Public Opinion
Main article: Public opinion of same-sex marriage in the United StatesA March 2011 public opinion poll by ABC News/Washington Post showed support for gay marriage at 53% among Americans, and a May 2011 Gallup opinion poll also showed 53% support for gay marriage among Americans. A May 2009 Gallup poll indicated 54% support for gays and lesbians being allowed to adopt children.
Older polls showed that the nation could be divided into roughly equal thirds: one third supports gay marriage completely, another supports only civil unions, and the last is against any form of union entirely. However, in terms of attitudes to homosexuality, the United States can hardly be called one country. It is common for polls to show a clear majority support for gay marriage in Northeastern states, and occasionally (but less frequently), Pacific Coast states. States that have consistently shown a majority support for gay marriage for at least the past few years include Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, and the capital, as well as (occasionally) Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington. While some of these states do not (currently) have gay marriage, Iowa, which does have gay marriage, does not have majority support; in fact, polls place support in the high thirties or low forties (still slightly higher than the national average). In New York, where there was majority support reported since 2005, marriage became legal on July 24, 2011. Iowa falls into a second category of states, where new generations of voters overwhelmingly support gay marriage (those under thirty have support placed above 60%).
Read more about this topic: LGBT Rights In The United States
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“Constitutional statutes ... which embody the settled public opinion of the people who enacted them and whom they are to govern—can always be enforced. But if they embody only the sentiments of a bare majority, pronounced under the influence of a temporary excitement, they will, if strenuously opposed, always fail of their object; nay, they are likely to injure the cause they are framed to advance.”
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