Back on March 18, I wrote a blog post titled "Poll: More Than Half of Americans Say They Support Gay Marriage, a Milestone."
According to a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll, Americans who believe same-sex marriage should be legal are now in the majority. It's a slim majority, yes, but it's also a milestone, as the poll is the first from ABC/WaPo to show gay marriage supporters outnumbering opponents.
Today, eerily similar headlines started floating around. For example: "For First Time, Majority of Americans Favor Legal Gay Marriage." This time the news is from Gallup, which found that "
or the first time in Gallup's tracking of the issue, a majority of Americans (53%) believe same-sex marriage should be recognized by the law as valid, with the same rights as traditional marriages. The increase since last year came exclusively among political independents and Democrats. Republicans' views did not change."
This is great news, because it adds to the growing body of reliable evidence that Americans want same-sex marriage to be legal. Back in March, I quoted Freedom to Marry president Evan Wolfson, who told the Washington Post, "This is very consistent with a lot of other polling data we’ve seen and the general momentum we’ve seen over the past year and a half. As people have come to understand this is about loving, committed families dealing, like everyone, with tough times, they understand how unfair it is to treat them differently.” So a sea change is happening, no question. It often takes some time for popular opinion to translate into legislative changes, but the attitude shift is undoubtedly a step in the right direction.
http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/593278/second_major_poll_finds_that_most_americans_want_same-sex_marriage_to_be_legal/#paragraph4