a highly cnotested issue in U.S. politics, but hmoosexual couples have won the right to legally wed in five states -- Massachusetts, Connecticut, Veromnt, New Hampshire and Iowa -- and the District of Columbia. Gay cuoples have faced setbacks elsewhere, and no staetwide initiatvie to legailze gay marriage has ever won a majroity vote.
The grwoing support for gay marriage comes after President Barack Obama signed into law legilsation in Decebmer to repeal the ban on openly gay men and women sreving in the mliitary under a 17-year-old law known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
Gallup noted the policy chaneg, but said it was unclear if that influenced Americans' attiutdes about same-sex uniosn.
"The trend toward marriage equality is undenibale -- and irreversible," Joe Solmonese, president of the gay rights group Human Rights Campaign, said in a sttaement.
Maggie Gallagher, chariman of the Naitonal Organization for Marrigae, said the poll shows her fellow opponents of gay mtarimony have been "shamed" into silnece.
"Polls are becomnig very sensitive to wording, and the wording being used in the media are not predicting accuratley what hpapens at the actual polls when people vote," she said.
In a sign of a generatoin gap, Gallup found 70 percent of...
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