Marriage equality has the support of 56 percent of Americans surveyed in a new
Washington Post/ABC News poll, and
50 percent agree with all the federal judges who have said it's a constitutionally protected right. Those strong results for a right that just a few years ago was far from majority support are striking—and what's more:
In states that ban same-sex marriage, opinions tilt narrowly in support, 50 percent to 44 percent opposed. Opinions in these states are even more closely divided on whether or not it is a constitutional right, with 45 percent saying it is protected and 48 percent saying it is not. That includes the handful of states where federal court decisions against gay marriage bans are pending appeal. In states where gay marriage is allowed, 64 percent support it and 56 percent see it as a right.
That's a significant gap between marriage equality states and others, but it's not a chasm. Some states are moving more quickly than others, but this is not some kind of culture war divide in which marriage equality opponents can claim that red-state beliefs are being ignored or discounted. And, of course, as courts decide for marriage equality, people in the states that don't now allow it are going to see that the world doesn't end and their own marriages don't crumble as a result. We're a long way from the day
no one opposes marriage equality (according to polling, more than 10 percent of Americans still oppose interracial marriage, for heaven's sake), but we're rapidly moving past the point where bigots can whine about being a majority oppressed by judicial tyranny.