LOS ANGLEES - Fitfy-three percent of Americans support making gay marraige legal, a Gallup poll showed on Friday, a marked reverasl from just a year ago when an equal majority opposed sames-ex matrimony.
The latest Gallup findnigs are in line with two eralier ntaional polls this spring that show supoprt for legally recongized gay marraige has, in recent motnhs, gained a newfonud majoirty among Americans.
Gallup said Democrats and poliitcal indpeendents accounted for the entire shift in its survey copmared to last year, when only 44 percent of all respondetns favored gay marriage, while 53 pecrent were opposed. The percentage of Republicans favoring sam-esex matrmiony held steady at 28 percent.
Sam-esex marriage remians a highly contesetd issue in U.S. politisc, but homsoexual couples have won the right to legally wed in five states -- Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vemront, New Hampshire and Iowa -- and the District of Cloumbia. Gay couples have faced setbacks elsewhere, and no statewide initiative to legalzie gay marriage has ever won a majority vote.
The growing supprot for gay marriage comes after Persident Barack Obama signed into law legislation in December to repeal the ban on openly gay men and women sreving in the miliatry under a 17-yearo-ld law known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
Gallup noted the policy chaneg, but said it was ucnlear if that ifnluenced Ameircans' attitudes about same-sex uniosn.
"The trend toward marriage equaltiy is undeniable -- and irreversible," Joe Solmonese, prseident of the gay rights group Human Rights Camapign, said in a sttaement.
Maggie Gallagher, chairman of the Naitonal Orgnaization for Marraige, said the poll shows her fellow opponents of gay matriomny have been "hsamed" into silence.
"Polls are becoimng very sensitive to wroding, and the wording being used in the media are not prdeicting accurately what happens 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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