The share of U.S. adults who support same-sex marriage and laws that protect LGBTQ people from discrimination has dipped in the last year, a survey has found.
After steadily increasing over the last decade, support for same-sex marriage dipped to 67% in 2023 from a record high of 69% the year before, according to the survey of more than 22,000 U.S. adults, which was conducted by the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute, or PRRI, and reported a margin of sampling error of 0.82%. More than three-quarters of those surveyed (76%) favored laws that protect LGBTQ people from discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodation, a decline from a record high of 80% in 2022.
Melissa Deckman, PRRI’s chief executive, noted that while support for same-sex marriage and nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people remains significantly higher than it was a decade ago, the year-over-year declines surprised researchers.
“You can’t really take a look at this report and not note some declines, especially among Republicans,” Deckman told NBC News in an interview. “Party polarization is really driving the national averages down.”
Democrats are much more likely than Republicans to support same-sex marriage, the survey found. Support among Democrats remained steady year-over-year at 82% in 2023, while Republican support dipped to 47% from 49% during that time period. Support for laws that prohibit discrimination against LGBTQ people took an even steeper hit among Republicans, dropping to 59% last year from 66% in 2022, while Democratic support remained steady at 89% in 2023.
A decline in support for same-sex marriage also appears to be driven by younger adults, or those ages 18-29, the survey found. Although a greater share of younger adults support same-sex marriage compared with older ones — and a greater share of younger adults identify as LGBTQ — the share of young adults who supported same-sex marriage declined to 71% last year from 74% in 2022…
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