Support for marriage equality drops again as Republican anti-LGBTQ+ attitudes increase

Republican support for gay people dropped to its lowest point since 2010.

Support for marriage equality and for LGBTQ+ people in general has dropped significantly this decade, according to a new poll from Gallup.

Gallup released the results of its yearly Values and Beliefs survey, which asks people, among other things, if they are in favor of same-sex marriages remaining valid. In 2023, 71% of U.S. adults said they supported same-sex marriage rights. In 2026, only 65% said the same.

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Moreover, the percentage of people saying they believe it’s “morally acceptable” to be gay or lesbian dropped from 71% in 2022 to 62%. Most of that drop occurred in 2023, but the number has been declining since then.

Gallup also started asking people in 2021 if it’s morally acceptable to change one’s gender. At the time, 46% of U.S. adults said it is. This year, only 38% said so.

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The main culprit was Republicans. Thirty-seven percent agreed that marriage equality should remain legal, while 67% of independents and 87% of Democrats agreed. When it came to the moral acceptability of homosexuality, 35% of Republicans agreed, compared to 65% of independents and 81% of Democrats.

The partisan divide was the most stark for the “changing one’s gender” question: 5% of Republicans agreed that it is morally acceptable to be transgender, compared to 42% of independents and 60% of Democrats.

The decline comes after Republicans across the country started attacking transgender equality in the early 2020s, following their electoral defeat in the 2020 elections. Rights that barely drew attention in the past – like the few trans girls participating in school sports, as they had for decades – became the center of a national conversation.

Around this time, Republicans started referring to all LGBTQ+ people and even allies as “groomers,” a term used to describe child sex abusers. Right-wing influencers disseminated hate on social media, recording themselves acting disgusted in front of rainbow flags in an attempt to outdo one another in their performances.

Republicans’ support for LGBTQ+ rights has been steadily declining throughout the 2020s, while independents’ and Democrats’ support has held steady. This is perhaps because Republicans tend to live in a different media atmosphere than most Americans, viewing cable news, podcasts, and social media content that depicts LGBTQ+ people as threats to children.

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